GhostBSD – A Linux Alternative

I’ve always loved trying various operating systems. So it is with GhostBSD. Most of the time I put these OS’s on a virtual machine which is fun, but you can’t take a virtual machine with you.

I have a whole bunch of laptops around here and one that I routinely try with various Linux distributions. Once upon a time I had installed FreeBSD on something and was proud as punch when it worked. Not too long ago I tried it again and borked the Desktop GUI installation somehow or another and then bounced directly to KDE Neon. Ultimately, I decided to do another BSD variant and GhostBSD comes with a Desktop Environment. In fact just like Linux you can configure a bunch of different environments for it. I got the version with MATE Desktop.

GhostBSD describes themselves are being “Unix like”. While being based on FreeBSD, you seldom see the word Unix pop up. FreeBSD is an open source derivative of AT&T’s Unix which was not open source. A bit confusing, but let’s just call it an operating system and move on.

GMKtek Intel N150 Mini PC Setup And Review

GMKtek Intel N150

A while back I bought a GMKtek G3 which I reviewed here.  I put it in the guest room on the TV and it serves up as a Logitechmedia client to a nearby stereo.  Also, I use it as a Police Scanner with an RTL-SDR device.  Lastly, it can be used to stream anything in a browser such as Sling, Netflix, Hulu, etc.   Something happened recently which led me to purchase a new GMKtek Intel N150, G2 Plus Nucbox.

A reader CC’d me on an email to GMKtek.  This person was quite unhappy with their Nucbox.  Now I don’t mind when someone emails me and tells me their harrowing tales but I do mind when adding me to an email implies that I’ll write a bad review about that product for them.   I do so love writing negative reviews but I don’t have anything negative to say about GMKtek.  I contacted GMKtek and told them I had nothing to do with the email and that I didn’t know the person.   The good news is that they told me they’d investigate and try to help the author.  Right after that I have no idea what happened.  GMKtek treated me awesome though.

So while looking at the latest offerings I was kind of shocked to see an Intel N150 with 12 GB of onboard DDR5 RAM, and a 512 GB M.2 2242 SSD with Windows 11 pre-installed.  The price was amazing as well at just less than $150.  By comparison my first PC, a 486SX cost nearly $3000.
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Evolve III Maestro Laptop Review

I was scrolling around some tech sites and saw some discussion on an $80 laptop.  The device in question was an Evolve III Maestro 11.6″ laptop at Micro Center. Sadly, that price is for in store only and there isn’t a Micro Center anywhere near me.  Other outlets sell these, but the going rate seems to be $130 to $140.  While this laptop is appealing at $80 it really isn’t really very enticing at any higher of a price tag than that.

I managed to find one on eBay for about $65 and while it claimed to be used, it was for all intensive purposes a brand new laptop.  It still had the plastic screen protector on it.

Evolve III Maestro

Booted it up and it had a clean, uninstalled copy of Windows 10 on it.   But that’s not what I wanted it for.

I bought this to play around with old OS’s, primarily Haiku.  I’ve been going through a nostalgia phase and a “what might have been” phase.  OS/2 Warp, BeOS, etc. both of which were superior operating systems to Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

I found a cool installation video for Haiku on this laptop by YouTuber Action Retro.

So I set about to install Haiku on here and lo and behold……..I succeeded.

Haiku on Evolve III

It worked, but with a few caveats.  I must have the version 1 of this laptop as I had audio straight out of the installation.  I’ve heard that later versions of the laptop have no sound driver for Haiku.

The trackpad didn’t work and neither did the onboard WiFi.  Both were resolved by adding USB dongles for a mouse and WiFi.

Sadly that ties up both USB ports on the laptop.
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 GMKtec NucBox G3 Review

I caught a great deal on Amazon for the Intel N100 based GMKtec NucBox G3.  The barebones kit is probably the best way to go at $119.  Guys like me always have sticks of RAM laying around and even NVME SSD’s.

GMKtec NucBox G3 Intel N100

The Intel N100 is a 4 core processor with a Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz.  This little box rocks.

The Intel N100 is a low wattage draw  (6 watts) chipset that tops most Celeron and Atom chips at a modest cost.  It is roughly comparable to an Intel N95 chipset.

With the NucBox G3 there are a ton of connectivity options as well.  Best of all is a 2.5 GHz Ethernet Connector.  Toss in some USB connectors and a couple of 4K, 60 Hz HDMI connectors and a 3.5mm microphone / speaker jack and you have a winner.

This is a perfect desktop machine for the kids or for the guest room.  It would be right at home in the camper as well.   It also is an economical platform for supporting that one piece of hardware that is far away from the wired network such as a CNC machine.

I slapped mine in the guest room and am in the process of bookmarking streaming services such as Sling, Netflix, Hulu, and my Plex Media Server.  That essentially is the extent of how we use a Firestick or Roku.  I can’t count the number of times that the Sling app has been non-responsive on Roku, FireTV, and LGTV.  Web steaming always seems to work.  This may be the answer.
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20 Years With Linux

The other day I plugged in a USB GPS device that has an old Sirf Star IV chipset in it.  The serial port speed on Linux is typically 9600 baud and this GPS module had a communication speed of 4800 baud. To get them playing nicely with each other I starting to type in the command “setserial” and then it all came flooding back to me.

Sometime around 2003 or 2004 I was in Okinawa.  I think Windows XP was the thing but I probably still had a Windows ME box.  Windows 98 SE and Windows ME were AWFUL.   Windows XP was much improved but a lot of hardware support didn’t cross over in the earlier days.  So I had to keep both platforms running for a while.  Anyway, it was during this stint in Okinawa that I decided I was going to start using this thing called Linux that I was reading about in all the computer magazines.  By golly if you used Linux you were something known as a POWER USER.  I wanted to be a POWER USER too.

The most practical way to get Linux in those days and in those conditions (living on a Japanese island with slow internet) was to go to the Exchange and buy a boxed set of Red Hat Linux.  I can’t remember if it was Version 3 or 4.  It came in a big box with a gigantic book that seemed to be written for much smarter people than myself.

Surprisingly, installation wasn’t that difficult, except after I completed it, my modem wouldn’t work.   I had absolutely no idea what to do.   So I grabbed that big book and used a Windows computer that did connect to the internet to start looking for answers.  This was no easy task and it took me a day or two to figure out there was a serial port conflict.  Then it took me a day or two to figure out what to do about it.  The solution was a “setserial” command.

When I heard that modem squawk and connect for the 1st time after dozens of command line attempts, I WAS HOOKED.  I was the King Of Linux.  Since that time I have always had a Linux laptop.  And I am currently working through the 5th generation of Raspberry Pi’s.
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