Geek-up...

[bovil]

So I decided it was finally worth taking the chance.

I got a new laptop at work, so I've got the old laptop for a while before I turn it back in. Since I needed to swap drives, and had a bare system, I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on it.

Other than a bit of wonkiness getting the wireless card up, it was a really easy install, so I decided to see about switching the old tower over to Linux.

The Linux version of VLC Media Player was able to play my .wmv files.

The wireless USB connection worked. Only a little bit of fiddling.

The TV's 1280x768 video resolution was supported.

What the hell, it's worth a try.. It's by no means 100% yet, but it's something.

Comments

[rebecca817.livejournal.com]

vagabond_aero installed Linux on my laptop as a Fedora installation and it's been working fine. I think he originally went with Ubuntu but we had some problems so he ended up installing the Fedora and it's worked well...

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Son-in-law has a small linux machine with a Honking Big Drive on the tv in the living room. Yep, it is a DIY DVR. He loves it. He can set it up to download movies and not hog up a computer that someone needs for projects (still hogs the internet connection, so they usually run downloads at night).
They have a rule like yours, download then buy when available. Or download, watch, then erase. It's the only way they can see anything but family movies these days. And they some times can't even make it to those, because of Nico the Very Active 2 year old.
And the kids love Anime and mash ups. So Dad goes looking...
Yeah, I've been known to catch some Dr Who that way when visiting them. Very Useful.