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Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:40 am Post subject: Linux?

Never played with anything but Windows before. I've got an ageing laptop and a small son who wants his own PC, essentially to send chain emails to his school friends, go on MSN, and play Club Penguin.

Is there something Linuxish that will allow him to do these things? Figuring it might run faster, cleaner, and be less susceptible to viruses without windows. Which version would people suggest, and where do it get it from? Or should I not bother?

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:43 am Post subject:
What's Club Penguin? Ubuntu will do the rest. How much memory does the laptop have?

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:45 am Post subject:
Do not show Club Penguin to your children Chez. Mine always forgot her login and her password and was forever having to sign up afresh.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:53 am Post subject:
There's quite a few people using Ubuntu here so I'd try that. This link goes through the requirements: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements And you can get it here: https://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:54 am Post subject:

Chez wrote:

What's Club Penguin?

Ubuntu will do the rest. How much memory does the laptop have?

Crack for under tens. Harmless enough, tho.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 9:55 am Post subject:
4GB HDD / 128Meg Ram. I could buy more RAM if needed, I guess.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 12:42 pm Post subject:

The problem with Linux is far too much choice newcomers. Basically, if it is theoretically possible a geek (or an on-line community of geeks) will have developed the software to do it. Quite a few have decided that out of date computers should be given a new lease of life with "light-weight" versions of Linux. I have used the light-weight version of Ubuntu on an old PC and quite liked it. It is called Xubuntu:

Minimum requirements

* 333 MHz processor
* 192 MB of system memory (RAM)
* At least 1.5 GB of disk space
* VGA graphics card

You can download it for free from here: https://www.xubuntu.org/news/9.04-release

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 2:11 pm Post subject:
Yep, I have downloaded that, following the earlier links. I'll see how it performs, and if it's too bad, I'll just stick it back to XP, which was fine, just likely to be vulnerable to him and virus attack type things. Also, was a tempting academic exercise for me to play and find out with no risk. Work may be less pleased if I install it on their shiny new PC. My VMware is already stretched.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 3:17 pm Post subject:
I should think you'll need to upgrade the memory a bit for it to work properly.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 09 5:05 pm Post subject:
Somebody recommended Puppy Linux to me as a slim line option, though I've not actually given it a try yet. Also, I have been quite impressed with Damn Small Linux, designed to run from a business card CD (<50MB). Don't know what either needs as system requirements, but one assumes it can't need too much.

skedone

Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 351
Location: essex inbetween a blue bit and a green bit

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 09 5:07 pm Post subject:
use damn small Linux its fast smaller and will do all the things he needs

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 09 5:38 pm Post subject:
A little bit of light reading: https://www.h-online.com/open/Linux-on-a-stick--/features/113545 This article lists the best known "light" versions of Linux, including Puppy and Damn Small.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 09 5:41 pm Post subject:
and I forgot to mention, it also includes "Systemrescue", its main use is to sort out Windows' "Blue Screen of Death"

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 09 6:19 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

and I forgot to mention, it also includes "Systemrescue", its main use is to sort out Windows' "Blue Screen of Death"

I still have a copy of Knoppix for those awkward moments on my Windows NTFS disks, although in fairness I haven't needed it for a while.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 09 9:36 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

and I forgot to mention, it also includes "Systemrescue", its main use is to sort out Windows' "Blue Screen of Death"

I haven't see one of those in a long time. However, Linux on CD is good if you can't remember the admin password on a Windows box, I needed to do this once and it got me out of am embarrassing hole.

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