Lately, I’ve decided that my computer should be doing something.

When on the computer, I just surf the web, listen to music, and watch video. (That’s all I bought it for.) It’s not CPU intensive or working to it’s full capacity. Often, I allow the computer to run when I’m not using it directly. I bittorrent overnight, but still the computer isn’t really doing anything. I’m not using any CPU power or being productive. Until, now!

I decided to do some folding.

Folding@Home is a project from Stanford University that uses millions of networked PCs to form a supercomputer for protein folding simulations. The client software is loaded on a PC, it contacts the central servers, and receives “work units”. The client then runs on spare CPU time, and uploads finished work units to the server. ~Folding@Home

I first set it up using Windows. The client was hassle free, but then I watched my folding in progress. I realized that folding my protein would take hours (or days) to finish. I don’t like using Windows for that long. So, I had to research the Ubuntu alternative.

With Ubuntu, I dread installing anything that’s not in the Package Manager (automated installer). It’s a bit of a hassle to find an up to date tutorial, and I’m not a linux wizard. Luckily, installing the folding program didn’t take too long (~2 hours).

This is protein p2526_AM22-43. Thus far, it’s taken a day for my P4 3GHz Dual Core CPU to get half way through this beast. But, now, I can actually put my computer to work for something useful.