"Desert Island PC"

[questio verum]

In the spirit of AOR's "Desert Island Disc's", I pose the question: "If you were going away to a desert island/arctic ice floe/deep space monitoring station/etc.. and you could take only one PC, with one OS, and 10 applications; what would you take?" Power saving is not a consideration as you have a generator with unlimited fuel. Now I'm sure some will want to fudge on the apps, so let's say that you could discount any apps loaded by default by the OS, but beyond default they would count toward your 10. So what would you take? Lappie or desktop? What OS (distro)? And what applications would carry you through the solitude? Curious to see what this reveals.

qv

[fingal]

<flippant reply>I'd take a woman with me!</flippant reply>

[bigtomrodney]

Well it'd be a Debian based Linux, Gnome desktop. I'd run a big desktop rig...I prefer power and cooling over portability. Applications wise I'd have the following

• Amarok
• K3b
• Inkscape
• Gimp
• Firefox
• Some terminal emulator,either gnome terminal or Konsole
• Transmission
• Acidrip
• Pidgin
• Network Manager
• A decent video player, either Totem or Kaffeine would be fine

I know Network Manager is usually a default but I really do like and depend on it. Not that I'd have much opportunity to swap networks but it'd be nice

Amarok is essential, Pidgin allows me to talk to the world and of course I'd need stacks of media to get by. Some fun with Firefox browsing the web and some graphics play with Inkscape and Gimp. I've taken it that ssh is included by default.

Now that I think about it, that list wasn't hard at all. Maybe because these days that's all I do

[darkrose0510]

Are we assuming there is an internet connection?

If so, then Debian of some sort, and I'll just apt-get what I want when I want it.

If not, do libraries count as applications? 'coz I'd want Gentoo (and hence a compiler and tools as the defaults), and a bunch of C libraries (at least glibc, gtk, openGL of some sort), vi, X, and fluxbox... I could then spend time playing with code, and eventually have a set of applications to use.

[techieMoe]

Am I the only one who picked up the fact that you'd have infinite power but no internet connection? In that case Pidgin would be useless (sorry, bigtom).

With no internet connection (which is something I'm particularly qualified to talk about) most popular Linux distributions are out of the question. I'd need a set of Debian DVDs to start. That makes the number of preinstalled (or potentially preinstalled) applications considerable. I'd only need to add on a couple.

*WINE
*Diablo 2

I can't really think of much else.

[bigtomrodney]

Am I the only one who picked up the fact that you'd have infinite power but no internet connection?

Ah but only possibly implied, not specified. Who's to say you're not going to the island voluntarily? Maybe it's the island from Lost and you get to be Benjamin Linus.

I think that without a network connection I could do without the terminal. I'd probably opt for a knife and a some survival kit. I'd suspect that as with the original Desert Island Discs that it's a case of unearthing what it is you can't do without as opposed to making solid plans for island life.

If it was a case that you needed to bring a PC to an island with no net connection I'd just opt for media apps like Amarok and Totem. Maybe add Elisa to that list, I've been using it more and more lately though I suspect F-spot would be good to have for managing those memories of home.

[Artesia]

It would be a desktop with a large screen and a very large hard disk. Prior to departure, I would go on a massive download spree and get oodles of music (like I don't already have enough). I'd also get e-books on Linux topics to help me figure out things along the way.

I'd stick with the one distro that I'm so far comfortable with, Ubuntu.

The only non-default app I can think of that is an absolute necessity to life would be SimCity3000. I might also bring along ones that I want to learn to use but never have time for, like a website builder of some sort or a webserver. Also Wine, PhotoShop, and Half-life (one and two).

If the stay was less than a couple months, I'd opt for the adventure and not take a computer with me at all. I utter blasphemy, I know...

[Oxygen]

Instructions for building a raft.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
GtkRadiant
My porn

That should just about do it.

[questio verum]

When I posted originally, it was in that little slot of time between waking and coffee. Sorry for not being more specific about LAN/WAN/internet connectivity, but to be honest I didn't even consider it as a possibility. My concept of the desert island scenario is a fairly isolated place. The crux of the biscuit, as BigTomRodney alluded to, is to parse the machines and software we use, and define what we would value most if we were forced to limit our passion. Btw... I've been pleasantly surprised by what's been posted so far. Leave it to a linux user to break from the pack and apply creative reasoning.

qv

[fingal]

<non-flippant reply>

I'm much like Big Tom up there... I like to run a lot of media apps., and prefer large desktop PCs to laptops. I would like to be a bit of an environmentalist and run my PC off solar cells, or wind power. I'm rather out of touch with current hardware specs, so I'll just say:

- huge hdd
- plenty of RAM
- wonderful cooling (I think heat would be a problem on a desert island).

I would prefer to run a Debian based distro on this island. Apt seems very apt... A KDE desktop would suit me very well.

XMMS - I like lightweight media players.

Xine - for watching films like The Swiss Family Robinson (in joke there).

Xchat - can I have a satellite Net connection on this island?

Google Earth - to plan my escape, and pinpoint my location.

Kate - a very neat text editor for coding up my website... The site would have my exact geographical location on it and the words HELP!!! in chunky red letters.

Open Office - I could write a novel about my experiences.

Cube - maybe I could play online?

FreeMind - useful mind-mapping app.

htop - call me strange if you like, but I sometimes enjoy watching system processes in real time... And in colour! Useful for killing apps when they crash.

GPredict - satellite tracking software. Might be useful, or just chewing gum for the mind.

But if I can't have the Internet, I'll just take my guitar instead!
</non-flippant reply>