Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more

You're pretty Mac oriented :)

I use my company laptop (Dell D810) also at home, dual boot WinXP and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. There is also an old deskop machine behind the curtains, connected to my LCD tv. With a wireless keyboard and mouse it enables me to download movies and music. I-Tunes coverflow looks sweeeet :)

Cheers,
Maarten
Rotterdam

ATM I'm only using two computers: a desktop running Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon at work, and a five-year old desktop dual-booting XP and Gutsy at home. I'm planning to buy a new desktop in the next few weeks, and I'm seriously considering moving (almost) entirely to Ubuntu...

Define 'computer.' I have my laptop, a blackberry, a Nokia N800, and a Dell that sits under the TV and is basically set up for mythTV-like limited-purpose computing. I surf the web on all four of them, which makes them computer-like enough to me, but may or may not be for your purposes.

I have a couple of dozen computers spread out between several buildings on my 15 acres in Cedar Creek, Texas. I have a rack of 4 dual xeon servers with 6 hot swap 750 gb drives each running Windows 2003 Server, Ubuntu Linux and Red Hat Enterprise. I mostly use these for running websites and virtual machines (VMWare, Microfoft's Virtual Server).

I my main office I have an Imac 24, 3 "cube" type boxes, and half a dozen laptops, Sony Vaios, HPs and a "craplet" (crappy tablet). Our living area is 7,400 sf and is totally wired for ethernet in every room (14 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 5 kitchens, and many offices and work areas).

Just my wife and I live here but we're looking for some room mates to rent some of the rooms. It's a far cry from living on the Farm in a school bus.

I have a couple of dozen computers spread out between several buildings on my 15 acres in Cedar Creek, Texas. I have a rack of 4 dual xeon servers with 6 hot swap 750 gb drives each running Windows 2003 Server, Ubuntu Linux and Red Hat Enterprise. I mostly use these for running websites and virtual machines (VMWare, Microfoft's Virtual Server).

I my main office I have an Imac 24, 3 "cube" type boxes, and half a dozen laptops, Sony Vaios, HPs and a "craplet" (crappy tablet). Our living area is 7,400 sf and is totally wired for ethernet in every room (14 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 5 kitchens, and many offices and work areas).

Just my wife and I live here but we're looking for some room mates to rent some of the rooms. It's a far cry from living on the Farm in a school bus.

My setup is comparatively weak but thats ok. ASUS AMD-Sempron barebones desktop at the home office running Windows XP Pro and Linux Mint Cassandra KDE-edition (soon to be Gutsy Gibbon or the latest in Linux Mint). I also have two work laptops. One Toshiba Portege Core 2 Duo tablet running WinXP Pro and the other IBM ThinkPad T40 (don't know what chip is inside it) running WinXP Pro.

I'd rather have the desktop in the living room serving some media to my entertainment center there and else ware throughout the house and one non-work laptop that is fast enough to remote (VNC/RDP) into the media server and get to web-based apps. As much as possible in the cloud. I'd like store my whole music library in the cloud (that and PDF files are just about all that are not store-able in the cloud for me... which Google needs to get busy with [PDF files at least!]).

1) Macbook Pro laptop -- this is my work machine and pretty much goes with me everywhere.

2) PowerMac G5 desktop -- 4 year old trooper of a machine that holds a place in my heart as my first Mac. He's a bit dated now, unfortunately, so he might be getting replaced with an iMac in the near future. This one's mostly for my arty stuff -- Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

3) Hand-built PC designed to be as silent as possible. This is my gaming machine, currently running Windows XP SP2 and I have no plans to upgrade that until I'm assured Vista actually supports games properly. The only non-game stuff I have installed here are a handful of versions of Firefox and various other browsers for testing and comparison. Other than that, it's games all the way down.

@work - Mac Mini (Core Duo) is my primary workstation, a P4 Dell is my PC (mostly connect via RDC since I'm to lazy to keep hitting the KVM), also have a Dell box as a test system shared between a few of us.

@home - Thinkpad T43 is my primary system, and a Mac Mini (G4) is also in use.

Ideally I'd love to replace the Mac Mini/Thinkpad with a MacBook Pro that could boot Mac OS X/Windows, and build my own desktop PC for when I need the extra horsepower.

At home I have a P4 Frankenputer that runs Win2K Pro (though I have an XP Pro disc (legit, even!) waiting in the wings for the next time I need to reinstall the OS). That's where all my files live and where I do most of my at-home computing, since I can just turn my chair around and watch TV.

It's also essential for Remote Desktop with its two monitors, so I can have the work machine on one and my machine on the other. I run Ff, IE, Opera and Safari 3 beta on that one, in case I need to diagnose a web site problem while at home. I could play games on it (I have Doom 3 installed) but I realized that I'm just not all that into computer games any more. Find me a PC version of Guitar Hero and we'll talk :)

I have a MBP that I bought a few months ago that gets sporadic use but does travel with me. Don't use Safari too much; it's juuust different enough from Firefox to be annoying.

