Sharing files between Linux and Windows

Janina Sajka janina at rednote.net
Thu Jul 7 11:46:42 UTC 2016 

Hi Again, John:

A ten year old machine is certainly something you've gotten good use of! 
Most people don't keep their machines that long, except perhaps those of
us running Linux. My oldest just now is my 2008 era Thinkpad X61s
laptop. I'm personally considering between a few fixes to it vs
something new.

If you decide on something new for yourself, I would strongly encourage
you not to just buy some machine off the shelf. Instead, since you have
a good Linux shop where you live, I would strongly suggest deciding
component by component on what you want in your machine. This is not
only more fun, it'll get you your next 10 year machine far more readily.

You might look at:

*	The case. I chose an Antec P280 case when I built my current
*	office tower a few years ago. My reasons were the flexibility,
*	mainly. The case provides lots of ports, lots of room for any
*	size mother board, and lots of room for drives and devices.

*	A hefty power supply. I'd bet you'll get a far better power
*	supply if you spec your new machine yourself, then if you buy
*	something off the shelf, and a good power supply matters.

*	You want to choose the mother board carefully. You want well
*	implemented UEFI, and you want to be sure it provides all the
*	slots you need for any peripherals. If you still need a serial
*	port, this is where you make sure you can have that. I had a
*	problem with this a few years ago because I needed three
*	traditional PCI slots, and that wasn't easy to find. You do want
*	a board that's known to run Linux well, so plan to check that
*	out on line, and be sure to get your shop's advice on this
*	component.

*	Choose the CPU. I would avoid the very latest, because they
*	still have a bleeding edge price--unless, of course, you just
*	won the lottery and price doesn't matter! <grin> Instead, I'd
*	consider models between 6-12 months on the market. You'll still
*	get lots of power, but you'll get it at a better price. My only
*	big tip here is to be sure to get lots of L2 cache. To me that's
*	almost more important than clock speed.

*	Lots of RAM. Put in as much RAM as you can afford. Fill every
*	slot. You won't be sorry. Again, as with the CPU, don't go for
*	the current top of line memory, but something that's been around
*	a little while. And, go for more Gb rather than speed. The goal
*	should be as much Gb of RAM as you can put into your mb, without
*	breaking the bank. I would expect these days that would be at
*	least 32Gb, maybe even 64Gb, and I wouldn't expect to pay more
*	than a couple hundred for that much. Now, I haven't shopped
*	recently, but I'm willing to bet 32Gb for around $200 is
*	reasonable these days.

*	The one device I'd consider a small splurge on would be a PCIX
*	hard drive. Again, you don't want to break the bank, but these
*	drives are becoming affordable, and they are significantly
*	faster than even traditional SATA connected SSD drives. I would
*	look for something in the 128Gb to 256Gb range -- just enough to
*	comfrotabely and speedily run Linux and, if you need, Windows
*	10.

*	At least two, maybe more, traditional SATA hard drives with
*	large storage capacities to store your data and your backups.
*	When choosing, be sure to look for multi-Tb drives with lots of
*	caching, at least 64Mb caching, I should think. Last time I
*	shopped for drives was some years ago, so my specific knowledge
*	is dated, but I am satisfied with the results. I got 2Tb drives
*	with 32Mb cache for just over $100 each some three years ago.
*	I'm sure you can do much better for the same money today.

Lastly, I'd have your shop build the machine for you. You choose the
parts with their help, and our help here on list, but they can put it
together. They do that all the time, and it's worth it to get everything
connected right the first time.

What would I expect to pay for this fabulous, personally designed tower?
My estimate would be somewhere around $1,500 to $1,800 tops. Maybe less,
as I say, I haven't shopped this list recently. But, it is the list I
would follow were I building a machine today.

Yes, you can buy of the shelf for much less. But, there would be
trade-offs, and those might not be trade-offs that serve you well. Going
according to this plan you can update only selected pieces over the
years to come to update. For instance, it's likely I'd keep my Antec
case were I to throw everything else out and start over--not that I'm
thinking of doing that by any means.

Actually, the only enhancement I'm thinking of for my current office
tower is one of those PCIX drives as mentioned above. My OS is currently
on an OCZ Agility 60Gb SATA connected SSD that I paid $60 for some 4-5
years ago. It's been a fabulous drive for me and it's still working
flawlessly. The only reason I'm even considering replacing it is the
much, much faster performance of a drive that talks to the CPU over
PCIX.

Hope this helps, John. Don't hesitate to discuss this here on list.

Janina


John J. Boyer writes:
> I have Windows 7. However, I'm thinking of buying a Windows 10 machine. 
> My present Linux machine fails intermittently with various error 
> messages. Since it is intermittent it could be very hard to diagnose. 
> The 
> machine is ten years old, so buying a new one might be the best idea.
> 
> John
> 
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2016 at 01:25:11PM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > Well, now that I've spoken up for samba, let me amend my thoughts
> > slightly ...
> > 
> > Yes, I think nfs would be easier, but I've usually run into problems
> > getting nfs supported on Windows when I've tried to do that.
> > 
> > However, now that bash and apt-get has come to Windows 10, maybe this
> > will get much easier? That's worth exploring, imo.
> > 
> > PS: I'm not aware the Windows 10 update which provides bash and apt-get
> > is out yet, but it's due very soon, if not already out.
> > 
> > Janina
> > 
> > Phil Rigby writes:
> > > I recommend using NFS server in Windows to serve the share to the Linux
> > > client and Linux will be fine. Just mount it somewhere on your Linux
> > > directory tree using NFS. Much easier than fiddling around with Samba. Lots
> > > of free Windows NFS server sw out there and even comes as part of certain
> > > windows versionns. Have a google.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Phil.
> > >  
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: blinux-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:blinux-list-bounces at redhat.com]
> > > On Behalf Of John J. Boyer
> > > Sent: 05 July 2016 19:33
> > > To: blinux-list at redhat.com
> > > Subject: Sharing files between Linux and Windows
> > > 
> > > I'm going to set up a folder called c:\share on my Windows machine. I want
> > > to set up a device on my Linux machine which is connected with this folder
> > > over my LAN. I know that this can be done, because I had something similar
> > > at one time. However, i'm not certain how to do it again. If I remember, it
> > > just took an entry in fstab and an entry in /dev. Thanks.
> > > 
> > > John
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > John J. Boyer; President,
> > > AbilitiesSoft, Inc.
> > > Email: john.boyer at abilitiessoft.org
> > > Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org
> > > Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit
> > > Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA
> > > Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with 
> > >          disabilities which are available at no cost.
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Blinux-list mailing list
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> > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
> > 			sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net
> > 		Email:	janina at rednote.net
> > 
> > Linux Foundation Fellow
> > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org
> > 
> > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list at redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> -- 
> John J. Boyer; President,
> AbilitiesSoft, Inc.
> Email: john.boyer at abilitiessoft.org
> Website: http://www.abilitiessoft.org
> Status: 501(C)(3) Nonprofit
> Location: Madison, Wisconsin USA
> Mission: To develop softwares and provide STEM services for people with 
>          disabilities which are available at no cost.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina at rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

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