What are you using machines for

Paul asks “What are you using machines for” on his blog.

Being a geek I have a relatively large number of computers (compared with the average person), but probably not as many or as varied as other geeks. I’d be interested to see how my setup compares to some others.

Here’s the current setup at popey towers:-

  • wopr: Core2Duo Dual Screen Mesh (monster) PC running Ubuntu Feisty used by myself for work.
  • bob: Old Dell Optiplex G1 with two net cards, running IPCOP as my main firewall.
  • hactar: Pentium M Dell Inspiron running Ubuntu Feisty shared by myself and my wife for general computing around the house
  • multivac: Celeron HP laptop running Ubuntu Feisty soon to become Sophies computer (when I take it apart and spray paint the case pink. I previously used this for mobile computing when I commuted to work on the train.
  • mother: Clares desktop (running Ubuntu Edgy) which recently went pop (hence her using hactar).
  • colossus: Compaq proliant 1600 now decommissioned – used to run my website which is now hosted on bishop
  • bishop: Virtual Server running Debian Sarge hosted by Bitfolk. Hosts my mail, websites and irssi in a screen
  • tigger: Old Dell latitude used for developing Obuntu Server.
  • box: Old Dell Optiplex G1 used for testing Obuntu Server.

Hmm, that’s quite a few machines – it used to be worse. I try to make use of old hardware where I can, but the power consumption of the old Proliant made that a bit impractical, so that had to go. I have an EPIA low power board which I may use to replace the IPCOP box, but right now that’s low priority.

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This entry was posted in Advocacy, Fun, Linux, Ubuntu. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

9 Comments

  1. Posted April 14, 2007 at 12:07 am | Permalink

    Akiba – MacBook Pro C2Dou running 10.4.9, AkibaBook- Windows XP Pro BootCamp Partition – Akibuntu- Fiesty Fawn

    Little Buddy- G4 MacMini running 10.4.9

    Monolith- P4 3.0 home brew running XP Pro (Mainly for WoW) and Feisty Fawn.

    Two cents and out.

    turtleJP

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  2. smiles
    Posted April 16, 2007 at 10:24 am | Permalink

    Ok, here’s my list…

    I feel really bad for not thinking up clever names for them all that follow a theme derived from characters of star trek or the singers of manufactured pop bands (although the amount of machines I have might mean the only band I can use is Blazin’ Squad :-)

    ….any ideas for naming schemes greatly appreciated!

    • evolx – Primary (not for long) Laptop (Compaq Evo 410c notebook running Edgy)
    • homeii – Primary Home Desktop PC now running Edgy (thanks to Popey himself)
    • mediacentre – Custom built media centre PC (in lounge) running MS Windows MCE 2005 (but new hard disk purchased and standing by to install Fiesty and attempt a test of linuxMCE :-)
    • msw3ksrv01 – Compaq DL360 (Domain Controller / DNS) running Windows 2003 Server
    • msw3ksrv02 – Compaq DL360 running ESX VI3 used for building virtual test servers
    • msw3ksrv03 – Compaq DL360 (currently not in use)
    • escwnsap01 – Compaq DL580 (formally W2003 + SAP now unused)
    • escwnsap02 – Compaq DL580 (formally W2003 + SAP now unused)
    • escwnsap03 – Compaq DL580 (formally W2003 + SAP now unused)
    • escwnsap04 – Compaq DL580 (formally W2003 + SAP now unused)
    • vaiolx – Old Laptop (not used in ages, think it’s still running Breezy)
    • macg4 – Apple Macintosh G4 (OS X Tiger) bought with Maudio recording interface but never got round to using it (yet).
    • hushpc – mini-itx pc (currently with Popey to help him do some screencasting for building mythtv (I think, it’s been a while) :-)
    + Various PC’s in states of disassemble for a vocation…
  3. smiles
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:48 am | Permalink

    http://ccgi.mileserve.plus.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=misc&id=Dsc00255

    I’ll give you a full list once I get 5 minutes :-)

    Nige…..

