Gigastrand Wants to Give You a Computer...REALLY!

Gigastrand wants to give you a computer for FREE.

You read that right, Gigastrand wants to give you a refurbished PC pre-loaded with the Gigastrand OS 2.0. It includes a DVD drive, wireless keyboard and mouse, and other specifications selected at random.

This also includes 2 hours of Gigastrand Support to help you get it set up and answer any questions you may have as well as a 1 year hardware warranty.

What do you have to do?
1. Contact Gigastrand International via our contact form expressing that you are interested. (No phone calls for this as you might not be processed.)
2. Fill out the form. A link will be sent to you via e-mail.
3. You will be directed to a site where a $48 processing fee will be assessed to help defray the costs of the program. If a PC is not available, we will add you to a waiting list and you will not have to pay anything until one is available.
4. You can keep the PC as long as you run Gigastrand OS exclusively on it. You are allowed to run other OSes in Virtual box if necessary but the main OS should stay Gigastrand.
5. After 6 months you may opt out of the program by simply sending us an e-mail. The computer is yours to keep and do with as you wish from that point on.
6. Other details will be laid out in the form. 

We cannot guarantee the type, speed, brand or any other specification except the computer will be able to run the Gigastrand OS. 

Interested?

Contact us and we will get you started right away!

MR GB

PC or PoC: Server Update

So...

I recently realized that the operating system on my server was an updated version of Gigastrand OS Alpha .04.                

Now that we have released 2.0 (almost a year and a half after Alpha .04), I figured it was about time to upgrade. If I didn't I might lose my geek cred.

Nothing hardware-wise will change. just the OS. I anticipate an uneventful migration.

MR GB

Gigastrand OS Release Dates Revised

Gigastrand OS is releasing a final bug-fix for 1.0 this week. Gigastrand OS 1.2 will remove Google Chrome and Chromium while adding auto-update capabilities to Firefox and Thunderbird. Some minor cosmetic changes and updates will also be a part of the package.

Gigastrand OS 2.0 is an upgrade to version 1.0. It uses a newer Debian base, Linux kernel, and KDE version. This version may not be compatible with some older systems, but has a fully-functioning version of Google Chrome, Choqok (for Twitter), and many other additions.

A previous blog post put the release for Gigastrand OS 2.0 as 07/01/2014. With the addition of the release of OS 1.2, Gigastrand has revised the release dates for Gigastrand OS as follows:

Gigastrand OS 1.2 retail boxes are shipping 06/25/2014
Gigastrand OS 2.0 pre-orders will ship this week. Estimated ship date: 06/25/2014
Gigastrand OS 1.2 ISO download will be available 07/01/2014
Gigastrand OS 2.0 ISO download will be available 07/14/2014

Gigastrand will continue to provide support for 1.0 users for the foreseeable future. Gigastrand OS 1.x has the ability to run on much older hardware than newer versions so it will continue to be supported for users of older PCs.

MR GB

Gigastrand OS: 2.0 Release date announced.

Gigastrand OS 2.0 will be released July 1st.

The development of this Debian 7 / KDE based OS is being fast-tracked for release July 1st. Much of the testing and development has been done during the development of Gigastrand 1.0 allowing this development cycle to be shortened.

Gigastrand will continue to support 1.0 users for the foreseeable future and will continue to be available for download on the Gigastrand OS site. Once 2.0 is released, 1.0 will no longer be available from the Gigastrand Store (gigastrand.biz).

Gigastrand is also discontinuing the single-disc versions of the Gigastrand OS and will only offer retail boxes in 2.0. Downloads of 2.0 and bootable USB drives will still be offered.

MR GB

PC or PoC: Original Gigastrand PADD

The Gigastrand P. A. D. D. (Personal android display device) was a 7 inch android tablet and the first android tablet Gigastrand sold. I personally own the first and last original Gigastrand P.A.D.D. in Gigastrand's possession.

When it first came out it was a rival for the Kindle fire. Now, it seems that Google has left it behind. Many of the programs that once worked are no longer compatible with this unit. It still runs Android 4.0 but only as an Arm A8 cortex processor while most modern tablets are running at least an A10.

Despite these shortcomings, I did use this tablet for some light work. There really are no options for upgrades – it is a tablet after all. 

I have since upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" from Verizon. It has replaced one of my smartphones and -except for the size - trumps carrying an Android smartphone. The battery life is exceptional, it is $30 a month cheaper, and it does everything a smartphone does - except make calls.

MR GB 

PC or PoC: Asus Laptop

When people see this laptop they are amazed at the size and capability of this tablet sized PC. It has an Intel atom processor a touchscreen and 2 GB of memory. Its main hard drive is 16 GB with an expansion slot for an additional 16 GB. I've tried using 32 GB in the expansion slot however it does not recognize anything above 16.

This originally came with windows XP home and of course the touchscreen and all of the special features worked. With the Windows video driver this tiny 10.1 inch screen could do 1024x768. However, in Linux, the best the screen will do is 800x600 resolution. This required me to get creative with the configuration in the Gigastrand OS. The first thing I had to do was reduce the font size for the operating system. Then I had to install QT style for GTK. This allowed font resizing for most of my installed programs.

One of the really neat things about this laptop is that it is powered off of 12V rather than the usual 19 V of most laptops. This allowed me to go down to my local RadioShack and pick up a simple car charger for it. So rather than having to run the inverter I can simply plug it into a cigarette lighter outlet in my car.

The laptop's hard drive is solid-state which gives us laptop a slight performance boost. Despite its diminutive size I find that it works well for most things.

This laptop has been perfect for field work because of its size and voltage requirements. Once I ditched Windows in favor of the Gigastrand OS, despite one or two shortcomings, this laptop works nearly as well or better than when it was running Windows.

There isn't much in the way of upgrades that can be done to this computer. At 2 GB the memory is maxed out, I am not entirely sure if the hard drive can be upgraded all, and I have purchased a Samsung external DVD burner with light scribe so that I have a way to load software and burn discs. The DVD player could not be USB powered as it would've required using both USB ports in order to fully power an external player. So the DVD burner comes with its own transformer and plugs into the wall. Additionally, if the DVD burner develops a fault, the drive itself can be replaced without replacing the entire unit.

However, when I recently tried to upgrade the laptop to a 64Gb SSD, there was a problem. The laptop just decided to not power up any more. Now, it is being repurposed as a non-working concept machine.

MR GB

Gigastrand Security: Now a Licensed Alarm installer.

Gigastrand Security engineers and develops its own line of PC-based video security systems. They are designed to be scalable and upgradeable potentially making them the last security system you will ever have to buy. This has made them rather popular with nearly a dozen systems installed in the last year. 

These video systems integrate well with alarm systems therefore it was only natural to integrate alarm system sales and installation to Gigastrand Security offerings. Over the next few weeks, we will be adding and updating the Gigastrand Security site with alarm products and services.

Most alarm systems require a hard wired phone line or cellular line to connect the alarm panel. Gigastrand panels can accept a phone line but we specialize in Internet-connected alarm systems and monitoring.

For more information go to gigastrandsecurity.com

MR GB