Hello Giles,
Thanks for your response.
My comments are inline below.
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Giles Orr via talk" <[email protected]>
To: "GTALUG Talk" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP
PC;
On 26 July 2016 at 21:27, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk
<[email protected]> wrote:
| From: "Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk" <[email protected]>
| I donlt really have a few weeks to spare. I need to get the Linux
PC up
| and running, so I can get back to the rest of my life.
If you are not used to Linux, and you are used to Windows XP, and you
don't have weeks to spare, you really should think carefully about
switching to Linux.
I wanted to back Hugh on a couple points: switching to Linux if you're
not familiar with it isn't something to be done quickly. Windows
7/8/10 would also have a learning curve, but the proprietary programs
he speculated you might have will work, whereas they probably won't
with Linux.
Linux is a fantastic OS and I encourage you to use it ... but expect a
learning curve.
Please see my remarks to Hugh on the same subject.
I look forward to enjoying the climb up that Linux learning curve.
What I find especially encouraging about this GTALUG dialogue, is how
careful everyone is being not to oversell the ease of the switch to
Linux. If I were a very computer-naive user (I'm not) I would be very
lucky to get with GTALUG for advice.
I have no idea of the longevity or robustness of blu-ray disks.
Consider
diversifying to external HDDs.
I nearly chimed in with this option earlier: my backup method is
multiple external (spinning) HD drives, some of which are "portable,"
ie. 2.5". With rsync, full backups are very fast - after the initial
synchronization. And with the 2.5" drives, off-site is very easy. I
tote one to a friend's place most weekends. The initial cost may seem
a bit high, but the capacity is immense (up to 4TB even on 2.5" these
days), the backups are easy and fast, and the reliability is
excellent.
"Easy, fast, reliable" sounds pretty tempting to me.
Thanks to advice from GTALUG, I'm prettly close to abandoning my
nostalgic love for SCSI tape backup :)
If I can be comfortable with portable hard drive resistance to
mechanical shock ... And if a 2.5" portable drive will fit in my very
small off-site storage box ...
I would need two portable backup hard drives (one on-site and one
off-site). I estimate a cost of $375 for a SCSI controller card together
with a (used) VXA tape drive. Plus the cost of tape cartridges, of
course. So I'll have to see what 2 x 2.5" portable HDDs will cost. 1 TB
capacity drives should be sufficient.
--
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
[email protected]
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