Find PART ONE of this series HERE.

IN our second part of the series about "Linux running on everything" we are going to take it one step further. Lets take look at a few Linux distributions that work 'from the command line'. Now "From the command line" can mean quite a lot of things. It can be an all black screen with a cryptic cursor blinking, or a fully equipped (ASCII) menu interface that lets you do (almost) all the things that you do and then some. So depending on what version you choose your mileage may vary. When it comes down to the " Hardware Footprint " these Linux distributions vary a little. It depends on what you install, how many applications you are running, how many users are connected and what the machine actually has  to DO for you. Many people think that a "command line" install of any version of Linux requires only "minimal hardware" but that is where you are wrong. When installing a command line version of Ubuntu Server last year, and using it as a VM-ware Server to run 5 Virtual machines, i can assure you that CPU power, Memory and Hard disk space where very high on my wish list.  But that's not what we are looking for today. We are going to take a look at three "command line" versions of Linux that you might be able to use on a day to day basis.... on minimal hardware.

 The "Ubuntu Server" distribution is what we could call 'Ubuntu Linux without the graphical user interface' . No Kde , no Gnome, No fancy desktop, just a plain black screen with a blinking cursor, but PLENTY of possibilities. Setting up the Ubuntu server (as mentioned in our screencasts ) is not that hard.

These days you get a fairly easy installation wizzard that lets you 'choose" what kind of server (if any) you want to set up. Where installing a LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql) webserver was hard before, now you can just tick the box when installing and.. Hopla. The new 9.10 version also comes with the ability to turn it into a virtual machine server during setup (or even enable some cloud computing) just by ticking a box. But when we are talking about everyday use, the great thing about the command line interface is that it is "very light" to interface with either locally or remotely.

Enabling SSH to connect via a 'secure shell' is a breeze and lets you interface with the command line of your system from ANY computer all over the globe, as long as you open up the correct port on the firewall. Enabling the SSH server is done by checking the right box at installtion and after about 20 minutes you have your system up and running. This is of course a very "basic" system. Its versatile but it also means it does not come with a lot of "basic" applications installed. Its like a big box of lego and you have to choose what you want to build. You can install apps VERY easily over the command line with the apt-get command (Sudo apt-get install NAMEOFAPPLICATION) and there are a lot of cool ones out there. Caferninja has posted a link in his blog to THIS website listing a whole slew of command line applications you can use.

Some of them are fairly easy to use, some of them are pretty hard to use. We come back to the statement that some applications just need a graphical interface (For example Video Editing) and others are better to do with the command line interface (renaming a bunch of files etc). But the "Command line version" of Ubuntu is very suited as a versatile platform for your command line stuff. With the combination of "Screen" (see our Docu cast episode about how to use that ) and applications like Centerim, Irssi, Alpine, Mc and others you can have a pretty nice machine up and running in no time. 

Minimal hardware record : An Ubuntu 8.04 server, with a LAMP web server, an SSH server, running Alpine (mail) Centerim (chat) Irssi (irc) Mc (file explorer) doing automated backups using Rsync and Cron and some other stuff : Compaq Armada E500 (with a busted screen and keyboard) 256 meg ram and a 8 gigabyte hard drive. DOWNLOAD HERE

Adriane Knoppix.

For a change this is NOT a Ubuntu installation. Its actually based on the famous KNOPPIX live cd's but this version has a little bit of a twist. This is a command line version of Linux, Pre-packed with quite a few applications AND a screen reader that reads out everything that is on the screen. WHY i hear you say ? Well, this version is originally intended for the visually impaired who, thanks to the simple setup of the command line menu's AND the screen reader, can use the system very easily. For those of you who don't want a blinking cursor at the command line, but want an easy menu to run all of your applications ? Adriane Linux might be an interesting tool. The cool thing is you can also use your mouse to navigate. Adriane comes with browser, email, notebook manager AND some graphical programs out of the box. SO if you are running this distribution on a laptop you CAN always open up Firefox when you need to.

Minimal Hardware Record : A virtual machine, with a harddrive of 4 gigabytes and 256 megabytes of ram assigned. Download HERE.

INX linux. 

This last distribution we are talking about is one for the true command line geeks. If you want to do (almost) everything from the command line, want ALL of your applications pre-installed AND you want an easy menu structure to navigate, you might want to try out INX linux. INX is a ubuntu 8.10 based distribution that has an intricate menu structure, a LOT of applications AND the ability to PLAY VIDEO ! (using a thing called the "frame buffer" it IS able to display videos on your- otherwise command line - screen). This is a pretty complex and complicated command line version of Linux, but the designer HAS made sure there are some basic tutorials included. If you want to try out all kinds of text-based apps and see how far you can take your command line fetish : THIS is the distro you want. You can download the pre-built virtual machine (very nice to tinker with), the Live cd (that works on ANY computer) or build it yourself by installing a basic version of ubuntu 8.10 and downloading and running the installation script. Inx is the lightest distro in this series

Minimal Hardware Record : A virtual machine with 128 megs of ram and a 2 gigabyte harddrive footprint. DOWNLOAD HERE.

