At the
beginning
of 2008, I bought a PC from Dell. The specifications I wanted were only
to be
found in the small/medium business section, so I had to think up a
company name
to order it. Rich IT was the best I could come up with at short notice.
Since then,
as
I’ve got a ‘company’ name and a small business PC, I’ve been toying
with the
idea of doing something with it. So, I’d like to offer a service to
friends and
family providing advice and solutions for home computing related
issues. Things
like:
Security. Read this
for some basic tips.
Networking.
Upgrades
& re-using old hardware.
Cost
effective applications.
Very basic web design. (LOL)
Data recovery and secure data removal.
Refurbishing old, donated computers to pass on to educational organisations. (PROJECTn)
Assistance
with or even performing installations. Probably one of the
most
technical parts of using Linux is getting it installed if you're not
used to doing your own installations. Here's a guide.
Etc…
Where
possible I’d
like to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). There
are many
applications available to all operating systems, including:
Office
and Business applications.
System
tools.
Games.
Multimedia.
I've compiled a text document list here giving some details of hopefully useful applications for Windows users. Also, there's osalt.com which provides details of Open Source alternatives to commercial software.
This type of software is all free as in cost and in visibility of the code. This helps ensure that any bugs are swiftly picked up by the Open Source community and reported/fixed. Generally all the developers ask is that users contribute in some way be that financially, by contributing expertise or by helping widen awareness of the alternatives to proprietary/closed source software. For those that are inclined to totally make the break from the likes of Microsoft and Apple, there are now also various excellent Linux distributions that follow the principles of Open Source to a greater or lesser extent. For anyone who is interested but is put off by the need to set your system up yourself (As I mentioned above, that is the hardest part.) and if you fancy a new machine, here's a list of vendors who supply pre-installed machines.
Training and documentation for Linux is available to cater for pretty much any level. Here's an example of a site intended to provide a new user with a really decent basic grounding. Here's a more general introduction/overview site.
Out of interest, here is a short piece I did about the Vista experience from a Linux user's point of view. Hope you find it interesting. However, don't think I endorse the use of Microsoft operating systems or software except in certain circumstances. If you don't use the internet much, you'll be OKish. If you do use the internet, think hard about your choice of system unless you are willing to spend a lot of time, effort and skill securing Windows. There seems to be a growing trend in advice from creditable sources including police officers recommending Windows is not used for the likes of internet banking.
While on the subject of Microsoft and strange though it may seem, I actually agree with a letter William Henry Gates III once sent. My take on it is, if you insist on using proprietary software, then expect to pay for it. Why use pirated or cracked software when you can use Open Source? As explained above, if you then like the software and find it useful you can contribute in whatever way you see fit. I have contributed financially as well as trying to encourage Open source usage and contributing my little bit to community forums to assist other users. It really disappoints me when I see dodgy software being passed around when there are legitimate alternatives. To me this is more clearly theft than the similar 'problem' the music industry is trying to come to terms with. That industry seems to me to be all together another level of rotten, compared to the software companies.
If you’d
like to
know more, search Wikipedia
for FOSS, Open Source and
Linux. If you’d like to contact me, drop me an email to:
Rich_it <at> btinternet <dot> com (Replace the <at> and <dot> with @ and . and remove the spaces. I don't particularly want some script kiddie getting a working email address from this site. ;-> )
A few reasons why Linux is better than
Windows.
Linux @
OneAndOneIs2
- Find a local user
group here to help you get started!
Page Updated 3rd January 2011
rc