At work, not counting all the servers (W2K3) that I technically work on, the machine I sit at every day is an XP Pro box, again with all four browsers on it for testing/debugging.

All told, between work and home I probably spend about 12 hours a day in front of one computer screen or another.

I have 5 computers all running Vista. Two are laptops that are used for all of my everyday kind of work. Another two serve as Media Centers in two different rooms of the house for watching television shows. And the last computer is a server that backs important files and folders up from the other four computers.

3 machines
1 Pentium-4 class running Gentoo Linux as my main workhorse
1 WinXP laptop for my wife
1 Celeron-D running Gentoo Linux and MythTV, pretty much a dedicated DVR

I'd love to be able to get rid of WinXP, but it's not practical when one wants to easily connect to mobile devices.

I'll probably give up on Gentoo soon, because it requires too much maintenance and time. If you don't continuously upgrade, a simple install of a new piece of software takes forever to upgrade all the prerequisites and requires a lot of love to get it running again.

Might try Ubuntu or Fedora next. And If I upgrade the MythTV box, I'll use one of the new MythTV-specific distros.

I primarily use 2:

- A Windows Vista laptop (HP, 17" widescreen, comes with a remote to control media) at home. Used for everything other than work.
- A Windows XP desktop at work.

At home, I used a powerbook for a while, and I was going to buy a mac book pro. But they are just prohibitively expensive, so I went back to (sigh) Windows.

1) Powerful desktop on which I run XP for the majority of my work (and play, for that matter). From this machine I run an Ubuntu virtual machine for my Linux-related needs (mainly testing and/or running tasks on remote Linux servers). I also run two small Ubuntu-server virtual machines, a web server and a source code repository.

2) Shitty Toshiba laptop running XP and Ubuntu on dual boot, which I use for portable demos or occasionally for Internet access if I'm travelling or something. It needs replacing.

I'd say that I rely heavily on my main desktop - far too heavily. I regularly back up data that I depend on, but I'd be pretty screwed in the event of a hardware failure, in that my laptop is in no way a suitable temporary replacement. The only real solution to this is a new laptop.

Used to have an IBM T30 laptop dual-booting Win2k and Gentoo, but it broke last year. So now I have a Dell D620 dual-booting WinXP and Ubuntu. I use WinXP occasionally for testing or for Windows-only applications. Mostly I'm in Ubuntu, using a combination of Mozilla, KDE, Gnome and terminal apps under Ion3. I'm almost never at my desk, both because I travel a lot and also because I'm more comfortable using my computer as a laptop.

For active data, most of the important stuff (besides config files and my SSH key) is online somewhere--on my website, the W3C servers, in my IMAP folders, or in Bugzilla. But borrowing someone else's computer isn't very practical since I need a development environment (or at least CVS) with local files for a lot of my work. I also keep archived data, like old test cases, old papers, and random other stuff.

If I were buying a new laptop, I'd consider either Dell or Lenovo Thinkpad: I can't use trackpads, and these two also have a trackpoint. Better battery life would be nice but overall I'm pretty content with my setup already. :)

One MacBook and one iPod touch ;-)

Unfourtunatly I only own a desktop PC. I wish i would own a laptop, even more as those really offer extra use for people attending a university (that even offers WLAN for years!) And it would really kick ass if that laptop would have a logo looking like a fruit
On that desktop i ve beeen trying out Vista (beta RCs). Mostly I use XP, but i ve also been trying several Linux distros. And I think that s where i ll had back to soon. That step would be easier if there was a free linux driver for my printer though... (And i should finnaly decide for a distro.. ok should not be the hardest part)

I have a laptop and a PC.

My Laptop is a Macbook(first-gen black, with all the upgrades I could think of), when I'm at home I connect it to an external display(19" widescreen), keyboard and mouse so it'll function like a dual screen desktop. I always carry my laptop around, it's a matter of unplugging a few cables and the Macbook is in my bag. It runs Mac OS X Leopard and I have windows XP installed in parallels to run Office 2007.

Then I have a P4 2.0Ghz PC ... it's a default compaq office rig with Ubuntu Dapper Drake server edition (command line only). It has no input devices nor monitor. I use it as a server for almost everything, it provides me quick access to data when I'm "on the road" with my laptop. It runs a small webserver, mostely for personal use: http://aegeus.ath.cx

A) Core2-Duo running WinXP for work. Nothing special, as its cheap bulk office equipment. Used for managing computer accounts and data-entry.

B) Home Machine: A 4(?) year old P4, upgraded with bitsn'pieces over time. Runs Windows XP and dual boots into Ubuntu7.4. Used mainly as a media-box/DVD/Hi-Fi system and running games in low settings...

C) Another P4 (1.6) running Xubuntu. Used as a initial testing PC for a batch at work when we do charity give-aways.

D) A really old P2, running DOS6. Most of the time it gathers dust, but occasionaly DOS emulators just dont cut it and you need/want to run in retro classic mode. Good for scaring people who've only had experiences with a modern OS.

