April, 2015 archive

I recently purchased a new desktop computer to replace my Dell Dimension 4700, which I purchased at Second Source, the only outfit I ever trusted to repair an out-of-warranty laptop, oh, seven or eight years ago.

I purchased it from Zareason because they let you pick the distro of your choice. Natch, I picked Slackware, the distro that doesn’t hold your hand, the distro of iron, the distro that always works and never breaks.

I have spent the last few days configuring it to my liking. Today, I expect to get Mutt working.

There was one problem: the optical drive did not work; the tray would not even open. (I have an old Memorex external that I have used for years; it worked fine with the Zareason, so I was able to access optical disks, so the thing was workable.)

I called Zareason, where a real live human being whose menu options have not recently changed answers the telly phone. In a few days, I received a new optical drive in the mail; I swapped it in yesterday morning and it works like a charm.

This is the third Zareason device I’ve purchased. If you want a box with the Linux distro of your choice, I recommend Zareason wholeheartedly. They build good boxes, and they stand behind them.

I started my career working in a complaint department. I learned to judge a business not on whether something never goes wrong–that is an impossible standard–but on how it responds when something goes wrong, because something can always go wrong. Zareason passes the test, and passes it big time.

Oh, the Dell? I gave it to a fellow TWUUG member. May he have as much fun with it as I did.