  4. Posted April 13, 2007 at 6:38 pm | Permalink

    the machines I run

    Well it turns out you’re “more geeky” than I ;) .

    I only have three webservers (two bitfolk and a lowcostdedi one), a laptop and my dads workstation, lol :) .

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  5. Rusty
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 12:49 pm | Permalink

    Except for the laptops and tablets, all assembled from parts.

    Cruela primary workstation, dual head – Dapper (Edgy panics)
    Northgate primary server, mail, web, jabber, misc – Debian Sarge
    Beast pvr back end and front end – Knoppmyth R5E0
    Alfred in storage – was my primary system when running BeOS
    Tony in storage – Handyman system – ubuntu edgy
    HAL primary laptop, IBM thinkpad x21 – ubuntu edgy
    Tabitha stylistic LT-C500 tablet – Windows 2k pro
    WhiteBox My son’s primary computer – ubuntu edgy

    A couple of project boxes here and there, as well as things like a print server, firewall, hdtv tuners, terminal adapter (voip), wifi phone, etc. that technically are elements on the network, however I’m not playing with the OS on them, so not including here. Likewise the routers and switches for the cisco learning lab.

    If I Dig around in the garage, I can probably find a couple of other complete systems. Old 68k Macs, though I do recall a 601 ppc box as well.

    With all that, there’s a couple of reasons I went with Linux for most of my hardware. Licencing costs to keep Windows up would be prohibitive in my view. If I can ever get the Tablet to take input from the stylus against the screen, I’ll switch that over as well. Edgy does run, but having to carry around a mouse sort of defeats the purpose.

    Likewise if I tried to run all of these off CRTs, the electricity use would cost a bundle. LCDs on anything interactive these days. OK, Beast is using a projector.

    -Rusty

  6. Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:56 am | Permalink

    First I’ve heard of Obuntu and I am greatly interested in this being an sysadmin for a charity that really cannot afford Windows servers at all…but just a wee thought…

    I’ve been using Ebox-Platform which is quite decent for an office installation – it runs on Debian Sarge. I *think* that their code are GPL so rather than reinventing the wheel again, why not use something like Ebox-Platform?

    Just a matter of repackaging it again for Ubuntu platform? Just a suggestion unless you have something in mind that is better than Ebox-Platform! :)

    Cheers

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  7. Alan Pope
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    Ebox is indeed one, also there is Soren Hansens project Ubuntu Easy Business Server which is now a Google Summer of Code project.

    I do need to seriously consider the options.

  8. Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:40 am | Permalink
    • galatica 1.4Ghz Athlon – xen host in DMZ – turned of as a spare
    • pegasus 1GHz mini-itx board – xen host in DMZ
    • viper xen guest – unused
    • blackbird xen guest – webserver / JSE
    • raptor xen guest – email server
    • skylla 1Ghz mini-itx board – smoothwall
    • valkyrie AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+ dual headed – Desktop and media server
    • atlantia 400Mhz P2 – 3 tuner card mythtv server
    • pacifica 1.2Ghz mini-itx – mythtv frontend
    • triton 1.8Ghz with RAID5 card – backup machine auto logs in and backs up the others

    + brothers Windows machine, 2 old laptops, and a couple of spare machines doing nothing.

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  9. Posted April 13, 2007 at 2:40 pm | Permalink

    I ‘only’ have three – the virtues of only being responsible for my computers (and being a poor student)

    rock – NAS box only really used for backups, will use for music streaming when I get round to it

    tir – Laptop (Compaq Evo N410C) – my day to day computer running Feisty, constantly on the bleeding edge

    Desktop PC (custom build MSI Mega PC) – dual boots windows (named windy) for uni work and dapper (named gremio) – not really used for anything

    deansas.org – Bog standard shared web host used for WWW and mail

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