Food, Wine, and Linux may seem like a strange combination, but combining three passions can be a wonderful thing. I'm Marcel Gagné. Those of you who read Cooking with Linux, the multi-award-winning column that appeared monthly in Linux Journal magazine for 10 years, likely agree. With the help of my faithful waiter, François, Restaurant Chez Marcel serves up the finest in Linux and open source software paired with exceptional wines.
In that same spirit, this site features great Linux and Open Source software, ongoing wine tasting reports, recipes, and the occasional restaurant review. If you came here looking to read past Cooking with Linux columns, you'll find newer releases on the front page, a comprehensive list here and under the "CWL, The Column" menu link to the left. A votre santé! Bon appétit!
My Ultimate Linux Box
I've been reading about Linux Journal's Ultimate Linux Boxes (ULB) for years, and to get right down to it, there is no way I can budget the cost of their idea of an Ultimate Linux Box. Additionally, it's been about 9 years since I put together a computer for my home LAN. So, I think it's far past time for me to build my idea of my own ULB. I'll define that as a system which has more computing power than I expect to even come close to taxing over the next five to seven years. Oh, and it also has to be able to do 'wobbly windows', since that's a critical aspect of modern GUI design.
The way I plan to build this system is to buy a few parts each payday, and put it together over time. While I could buy everything at the same time and put it on a credit card, I'd rather buy it without resorting to the credit card.
Aside from the wobbly windows requirement, my other factors are 1) Quiet, 2) energy efficency, 3) size. I've picked out a barebones system from Shuttle, the XPC SN78SH7. This barebones system carries an Energy Star label, and boasts a plus 80 power supply. While I haven't been able to test it out, the reviews I've found say this is quite a quiet system when it's running. The basic pieces missing from the barebones kit are; a CPU, memory, and drives. The motherboard has integrated video, sound, and lan in addition to the expected input/output connectors.
In one of the reviews I was reading on the system, it commented on memory being available that did not exactly match the voltage settings on the memory slots. The voltage is supposed to be adjustable in BIOS, but a simpler method would be to buy memory off the Shuttle compatability list. I opted to use the list, and my second purchase was Corsair Twin2x4096-6400c4dhx. This is 4 Gigs of DDR2-800 memory, the maximum amount that the motherboard is rated for. I don't know if it's a Corsair thing, or if it's a common DDR2 thing, but I was surprised to see heatsinks incorporated into the memory module design. I can confirm that the heatsinks do fit in the case with adequate space between them and the drive bays above them.
That's it for now. Next pay cycle I'll probably buy a CPU. Since the CPU goes into the bottom of the case, it will be easier to install without drives in the drive bays.
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