One of the myths that are out there , is that Linux runs on "everything". Technically, this is true, Linux does "RUN" on even the smallest and most underpowered devices (Appliances like routers, your Tivo and some cellphones) and sure enough, geeks manage to run Linux on lighter computers like a 486, just to prove their point. The question is : What kind of "Linux" are they running on those machines. I mean : Linux is a very broad term when you think about it. It can range from command-line-Linux only, to a full desktop version with tons of apps and cool COMPIZ effects, to even a super cluster rendering the next pixar movie. There are many "variations" and "incarnations" of Linux, and depending on what you work with , they sure don't run on "everything". There is a difference between 'application-like bare minimum Linux versions' that do one thing and one thing well, there is the "mid range" that lets you do about everything as long as you are happy with the command line. Finally there is the "everyday Linux" that lets us live our life on the web inside a graphical user interface with common applications like Firefox, Flash etc.   In the next series of articles I'll write up some personal experiences on working with these several "incarnations" of Linux. I'll show you what i used them for, and what my personal "record" is on lowest hardware requirements.

The Bare Minimum Linux Distro called ... FREESCO.

Sure , you can run Linux on a 468, if you only install the Kernel (the heart of the operating system) and a VI or Nano editor. What you have then is a glorified typewriter (that is if you add in some network support) and I've been known to use "light" versions of Linux like that to get stuff done. Back when I worked for the educational department was in need of some network printers. Most printers they had lying around came with a parallel port connector and where only useful when they where hooked up to a "local" computer. Pretty shitty if you wanted to use them as a network printer, so other students could print to that printer via the network. In those days people would "sneaker net" their files around using Floppy disks from computer to computer. I had to put and end to that and get those printers networked. Sharing out the printers on the local computers ? not done. (Systems would be shut down and printers would be unreachable). Network printers ?  no money for that. Network-printing boxes ( Parallel to Lan adapter ) ? No money for that either. The only thing I had lying around in plenty of number where old 486 computers. Time for some Linux Magic : FREESCO  A Linux based distribution that allowed you to turn an old computer into a router AND a print server. The only thing you needed was : 8 MEGAbytes of ram, one or more network cards, a parallel port an .. a floppy drive. No harddisk required. This baby booted completely off a floppy drive and had easy (command line) wizards to follow in order to setup your old box as a router, a firewall or a print server. So this meant all the old machines I had could be turned into network print servers ! The devices could be turned on and off at random without damage to the operating system (everything was stored on a floppy) I could easily backup the ENTIRE print server (all i needed to do was 'copy the floppy' AND the thing played "money money money" by Abba when it finished booting ! Bare minimum Linux to the rescue.

My lowest hardware record : 486mhz processor, 8 megabytes of Edo Ram, 1 PCI network card, 1 Floppy drive.

Freesco Linux.  A router, Firewall and a print server using nothing but a floppy drive.

A calm Sunday afternoon. The ideal moment to sit down behind my little Acer Aspire Net-book and punch out some of the thoughts and idea's that have been on my mind for the last week. A busy week I must say. A week filled with work and meetings and a lot of rushing about. Clocking up some more miles in the car and spending quite a bit of time being "out and about". The cool part about that is that you need to get creative when it comes to your "on-line life". Most of us have an on-line social scene that centres around the moments where we sit "behind" the computer. Werther at home or at work, our digital lifestyle is closely bonded with the keyboard and mouse that we are using at that moment. As soon as we step outside ( or even wander near the coffee machine ) small physical space represents the giant gap between our 'Analogue' (I refuse to call them "real") lives and our "Digital" Lives. Or does it really ?

To me that mobility started to fade away when I got my first smart-phone that had a GPRS connection (my good friend the Palm Treo). It was one of the first cellphones I owned until it , quite literally "died" and I was quite attached to it. Not because of the hardware (it was a decent piece of kit) but because of the fact it bridged the digital life I had behind the keyboard, with my real life when I was out and about in off-line-land. From that moment on, with slow GPRS pop3 pull-mail as my only lifeline, something fundamentally changed in the way I used computers and more importantly, in the way I experienced the internet.

Fast forward to last weekend, when I traded up my trusty Blackberry Curve 8300 for a Blackberry Bold 9000. A streak of luck would have it that I found a busy businessman with a taste for the newest gadgets who was going to buy a Blackberry 9700. In order to scrounge up some extra cash he put his Bold 9000 up for sale on the internet and I was the first one to call him about the offer. The cool little device was only 5 months old and came with a one-year warranty and plenty of extras. (Deluxe casing etc.). I was looking out for a BOLD because I had enjoyed my Curve very much over the last year but was itching to try out a new toy.