E) A P3-800, running as a quick'n'dodgy way of setting up a share-drive space for the home network. Soon to be retired and replaced with a better solution due to constant hardware failures.

F) Shiny ASUS Notebook running Vista-Buisness. Used to remote into work when I need to catch up with stuff at home or on the break periods. Personaly I can't stand notebooks and those horrid cramped keyboards and touchpads, but having it is the lesser of the evils.

A) one Athlon64 box running Gentoo as a main box.

B) one K6-2 box mostly unused with Gentoo installed (intended as a all purpose network device, but never got around to fixing it up)

C) one Athlon-TBird box running Ubuntu (as a backup machine in case my main box fails), but mostly doesn't work (probably defective RAM)

Guess I need to fixup on those two boxes. Been thinking of getting one of those dual cores, but can't find a good reason to spend the money.

PS: By the way, when is the next "ask Asa" coming up?

(A) P4 3.2GHz XP Media Center desktop is my main machine with some 500GB -- it is my fastest and most dependable computer.

(B) Fujitsu P1610 small tablet running Vista Business is my travel computer, but, I have it running side-by-side with my desktop. I move back and forth between this and my desktop PC doing different tasks on each, with two widescreen monitors in front of me. When one gets busy I switch to the other.

(C) Nokia N800 travels with me around the house.

The wife, kids and TV room all have their own computers (one each, mostly hand-me-downs from me, except for my son's gaming computer).

I have 5 computers that I use on a regular basis. I have 2 laptops running MS XP, one desktop running MS XP, 2 desktops running slackware and ubuntu linux and a laptop running slackware.

I'm using 3 computers at the moment: 1 dell laptop running winxp from my company, only for work related use. At home I have an old (2001) no-name tower running Kubuntu Dapper -- my primary computer where I store all my music, photos, do most of my surfing and manage my mail. A secondary computer at home, a dell desktop, mainly used by my wife and running winxp has also an account for me, so I use it sometimes when it's already running and I'm lazy to boot the linux box. I also use that secondary computer in order to dual boot with various distros, in order to test them, currently the latest Kubuntu.

XP (home computer), and Vista (laptop)

My main computer running XP I use *all the time*, I have the laptop mainly because I don't like to share :P plus its nice to have a computer that I can carry around when I'm on the go, ie watch movies at grandmas :P

I have a rather strange ecosystem:

1. Main PC, selfmade A64-3200 dual boot XP and Debain,
2. Low-noise, low power server based on a modded T-Online S100 streaming box (Celeron Mobile 733), running Debian,
3. PC based SAT receiver (VIA C3-600) running Debian and VDR
4. Pentium M 1400 notebook dual-booting XP and Debian,
5. USB-HDD that can boot a Knoppix-based Linux on whatever hardware I can find. (Not a real PC, but feels just as ;)

(Not counting work notebook and unused PCs)

Well first of all I have a total of 3 desktops, 3 laptops but currently I only actually use my new desktop which I recently got which came installed with Vista Home Premium, its a quad core with 2gigs of ram, 320gb harddrive way more power then the average user needs now days but with the slow down of upgrades, not like it use to be where you buy a computer and its outdated, if I go back to the time when I had a Pentium 75mhz computer, soon as you brought the computer home and unboxed the computer and set it up, BAM 100mhz came out, and then soon as you got the 100mhz computer, before we knew it 300mhz, then 333mhz, ect. I think for the most part things have slowed down as far as upgrades. So my primary computer is my Desktop packed with Vista and I love it. I also have a laptop that is my second computer I use when I am not at home and that is running Windows xp, 1.5ghz, 1gig of ram and 80gb harddrive. I use that when I am on the road and away from home, I run Verizons EVDO internet service, Between my desktop and my laptop both machines are almost mirrored with each other as far as both having the same programs. The 3rd computer that I use from time to time is a Dell Laptop that is a 1ghz, 1gig of ram and a 40 harddrive that is running Windows Vista and that machine is my Girlfriends computer.

All and all my 'production computer' is what I call it is my desktop everything I do is stored on the 'production computer' as far as my site, and my business.

I have a desktop PC (Core2 Duo 6600, 2GB RAM) running Arch Linux (and Windows 2000 on a VirtualBox machine) and a second PC (an old Athlon800) running Debian GNU/Linux, acting as a little server and p2p file sharing machine. Then I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop for work, running Mepis and Windows XP Sp2.

1) Desktop, Intel Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 50GB Windows XP, 30GB Linux
2) Laptop, Windows XP, 1GB RAM, 40GB

Both for work and personal use.

Go on then, I'll chip in. Geeks seem to like bragging about what they've got ;)

Currently have:

1) main gaming machine, which is my chunky home desktop PC that I love to bits

2) work machine at work, useful for pretty much just work - internetting, word processing, emailing, all that fun stuff

3) work laptop I've "borrowed" - all I use it for is surfing the net in my lounge when I can't be bothered to boot up my main rig.