Lubuntu linux

[Analoguesat]

Ive been playing with Lubuntu Linux for a few days on a decrepit old laptop I was given a while back. Its eventually going to be handed over to a young single mother I know to replace a very battered old laptop (screen hinges snapped off & screen held in place with gaffer tape!!)

Even though this laptop is very low spec indeed nowadays (an old Toshba Techra) Lubuntu runs most acceptably on it. Its also reasonably easy to set up and understand. Im typing this on another old laptop - a 10 year old Compaq Presario R3000 with just 760mb RAM which I have also put Lubuntu onto. It ticks most of my boxes so far - plug a pen drive in and it shows the file contents, & i can play my mp3s on it having loaded vlc player It did have an mp3 player installed but I know my way around vlc and it was good practise to install it from the software repositories. Its also worked out of the box not needed any buggering around with driver updates to get things working - although I do need to have a look at the screen res at some point as it maxes out at 1024*768 which looks huge these days

So if you have a really old computer lying around you would like to bring back into use boot it up with a lubuntu live dvd and have a look.

 

[dmaavrigdo]

I bought a new mini desktop with Windows already installed last week and was going to try to set it up to run Windows and Ubuntu but after two hours of swimming through treacle giving Windows a test drive I wiped the Windows 8.1 that came with it and installed my usual Ubuntu on its own.
Windows was so inquisitive.Before being allowed to use the computer it demanded that I open a Microsoft account and tried to find out all about me and get me to agree to have my behaviour monitored.

 

[excollier]

Linux has got you now......

 

[Analoguesat]

Nah - its a tool to fix up some old kit. I might try it on my main computer at some point but it'll be on a different hard drive so I can switch back again easily if it goes t*ts up.

 

[Lazarus]

I'm glad you've finally found a Distro that meets with thine approval!

 

[Analoguesat]

I was going to put Mint on the 2 old laptops but they are so decrepit it wouldn't install!

 

[Analoguesat]

Update to this - I have been given an ~7 yr old Dell Dimension 5150 desktop which had got royally b*ggered up. So I rescued the photos off it for the original owner, and wiped the drive. Ive put Mint 17.3 on it, and its going out to the aforementioned single mum to replace that woefully low powered Tosh Tecra I gave her at the beginning of the year. With 4gig of ram the 64 bit version installed nicely and the adding extra software seems to be friendlier then it was a few iteration points back.

 

[Analoguesat]

The only major issue (for me) that Ive found in my limited testing of Mint on a second similar machine with a proper graphics card is that the Mint Cinammon desktop crashes immediately if you try to run dual monitors on the one graphics card. DVI is fine. VGA is fine. Both kills the desktop. This is probably just a driver issue which could be solved in time

 

[statalite]

What programs would you recommend for the novice analoguesat.
I know vlc would be a good one, just wondering what else.

I'm about to install an ssd onto a netbook, as I installed Lubuntu onto a mechanical drive and it was still slow (still a minute to boot I think) so hopefully the ssd will help.

 

[Analoguesat]

SSD's are great - Ive fitted them into some old clunker network computers at work - boot time from press the button to ready to log on changed from 5 minutes to about a minute - and stopped my staff complaining about how awful these particular computers were to use.

Its definitely the biggest boost you can give an older computer.

VLC is an excellent prog on any platform - its incredibly powerful and most of us use about 10% of its capabilities.

 

[battenfan]

The only major issue (for me) that Ive found in my limited testing of Mint on a second similar machine with a proper graphics card is that the Mint Cinammon desktop crashes immediately if you try to run dual monitors on the one graphics card. DVI is fine. VGA is fine. Both kills the desktop. This is probably just a driver issue which could be solved in time

What graphics card is it? If it's a Nvidia, try their native binary driver rather than the open source Nouveau.