I guess I wasn't clear. I'm done with APC. After two units charging circuits failed catastrophically (one destroyed >$200 of brand new batteries), and both could have lit my house on fire I no longer trust APC. Period. They continued to attempt charging full batteries--which got bloated, started venting, and got nearly melting hot.
I haven't used UPS software on my desktop in ages, but I imagine nut can do it--and if not I can always write my own if the need arose. My power outages are usually sub-minute brown-outs. Occasionally I've had longer, but with a journalled fs it isn't too big a deal for just a desktop to go down if it runs out. Directv DVRs don't handle power outages very well though, I must say. I'm not sure what fs they use, but I've had it lose some, and all recordings, and then a few resets later have some or all of them magically reappear. Not to mention the excruciatingly slow boot times (5-10 *minutes*--*windows* boots faster--ouch!). Annoyingly, they don't have an actual off button so you can safely power them down to move them. Design fail. I would still use an APC in a data center environment--mounted in metal racks above fire-proof floors I wouldn't worry about them venting gas or getting hot when they fail. But not in my home on my wood floor or in my carpeted office. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
