Palm based GTD on a Mac using Linux

This old G3 is now using Ubuntu. I have a lot of disks for linux installs on both PC and Macs. I've never gotten one to connect to the internet before. It's a pleasure to finally have one up and running. I'm going to type up my notes, so if anyone has a G3 and wants to give it a try, I'd be happy to share.

This all started because of Goodwill. The new Goodwill by my house gets a lot of good computer stuff. There's a fair amount of Mac stuff too. The problem is, when I get it home, that I can't come up with the drivers for it. There's the ongoing issue of what will run on the version of the OS I'm using. I realize this is a non-issue if you can afford to update your hardware and operating system when the new stuff comes out. I can't and I hate the idea that I have to throw away good stuff to put more money in Steve Jobs' pocket. I tried installed Yellow Dog Linux a few weeks back. In fairness to them, I didn't use their CDs and I think I had bad copies. It was an older distro too. So I could get just a bare minimum to install. It was able to find the modem but wouldn't connect. While surfing the web at work, I found the instructions to install Ubuntu. I'd already gotten the disks from them and was anxious to try it. So the weekend was spent hacking my Mac. I have a couple of 10GB hard drives, so I could leave my OS X drive alone and install on a new one.

I like it a lot. When I added an old HP printer, I had to download 40MB of drivers, which took a long time on my dialup. The drivers were built in to this distro and it works just fine. I have a nice graphical ftp program built in. I even like Evolution, the Outlook clone. My Palm syncs, with a minimum of fussing. I finally have usable programs and it seems like a larger base of drivers. I don't think I'll be going back. When I upgrade the hardware, I may go back to PCs. The hardware is cheaper after all. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

One of the changes I may be making is the use of Tasks or ToDos on my Palm. Evolution has this nice display of Tasks in the program. It even gives you a drop down menu of them when you right click on the date and time on the menu bar. I haven't been using them but I think I will now. I also can see that I'll be moving towards a plain vanilla system. I like having the memos accessible from a real text editor. I don't miss the Palm desktop at all.