Setting up an always-on computer

GEEK CONTENT WARNING

On december 26, I got one of the last parts needed to build the computer I’m dreaming of since I moved.

I already have my fast, dual-booting laptop, so why fork out money on a 552mhz desktop? Well I wanted to take the Sci-Fi turn and have an always-on linux desktop with weather, email and Wikipedia ready at all times. Also, the machine had Windows XP and is relatively quiet.

Here’s how I plan to do it:

Step 1: Install Ubuntu

While Windows XP is a good system, it’s just as noisy as other Windows systems. Since this computer will always stay on, I don’t want a noisy spinning hard drive to keep me awake all night long. Linux distributions are also much more customizable than Windows and mostly immune to viruses. The only thing left to do would be to pick the distro I want. Ubuntu? Kubuntu? Xubuntu? Fluxbuntu? U-Lite? If it wasn’t for the internet bill, I’d try ‘em all.

Step 2: Make it faster

On a 300mhz, 256mb RAM machine, Ubuntu ran surprisingly fast but nothing near what I wanted. I expect it to be significantly faster on this machine (with 768mb RAM), but nowhere near what I got used to on my dual-core laptop. There are many guides out there to tweak your system to boot and run faster. It’s also important to tweak Firefox too, as it’s one of the main applications you are going to use.

Step 3: Tweak it

The difference between my laptop and an always on PC is the speed at which I can get information. I want to be able to know the weather, see my Google Reader feeds and see my emails without even touching the mouse or keyboard. To do so, I will install desktop widgets. In Ubuntu, they come in many flavors. I found the best application to display them to be Screenlets but gDesklets also has a lot of available aplets. Most of them can be found at gnome-look.org.

Then, keep the desktop clean in order to make it look like an internet appliance. This means I must hide the removable drive icons on the desktop. This is easily fixed by following a nice tutorial by HowToGeek. Once this is done, I can place icons to important applications (Firefox, Rythmbox, Images…) on my desktop by dragging them from the Applications menu. They can then be resized by right-clicking them and selecting  “Resize”. There you go! A nice, useful desktop “Home” screen with all the information needed available at a glance. I really recommend adding shortcuts to your Photos, Videos and Music folders. You can right-click them, select “Properties” and add emblems to them so they look like more than boring folders. Don’t forget to edit the applications menu to hide unused applications (heck you might even uninstall them!) and keep only the necessary ones (multimedia, internet, IM and dictionary).

Since the device will always stay on, it is good practice to prevent the computer from going to sleep by simply asking it to dim the backlight after a few minutes. To do so, go in Setting>System>Power management.

It’s also important to have a good-looking theme to suit your awesome new information central. I’d avoid picking a dark theme and background as colors put a nice touch of happiness in the room. You can also change your login screens and various icons with the files available at gnome-look.org.