Other members of the CLF and myself have recently bought a Raspberry Pi mini computer.

These can be ordered online for around $35 and are excellent to learn basic computer skills. The project was started to enable school children to have a computer on which to learn programming and develop other computer skills and it has been a great success as over 1 million have now been sold.

We have learned that the Pi is quite powerful and can stream HD Video as well as perform most other tasks done by a full size computer.

It runs on a variation of Linux as the processor is not a normal X86 but is an 'arm' type, it still has all the safeguards of a full Linux system and can be used in a never ending number of ways to control a robot, model plane, CCTV camera or even the brewing process when you brew your own beer.

From an innocent three year old and look at what another 70 years of hard living have done.

Must be my interest in computers that taxes my brain and keeps me active, but hopefully that is a good thing. It is said:

'use it or lose it'

I gave Linux a try as my computer operating system around ten years ago, when Red Hat 7.0 was the current version, and I believe Mandrake also had a version 7.0 as it's then current release. No matter how much time I spent on various distributions I could not find any one that would allow me to get my Printer, Dialup Modem and Scanner all working. I ended up going back to Windoze 98 and it was not until I read an article in a PC Magazine that praised Mandrake 10.0 for detecting all the hardware that I became interested again.

I ordered a copy online and was pleased to find that it also recognised all my hardware, so at last I was up and away with Linux. The name was  changed to Mandriva and then to Mageia and I am currently using version 4.1 and testing the Beta release of Mageia 5.

All my hardware is still detected by Linux and I now have no need to use Windoze as I can do all my daily tasks on Linux. I also have Windows 7 installed on both my Desktop PC and Notebook but find I only boot it to update the system. 

See the Mageia Download Link in the left sidebar to get your free copy of this great OS. You can download the 1.6Gb DVD which is a live-boot and an install medium. If you simply want to have a look at Linux on your computer and are not yet ready to do an installation, then this is the one to try. Boot with the DVD and you can try all the included programs without writing anything to your hard disk. When you close down, nothing has been altered on your computer as the Operating System has only been loaded into memory.

When you are ready to install Linux, click on the Install Icon on the Desktop and you can partition your hard disk, install Mageia and keep your version of Windows as you explore the virtues of Linux.

I believe Linus Torvalds the founder of Linux was bitten by a Pengiun while on a visit to a zoo. He decided it would be the 'mascot' for Linux.