[NetBehaviour] linux laptops

[Marc.garrett]

Hi Helen,

It's lovely to hear such a positive outcome, in regard to someone successfully moving over from a 'proprietary controlled computer system' onto something, less based around Californian Ideology, and Acceleration, based principles ;-)

I work with a Linux OS everyday, and have done for years and will carry doing so. We mainly use Linux at the gallery for exhibitions, although many artists use Apple OS's. However, we have recycled and re-used Apple comps, which are now runniing on Linux OS's -- mainly Ubuntu or Mint.

Personally, my fave Linux OS is Debian. But, I mainly use Mint because it's easier to connect with printers etc...

Wishing you well.

marc

Marc Garrett

Co-Founder, Co-Director and main editor of Furtherfield.
Art, technology and social change, since 1996
http://www.furtherfield.org

Furtherfield Gallery & Commons in the park

Finsbury Park, London N4 2NQhttp://www.furtherfield.org/gallery
Currently writing a PhD at Birkbeck University, London
https://birkbeck.academia.edu/MarcGarrett

Curating, Touring Exhibition
Monsters of the Machine:Frankenstein in the 21st Century
At Laboral, Spain until Sept 2017 http://bit.ly/2eGdpw1
Visiting other countries soon...

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NetBehaviour] linux laptops
Local Time: May 22, 2017 9:47 AM
UTC Time: May 22, 2017 8:47 AM
From: helen at creative-catalyst.com
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>

hi everyone,

more than a year ago i wrote to this list asking for advice about buying a linux laptop. it took me a while, but i'm now happily working with ubuntu mate on a no-brand machine :)

i spent quite a lot of time looking at second-hand & B-ware (ex-display) machines, & also at new models (lenovo, dell, hp, acer, asus, etc etc ... ) & got quite overwhelmed by the choice & variables. nothing was exactly what i wanted, & i couldn't decide on what to compromise. i had a couple of things that were definite - not bigger than 14", must have ethernet port, prefereably separate audio in & out; so that narrowed things down quite a bit, but still i wasn't finding anything that felt right.

then i found a uk company that sells no-brand laptops with linux pre-installed (https://www.entroware.com). i could choose the hard drive, RAM, keyboard layout, etc & it arrived 5 days after i ordered it. i took it out of the box, turned it on, & started using it. the trickiest thing i've had to do so far was use the command line to get it to talk nicely to my printer - & i managed that without incident.

i'm still adjusting to the non-mac keyboard shortcuts - it's easier to take a screenshot but more difficult to do an umlaut (ü), & there are a couple of things i still need to work out. & one loss is that there are no linux drivers for my wireless webcam, so i'm back to a tethered webcam for now. but it is soooo much faster than my old mac, & i've found most of the software that i need.

so if anyone else out there is also considering making the switch to linux, i say - just do it! :)

h : )

--
helen varley jamieson
helen at creative-catalyst.com
http://www.creative-catalyst.com
http://www.upstage.org.nz

[We have a situation, Coventry!](http://www.wehaveasituation.net/?p=1402)
24 November 2016
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