My Personal Linux Computer, Updated July 2010

(For background see my superseded small, fast windows computer, also Henry Strobel, Violin Maker & Publisher.)

Here is my own Linux computer, highly adapted for the work that I do. I trust it will be used for as many years as was my very specialized Win98SeLite. As before, our violin shop and publishing business runs on it, including our publishing library and tools, e-commerce, and 15 years of email archives. Despite its modest resources, this is the fastest computer I have used. I like them simple, efficient, easy to use, and "bug" free!
Software - I have used Puppy Linux since 2005, recently upgraded to use the live CD from Quirky Nop 1.2 with an elaborately evolved ext2 configuration file on the hard drive. The rest of the hard drive is fat32 containing working data and add-on programs.
 
Linux lacks some preferred applications, so a few Windows programs have been retained, some by the Wine compatibility layer and some by the VirtualBox guest running on the host Linux. Here are the principal applications used:
 
Native Linux - Xfce, Cups, Xsane, Adobe Reader, Opera, Thunderbird, Bluefish, Gftp, Gnome-mplayer, Gimp, mtPaint, OpenOffice, and numerous utilities.
 
Wine - Adobe Acrobat, Address Book, Calendar, SyncBack, Ocr-Sprint, Porta, and Deepburner.
 
VirtualBox with Windows 2000, 2000Lite, Kerio 2.1.5 firewall - WordPerfect 12, RootsMagic 4, GedHTree, Acrobat writer with Quite Imposing. (These reside in a 3Gb virtual hard drive.)
Hardware - Six year old Shuttle ST62K with Intel Pentium 4 3GHz, 1G Ram, internal heat pipe, external power supply. CD/DVD Drive, USB Card Reader, 19" LG LCD monitor 1280 x 1024 x 24. LaserJet 2100 printer, Hp 4480 inkjet-scanner. External floppy, 80Gb internal hard drive, 80 Gb external backup drive can replace the one in the computer.