Looking for Windows Drivers and don't Know Your Hardware? TUX will Help!

Some time ago, a colleague asked me to find the drivers for her XP laptop. She didn't have the rescue discs, her recovery partition didn't work, and her knowledge of the computer's hardware was equal to zero.

The driver hunt took me some time...especially because first I had to find out what hardware that computer was using and the owner of the pc didn't help.

Today at the Mepis Forum, a fellow Mepis user named Uncle Mark posted a similar experience. However, he had a better idea than just going the painful "Windows way": He used Linux!

He booted a Mepis 11 Live DVD, and once on Mepis, he opened the command line and typed:

lspci

Following that, in his own words:

"And there it was, pretty as you please, a list of all the hardware with vendor names and model numbers. Copied it to a text file, then onto a thumb drive, and went back to my desktop."

Back in my Windows days, if I had witnessed someone doing anything like that, I'd have told that person: "forget about Windows and install that magic system instead, please!" :P

Too bad too many people in the same situation won't notice and will go with the Win installation anyway...

Still, this is a very fine trick I'll make sure to remember! Thanks, Uncle Mark; thanks, Tux!

On Microsoft Raids...

About six months ago, Microsoft said it would be "enforcing anti-piracy more actively" in my country. It seems many people here did not understand what that meant. At least until last week.

Microsoft's friendly officials started paying visits to unsuspecting businesses just to make sure these businesses were running licensed copies of Windows and MS Office.

The result? So far, Microsoft has:

--taken legal actions against two businesses and will take more against another

--has finished 10 conciliation processes

--has earned $167,000 for damages (about 87 million in my country's currency)

Not bad to begin the year, huh?

Microsoft raids will become a stronger headache for those businesses whose owners had the wrong idea that paying for Windows and MS-Office was stupid when you can get it "for free." What about considering absurd to pay for extra licenses once you get one because you can simply install the same disc on as many computers as you want?

Fortunately, MS is being harsh on businesses only. Microsoft officials say that they work with domestic users through education. That's so kind of them! (if you believe them).

Still, there's a very simple lesson people and businesses have to learn: If you want Windows and MS-Office, PAY!

If you don't want to pay but still want to use MS software for your business, better treat your employees REALLY well...or wait for the visit of your nice Microsoft friends. There's even a site people can use to denounce pirates!

Care for a Little Fedora?

Well, I did it! I enrolled in a Linux course online! :)

Of course, the motivation from Mechatotoro helped, hehe!

I'm pretty excited because it is my first formal computer training! Although I've taken online courses before, this will be special, I'm sure!

Apparently, the distribution we will learn about is going to be Fedora.

Hehe! Nice! I got a Fedora CD with a Linux magazine I bought some time ago.

I presented my first homework last week! Soon we will be installing Fedora...

MEPIS 11.5...

Although MEPIS 11.5 is nowhere near completion yet (actually, the process has just begun), I am very happy because the rumor about it was true: Warren Woodford is currently updating some packages...

As far as I understand, MEPIS 11.5 will be more like an updated version of MEPIS 11. Even so, it will be quite a big change to me because it will apparently use GRUB 2 and will have a more up to date KDE 4, although we don't know which. Some members of the community have been testing the 4.7.4 version that Stevo built some time ago.

Hopefully, Warren and the dev team will encounter no obstacles so we may have a newer MEPIS soon.

STOP CENSORSHIP!

Some people have just gone too far with this idea of "protecting authors." I agree that the rights of artists and creators must be respected, but are SOPA and PIPA intended to do that?

A Lazy Post

This appears to be quite a year! Mandriva is in trouble, so was Pardus...and UEFI is doing its part, too.

Well, on the bright side (at least to me), it seems that the developmental process of Mepis 11.5 has already begun.

However, Mepis 11.5 will apparently use Grub 2...that means I'll have to learn about that! :P

Oh, as requested, I'm posting here a small trick to mount USB 3 hard drives. This comes without any warranty...I have just tested it on Mepis 8 with KDE 3.5 with myToshiba NTFS device.

1. Open a terminal and become root. ("su" + root password in my case)

2. As root, type: ntfs-3g /dev/sd?? /mnt/sd?? -o force

(sd?? means the mounting point of your USB 3 device. In my case, it is most of the cases "sdb1", so the line reads: ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 -o force)

That's pretty much it. In case of need, you might want to try:
/usr/bin/ntfs-3g --help

HAPPY NEW YEAR!