Linux Survival Guide series by EC

[GreyGeek]

EC meaning "Explaining Computers" by Prof Christopher Barnatt
This is the playlist link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeDY...xV7Dj-tj206rUK

He just posted his 2nd video in the series, which is about various ways to run Windows applications in Linux.

[Beerislife]

Slight correction, Christopher Barnatt... I've been watching his videos for quite a while and enjoy his vids on SBC units. I also like his subtle British humour, which is something I miss.

I'll watch this one and give it a 'thumbs up' even though I have no interest in running winblows apps!

[GreyGeek]

Slight correction, Christopher Barnatt... I've been watching his videos for quite a while and enjoy his vids on SBC units. I also like his subtle British humour, which is something I miss.

I'll watch this one and give it a 'thumbs up' even though I have no interest in running winblows apps!

Thanks for spotting the "typo" (or my bad memory -- take your pick ) I fixed it.

I, too, regularly watch his videos. He had a great series on Raspberry Pi boards, but I went with Arduino for my coding project. That and the fact that Arduino's IDE was in the repository.

[Beerislife]

I'm kicking myself for not buying a Pi 4 8Gb last year, or a Pi 400. The prices have gone nuts here recently.

He also did a fun video on retro PC gaming. Way back when I bought Aces Over Europe and Red Baron. I looked in my backups for the zip files I'd made and found they run great in Dosbox...

[GreyGeek]

Gone crazy is an understatement. When I was looking at them about 2 yrs ago the Pi 4 board with 8GB was about $45, IIRC. The 4GB board was $35 when it was first released.
Newegg's current price is $160 and Amazon is selling them for $135.
PiShop is selling the Pi 4 model b for $75.

I just checked Arduino at Amazon and all the the older boards are under $20 and the latest 2560 R3 board is $38

[Beerislife]

The average price of a Pi 4 4Gb kit with Japanese power supply, Micro SD card, HDMI cable, heatsinks and fan case is around 20,000 yen. Last year it was about 12,000 yen, with the occasional 10% off offer!

If I'm going to spend that kind of money I can get a cheap laptop!

[GreyGeek]

The average price of a Pi 4 4Gb kit with Japanese power supply, Micro SD card, HDMI cable, heatsinks and fan case is around 20,000 yen. Last year it was about 12,000 yen, with the occasional 10% off offer!

If I'm going to spend that kind of money I can get a cheap laptop!

Indeed! And still not have to settle for a chromebook.

[Beerislife]

I do like Chromebooks, in fact I have a Lenovo Chromebook Duet that goes in my backpack when I'm travelling. It's so much better than an Android tablet! The boss doesn't need a full-fledged PC for what she does (Mail, shopping, browsing) so I got her an Asus Chromebook Flip CM5 (Ryzen 5, 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD) and that's still too much machine for her!

I wanted a Pi 4 to replace my old ThinkPad for playing music and videos in the bar. With a mini keyboard it would take up less valuable space.

[GreyGeek]

I do like Chromebooks, in fact I have a Lenovo Chromebook Duet that goes in my backpack when I'm travelling. It's so much better than an Android tablet! ...

Android can be a beauty or a beast on many devices. I am currently using a Samsung GS10 with Android. I hate it. My previous phone was a Xaiomi Redmi Note 7 unlocked with Android 9 on it. It was a joy. I plugged a 128GB sandisk into it for primary storage. I took all the Xaiomi software apps and put them on the back page inside a bundle and never activated their cloud or other services. The settings section was logically laid out and organized. It just worked the way you'd think it should. It was fast. My GS10 Settings was laid out by a Grinch tasked with making it as illogical and disorganized as possible. It's display wraps 1/3rd of the way around the side bezel and it is almost impossible to avoid accidently touching the screen and firing a new app or changing the app you have open. Xaiomi supplied a load of sounds, pics, icons, etc. Samsung just a few or one. Getting others requires $$. With Xaiomi I could browse "hidden" directories that contained personal information collected by apps. For example, maps continually stores my lat & long, time spent at each, and a guesstimate as to what I was doing. I could have maps plot that data and see a "trail" of where I had gone for the last few months. I could and did delete that data, even though I couldn't turn it off. On the GS10 I cannot access that data so I can't delete it, and I am sure Samsung regularly downloads that info to sell it or keep it for gov usage. I will NEVER buy another Samsung smartphone.

[Beerislife]

My phone is currently a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite. It's great but I wish there wasn't so much bloatware installed.

I think my next phone will be a Google Pixel device but I only bought the Xiaomi last year so not right now!

I do have a Huawei MediaPad Lite 7" that I passed on to the boss when I got my Lenovo Duet. It's also a great device, very fast, but Android tablets generally only get one major software update plus security fixes whereas a Chromebook is supported for several years.

One of my regulars came in last night with a brand new Samsung foldable with THREE screens! What the hell for, and what a price! I think it's around 200,000 yen! No thanks!

[GreyGeek]

My phone is currently a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite. It's great but I wish there wasn't so much bloatware installed.

I think my next phone will be a Google Pixel device but I only bought the Xiaomi last year so not right now!

I do have a Huawei MediaPad Lite 7" that I passed on to the boss when I got my Lenovo Duet. It's also a great device, very fast, but Android tablets generally only get one major software update plus security fixes whereas a Chromebook is supported for several years.

One of my regulars came in last night with a brand new Samsung foldable with THREE screens! What the hell for, and what a price! I think it's around 200,000 yen! No thanks!

$1,779 US
For that price I could get this 17" monster:

[Beerislife]

Nice! I could hook that up to a 32" curved screen and fly X-Plane all day...