LinLog

Looks like I've got another Xandros box to set up. I built another system from parts last week, this time for my mother. I got her basically the same hardware I got for Sarah's system, except that I included a hard drive (her existing one was only 2GB) and excluded the wireless card. In case I didn't mention it before, that means a Foxconn 600A01-6LRS motherboard (which has a VIA KT600 chipset, 3 PC3200 DIMM sockets, and an on-board SATA/RAID controller, all for $40 US from NewEgg), a Sempron 2500 processor, half a gig of RAM, a 64MB Radeon 7000, a CMI8738 chipset audio card, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, and an 80GB hard disk, all for about $320 US after shipping.

Up until now, Mom and Dad had been limping along on an old 200 MHz PII with 48MB of RAM and a 3GB hard drive rumming Windows 98. I tried to use it last time I was there, and it was just painful. When I told Mom what I was building for Sarah, she volunteered that maybe she'd like to try this Linux thing out. She has even fewer needs than Sarah - just a web browser and an office suite better than Microsoft Works for Windows 95. Hardly a tall order.

Anyway, my Dad is coming up tomorrow and he's going to bring their old computer and printer (a Canon BubbleJet, which the CUPS site lists as working, but not perfect). Just to be on the safe side, I called Mom to confirm, and Xandros is a go. I think it should work out pretty well. Worst case scenario, at least Linux includes remote access features like Secure Shell so that I can fix things for them remotely.