Setup for this Aerospace Engineer.

I like my system. I've had it for more than 2 years now. Yeah it's not the fastest machine out there but I've not felt the need for a faster system yet. Here's a little run down of what I run.

Hardware:
Dell Latitude D620 laptop.

Intel Core2 Duo T7200. 2Ghz x 2 | 64 bit.
2 GB ram.
100 GB 7200RPM HDD.
1440x900 14.1" wide screen.
NVidia graphic card with some built-in ram etc.
Other stuff includes BT, Cellular, Wifi, dvdrw, and other irrelevant stuff.
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OS: Linux - Ubuntu 9.04 x64.

Software:

OpenOffice: This is the alternative to MS Office. I like the format, and the fact that certain things are closer to LaTEX in formatting. You can open any MS Office document in OpenOffice. Converting equations from OpenOffice to MS Office messes them up. More information on: http://www.openoffice.org/

OpenOffice is available in the linux repositories, and is installed in the default installation of Ubuntu 9.04.

SciLab: It's a scientific / mathematical software, an alternative to Matlab.
Yes, I used to work on Matlab when I had access to it. I think it's overpriced and I had to switch to Scilab for windows. Now I'm using Scilab for Linux. Here's more information about Scilab. http://www.scilab.org/

Scilab is in the repositories. In order to enjoy full functionality of scilab it's imperative that the original NVidia graphics drivers are installed. I'll jot down how to do that later.

It can be installed by the command : sudo apt-get install scilab


Octave & QtOctave: Another high level language for numerical computations. It's easy to use, and is compatible with Matlab. Here's more information on Octave: http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/about.html

QtOctave is octave with a nice front-end designed in Trolltech's QT language.

It's available in the repositories. Installation is by : sudo apt-get install qtoctave

In order to enjoy full functionality one must install gnuplot (sudo apt-get install gnuplot)


OpenFOAM and ParaView.

I will cover these two softwares in my next blog. Till that time I shall chat with some friends on pidgin, and call some folks up using qutecom VOIP phone.