We bought a media computer this week, replacing a lousy underpowered integrated-linux box which never became useful. The new one has a dual core processor and a terabyte of data storage. Windows would have added $125 to the price, but I installed Ubuntu 11.10 beta instead. It recognized all the devices right away – including a USB wifi dongle and a wireless keyboard + trackball, so it was an effortless install. I’m still not sure which media applications to standardize on – will write about that later. I also did not begin to try out the TV card. But the system’s already working just fine as it is. We’re enjoying our music collection, and our son brought over a bunch of videos and movies, which were quickly transferred to the hard disk. Our photos also look stunning on the large screen. Consumer paradise.
