The old IBM building was at Turtle Creek and Gillespie Street. If you are wondering about online shopping....NO problem. But now I see you may be talking about opening an online store....No problem there either. There are several browsers you can use, I normally use Firefox and I have Opera. I have to use Opera when I go to Ancestry.com, they may now support Firefox but a few years they didn't but that is no big deal. You will get software updates as needed that you can install when convenient and they are free. Some require a reboot but most do not. And you can leave your computer running for ever and never have to reboot because of memory leaks like with microsoft. Those memory leaks may be what's slowing you down now....but they will deny they exist. Back in the 90s I had a girlfriend who had worked for AT&T during the lawsuit era, when she found out that we had worked for Carterfone she wasn't very pleased with me.
Aw dang -my poor old head just exploded from info overload. Now I need to sweep up all the bits and see what I can salvage.
For those that don't know the story behind the battle between Carterfone and AT&T, here's a little background. Carterfone made a piece of equipment that let you connect a two way radio to the telephone. It didn't make an electrical connection, you just laid the handset on the device and a microphone and speaker listened to the call. When the person on the phone spoke, the sound of the voice keyed the radio. When they stopped talking, they could listen to the radio. The phone company also rented this device for $4.00 a month. When they found a Carterfone phone patch in an office, they disconnected the offices phone service and told them it couldn't be reconnected until they removed the Carterfone and rented one from them. AT&T claimed that the Carterfone damaged their equipment. People started returning the Carterfone devices and demanding refunds. Tom Carter filed a lawsuit against AT&T and it was heard in the US Supreme Court. During the battle, AT&T published full page ads warning of the dangers of connecting your own phone. One such ad (I had a copy, but have since lost it) told the tale of a man who connected a phone he purchased at his local "Radio Hut" (a jab at Radio Shack who was selling imported phones at the time) and caused the radar at the local airport to stop working. This, of course, put the passengers and crew in great danger. The airport radar isn't controlled by, or connected to, the public phone system. It was simply a desperate act to try to sway public opinion. Fortunately, the court ruled that AT&T must allow people to connect their own phones as long as they were approved by the appropriate Federal agency. The court awarded Tom Carter $5 million in damages. A small sum to a giant like AT&T, but to keep the profit margin correct (they also lost revenue on all those rented devices), they denied raises to employees that year and blamed Carterfone. Needless to say, the people at AT&T weren't happy.
I downloaded 10. it is a miserly program to stuff yet more adds onto your computer. Gone is the day when you got so much as a solitaire game and a writing program, all are alla-carte at a premium. My cat can throw up a more appealing computer program.
I'm really interested in Linux but I'm not computer savvy at all. I have concerns that I will have a hard time adjusting to a new system so I'm wondering if anyone else has had a problem?
You can buy bootable CD's and Thumb Drives for Ubuntu on Amazon and Ebay. A local computer club, or even one of the repair shops, will usually be glad to help you out and may be willing to make one for you free of charge if you supply the blank CD or Thumb Drive. A small bribe of Double Stuff Oreos will often seal the deal. Once you have the bootable drive, you can test out Linux without installing it. It's very slow, reading from the CD or Thumb Drive is a much slower process (CD is slowest, Thumb Drives are a little faster) than reading from a hard disk, but you can get the feel for what Linux can do and how it looks and feels. Another option is to try the guided tour here http://tour.ubuntu.com/en/
Anything that you can do with Windows, Linux will be able to do it better, faster, and more securely, (and with much less pain)... However Linux is very much dependent on broadband internet connection. Not saying that you can't use it with dial-up, it's just that Linux (from time to time), requires updates - Which too are totally for free, but using dial-up for the periodic updates... Well, it could lead to frustration on your part. But again, not saying that it's impossible. Another thing about Linux is that it's very hungry for RAM, so a 64 bit computer with just 2 GB of RAM won't seem very fast to you - Still very fast compared to Windows, (no doubt about that), but slow when compared to another 64 bit PC with 4 GB of RAM (which would be running Linux)... My advice is to first run Linux from the DVD only, do not install. And use Ubuntu Linux... Try it a few times, from the DVD only, see if you like it - Now if you like it, then install a new 2nd hard drive in your PC, (and disconnect the first one, so that Windows and your other personal data is safe) - After which install Linux in this new drive. Connect the printer, scanner, webcam, or whatever devices you use with your PC, and Linux will automatically go online and get the drivers for it, (you really won't have to do anything). Next you can connect your old hard drive back into the PC, thus making your computer dual boot, meaning that you'll now have a choice upon start up, if you want to boot in Windows, or Linux? Things you should keep in mind are - Linux will take full control of your PC, like you'll be able to read and use all your files and stored data from your old Windows drive. But when working in Windows, you will be totally blind to the Linux drive... Also, after the first automatic update of Linux - Linux will (by it's own) install a small program called GRUB onto your first hard drive, thus making Windows it's slave. So instead of switching the boot drives from the computer setup, GRUB will then ask you if you want to boot in Linux, or Windows? Of course, as with trying anything new - I highly recommend that you first back up all your personal data, (just in case)... Also have a look at this page: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2142325/install-ubuntu-and-keep-windows.html
