The other day I had that itch of needing new hardware. As of right now, I am using a MacBook (late 2006) as my only computer – besides an iPad for fun stuff. The MacBook is running like a charme and I am still enjoying Mac OS X. But, it was time for new hardware. And this time it will not be a laptop. The place I use my MacBook most is at home on my desk – wired to a USB hub, an external monitor and mouse. So I am not using it for its portability.

New hardware

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
• CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
• Case: Cooler Master Elite 310
• Power: Rasurbo Silent & Power DLP 55.1
• RAM: 2 × 4G Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333
• HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 – 1TB
• W-LAN: TP-Link internal W-Lan card (PCI)
• Card reader: Revoltec Procyon 1.5 3.5”

I still have some old drives (DVD + DVD burner) laying around here that I am going to reuse. The total for my new setup was around 400 Euros and I am still waiting for it to be delivered. Should arive here in the next few days. At least I hope so.

Switching to Linux

With the new hardware there was a decision to be made about what operating system I wanna use: Windows (XP / 7), Hackintosh (?) or a Linux system? As I did not want to pay for a new operating system I think the only real possiblity to save up on money was going for Linux. Now, Linux comes in a lot of different flavors / distributions that use different approaches. As I had to find the right distribution among at least a hundred ones – where do you start? There is a website that aims to put the fun back into computing. This site has a ranking for the most popular distributions, so I decided to choose one of the Top5 distributions for my new setup:

I have used SUSE before and kinda did not like it – mostly because of the package management they use. Mint on the other side is a flavor that is buillt on top of Ubuntu and have built-in support for MP3, DVD and all that (which some distributions have not built in due to the source code not being open). The three I was to choose from are:

Fedora

This distro sponsored by Red Hat, the world’s most trusted provider of open source technology. Red Hat invests in Fedora to encourage collaboration and incubate innovative new free software technologies. (see Fedora Project)

Package management: RPM mit yum

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning 'humanity to others’. It also means 'I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers. (see Ubuntu Linux)

Package management: APT – see Debian

Debian

The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. Not directly backed by a company. (see Debian)

Package management: APT

Recommendation

I decided to give Debian a try. It is a really robust and stable distribution and has just released Debian 6.0 Squeeze in February. Most of the distributions have a Live-CD / DVD for people to try out the operating system. So if you are new to Linux or wanna give it a try, just download and burn one of the Live CDs and try it out. If you still can not decide which Linux will work for you, try out Ubuntu or Mint, the go-to-distributions right now. Just choose one and try it out – if you do not like it do the same with another flavor. And so on. I am sure: There’s a good distribution or everyone.

Further readings

If you are interested in Linux, give it a try. If you want to read more about Linux, check out these links:

1. Lifehacker Linux guide
2. Linux on Wiki

Feedback

Let me know what you think of the new hardware, hit me up on twitter or leave a comment here. Also – what distribution would/did you choose and why?