A new desktop machine in service, at last
My day was much like any other day. I set up a new computer. Truth be told, I do that a lot; sort of a professional requirement. Over the years, there’s been a lot of repetitive action at my desk. Today, though, things were a little different, because I set up a new computer for ME.
The machine arrived in our area sometime after the beginning of the new calendar year, but days turn into weeks and the machine had to take its place in a long line of “jobs to do”. Besides, my current machine was doing the things I wanted, and I’d managed to turn an ordinary black box into a decent workstation. Why tamper with success? Months passed, and my new Dell Optiplex 760 was the only one still not in service. That can attract the wrong kind of attention in the workplace, as budgets compress and fiscal years wind up. Time to work some magic.
The Vista SP2 (RTM) version was in need of a good test run, so I decided on my partition plan and set to work installing. Give credit; Vista isn’t any trickier to work with than its predecessor, other than the odd rules of who can do what where and when. An hour of so of rebooting and adding the essentials, and my machine was ready for the next step. Linux belongs in the enterprise; Linux belongs on the desktop. The RC1 of Linux Mint 7 just happened to be in the same stack of DVDs, so it was also pressed into service. For anyone who cares, the second is much faster to install than the first. Dual-boot is simply better from where I stand.
After trying (and abandoning) the Microsoft file transfer utility, I installed a copy of Filezilla server. FTP can handle data transfer without user stress, and sometime early this afternoon, I put my new Optiplex into service. The Twain driver for my old Scanjet was also available, and I have my Irfanview document capture routine back in place. A good day, all in all.
