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148 lines
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<title>My Hard Disk's Resurrection LG #35</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">My Hard Disk's Resurrection</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:rtavera@yahoo.com">René Tavera</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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I'm not a hacker, or a computer genius, I'm just a common mortal who
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has a computer at home, work with computers at the office and usually
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do the same things mortals do on their home and work computers; well,
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almost the same things, I really don't like much playing computer games.
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<P>
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As many others, I began using computers with commercial software (all
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right, let's admit it, I've been using the wintel type platform for
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years) and I thought there was nothing better. I can't say anything
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about a Mac, maybe some day I'll try one, but, few months ago, reading
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some messages on a bbs I found someone saying "....and here I am,
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happy with Linux...".
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<P>
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-Linux?, What's that?- I thought, -maybe another game...- and I wasn't
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really interested on that, so I forgotten at all... almost.
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One fine day I asked him about that "Linux" thing, and the answer was
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a short explanation about the OS and some of the advantages on using it.
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<P>
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My first impression was thinking that UNIX was for a super computer (I
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own an AMD K6/166, 32Mb RAM), for strange scientific applications or
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big companies, I thought I didn't need it, and after all, most people
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say that it's really hard to learn how to use it. I'm not a
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programmer, a scientist or so, no, I don't need that. But my curiosity
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was increasing and I was asking more people about Linux and I was
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surprised on the amount of people using it (I found a Linux users
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Group in my home city). The answers and stories were amazing and
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exciting, maybe I could give it a try.
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<P>
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I bought a book that included a Slackware distribution CD. After
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reading the installation section, making a backup of my important
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information, learning (on the same book) how to use the fdisk program
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(I never thought I had to re-partition my hard disk, so I didn't care
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on learning how to do that) and a lot of pray and courage, installed
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the new OS in a second partition. All went really well and I've been
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learning about Linux and system administration since that day. I have
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installed and re-installed different distributions several times
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(Slackware, RedHat and S.u.S.E), having success on some items, but
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having to read more documentation and information sources on other
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ones to make things work. Sometimes I had frustrations (couldn't use
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my CD-ROM drive, graphic user interface, sound, printer, modem,
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floppy. etc.), I had to read a lot and make questions to the Users
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Group. At the end, the results really worth the effort.
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<P>
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Frankly, I didn't abandon the wintel side, I was working with the well
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known commercial office suite on making documents, commercial graphic
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programs, sound applications, using my printer, etc..., the Linux side
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was only for navigating on the net, but, two months ago, my computer
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refused to start windows, I even couldn't start DOS. I started it from
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a floppy, looked for the C:\ drive and found it. What happened?, I
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ran the scandisk program getting a message about a sector damage and
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that the disk couldn't be repaired by the program, Oh no!, my hard
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disk was dead...
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<P>
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-I still can take the guaranty and the vendor can repair or replace
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the hard disk...-, well, the damage was caused by a powercut during a
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storm, and they don't support that on the guaranty, so the solution
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could be a low-level formatting, but doing that could let the disk
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completely useless, so I took the computer back home, thinking that I
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would have to wait to have the money to buy a new disk.
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<P>
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-Hey, wait a minute!, I didn't try Linux, It may works- and it really
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did perfectly so I had to decide, and I did it, save my information to
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floppy disks and use the hole disk space (2.1Gb) for Linux.
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<P>
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Maybe some superior mind was trying to take me to the light. I've been
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learning more on using The OS and its applications. Now, I can print
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in full color with my Epson stylus 400 (ghostscript, ghostview,
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apsfilter), play sounds, midi files and CD-music with my pnp Yamaha
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soundcard (oss/linux sound driver), work with my .doc, .xls, .wks,
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.dbf, ... documents (StarOffice 4.0), manipulate, use and print a lot
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of graphic files (the Gimp), and of course, get connected to the
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world, sending and receiving email, faxes, files, etc. (Netscape,
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efax, ncftp), even I play some games.
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<P>
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I can change the look and feel of the X Window environment every time
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I want, keep my secret and important information away and safe from
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intruders (kids), render some strange 3D scene while I compile a new
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program to work on my system and update my shares portfolio on the
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spreadsheet, taking the data directly from the internet, and receiving
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another new application from an ftp site.
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<P>
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Next is learn on TV-cards, I have one and want to see my WallStreet
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News (MTV, Bay Watch and the Nanny too) on my home computer again, but
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using Linux.
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Also I want to learn how to set-up a LAN using TCP/IP, for a little
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home network (experimental purposes), and maybe for a later small
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business.
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<P>
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I don't worry about the prices (all the applications I use came with
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the distributions or I got them from the net) and the legal stuff,
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almost everything I have installed is free software (mostly GNU Public
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License).
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<P>
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Now I can solve a lot of problems in the office, and have nice talks
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with the systems guys, I can understand all what they say (as I said,
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I'm not a programmer or a hacker, I buy and sale shares, screaming and
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pushing people all day, but we use computers to get the orders and
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register the trades). As the post on the bbs said, ...and here I am,
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happy, with Linux...
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<P>
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I'm still saving for another hard disk (and a UPS to prevent surprise
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powercuts)..., I admit it, I'm going to install (maybe) a win95
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portion on that disk (it's easier to use for my wife, by now), but I
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can take my time, because my good old HDD was dead, and now, It's
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again alive.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, René Tavera <BR>
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Published in Issue 35 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 1998</H5></center>
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