What I did NOT expect when I got my hands on the BOLD, was the fact that is was so radically different from any smart-phone I had owned prior. Ok, With the Blackberry Curve came the advent of Push-email (My Knightwise.com mailbox in my pocket) and that in itself meant the end of using my personal cellphone as a 'voice communicator'. Next came übertwitter on the Blackberry (another great step forward) and next came the Googletalk client. With these three applications I had a pretty firm tie to the internet, no matter WHERE I went. Downside was of course the poor speed (GPRS Only) and the limited data plan I have (100 meg's a month).

With the Bold however this changed. The device in itself is bigger and comes with a much better screen. Its a lot faster then the Curve, and upgrading the internal SD card from 1 to 4 gigabyte did give me a lot more storage. But what surprised me the most was the fact that this baby could run several applications at once (multitasking) and came with a Wifi connection. This last part (something that I had always scoffed at in a smart-phone, (Who needs wifi on a device with a numerical interface') turned out to be yet another killer feature for this device.  What happened is that I started to browse the applications on the Blackberry Appworld and downloaded not only the Facebook app, Ubertwitter, GoogleVoice and Googletalk, but I also went for MSN messenger, Flickr uploader and some others. I had some of these applications on the Curve, but the combination of Wifi connectivity at home AND multitasking brought on a whole new way of "connecting" to my digital life.

Where at first I would have my Netbook next to me on the couch, with Skype, MSN, Twitter and Email open, these applications have now been permanently moved to the Blackberry. I no longer run an MSN/Adium/Pidgin client to manage my MSN, Googletalk and Facebook contacts. Those applications are now running on the Bold. 24/7. Suddenly these apps have been "liberated" from the computer and now permanently reside in my back pocket. Same with Twitter. When I'm behind the computer I'll probably fire up Tweetdeck, but only as an "extra" way of interacting with my Twitterstream. The combination of the screen real estate, processor power, multitasking abilities and wifi/3G connection of the Blackberry has turned the device in a full-blown "communicator" instead of a "phone with email". I don't really see the Blackberry as a "Phone with extras". I look at it as a "personal communicator" with the 'extra option' to make voice-calls.  The application Nimbuzz (that I found thanks to @meon) now even ties all my major social "comlines" (MSN, Skype, Facebook and Googletalk) into one single IM application. As I find more and more applications on the app store I'm feeling myself become more and more independent of just not 'one computer" but 'any computer'. While finding new tools for the Blackberry (I've even found a stand alone podcatcher that will auto-download my podcasts over wifi and store them on the SD-card) I've pondered ditching the Ipod touch (and its need to "sync podcasts) every morning in favour of the Blackberry. But the drain on the battery is becoming the showstopper.

However, aside from it all, I'm amazed at the way we change the way we interact with the digital world now "devices" become more and more powerful. Pretty soon "classic phone-calls" will be a thing of the past and trees can grow without fear of being cut down to make "books" out of them thanks to ebook readers. But what about our computers ? Will we see a drastic change in the way we interact with our digital lives ? Will the Ipads and the Smartphones take over the communicational aspects and will a computer regress into an "interaction terminal" for tasks that require a bigger screen ? Or are down the path suggested by @thenos100 when he asked us the question : Would you use a Smartphone with an external keyboard, screen and mouse ? Its a valid question that requires some pondering.

Perhaps its time to say "bye bye computer"?

If the internet is about ONE single thing, then it must be about "interaction". About finding out new things on the net thanx to your peeps. About inspiring people, showing people the way and so forth. The whole interweb is one big interactive community that constantly influences eachother. So why stop at the edges of your screen.

In my new office ' Nicely dubbed 'The laundry room' by some of my Twitter followers' I've put up some frames and hung up some pictures to make the whole place nice and cosy. I have however left an 'open spot' in my decorations for a little social experiment. I've put up 3 little picture frames on the wall directly next to where I sit. I have however , on purpose put NOTHING in them yet. Why  ? Well ,  because I'm not going to decide whats gonna be in them : Its up to you guys ! Yes YOU can decide what will become the content of these three catchy picture frames that are going to be in full view AND are going to be "in the shot" whenever I need to record a video-segment for KWTV. 

There are a few parameters. It has to be something that's at least a little family safe, It has to be in "picture format" (they aren't hung in landscape mode) and Nyana gets a veto wether or not its gonna be on the wall. (She IS the Style Guru of the house) But for the rest : Its a free for all. Whatever you send it ( picture , drawing etc) should be something YOU yourself have made and you can sign it with your name on the bottom. So help me decorate the office and ... become a part of the Knightwise.com "Wall of fame".