Hello Giles, Thanks for your response. My comments are inline below. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Giles Orr via talk" <talk@gtalug.org> To: "GTALUG Talk" <talk@gtalug.org> 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 <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
| From: "Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk" <talk@gtalug.org>
| 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/ gilesorr@gmail.com --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk