Linux install

gufcfan

Ok, I have an old PC that I discarded for my brand new piece of junk less than a year ago.

I would like to install linux on it to see what all the fuss is about.

I'm under the impression that Linux is far less resource hungry than windows...

The PC is ancient, it's probably 700Mhz and 64Mb Ram or something.

Don't ask me about graphics... It's not on-board graphics but from the spec of the machine, one could take an educated guess what it might be.

The HD is likely in the region of 20gb.

So do any of you think it is worth trying?

I haven't a clue where to start to be honest but I'm willing to give it a lash.

vibe666

check out Xubuntu it's an offshoot of Ubuntu designed for lower spec PC's which will give you a handy intro into the world of Linux.

If your PC is still not up to the task then you could try DSL or Puppy Linux, both of which will run on old PC's and can even be booted straight from CD or a USB memory stick (altho some older PC's won't boot from USB) if you want to try it before you jump right in and re-format. Both of the above are a little light on the fancy graphics side of things, but aside from that they are pretty similar to other more powerful verisons of Linux and will get the job done in an office productivity, surfing the net and checking emails kind of way.

I had always been a Windows person, from Win 3.1 back in the day through to XP now, and although I'd tried linux many times over the years (I'm a true geek at heart, so Linux seemed like a good idea to me) I never managed to get far enough with it as it was always installed on a dual boot system so it was always too easy to go back to windows when I got frustrated with Linux.

A year or so ago I made a conscious decision to FORCE Linux to work for me, so I ditched windows completely (no more dual booting and only my g/f's laptop with XP on it (which I'm shortly going to change to Ubuntu very soon anyway) and my work PC is still XP, but I'm looking for ways of fixing that too.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that it's easy to fall back to Windows and a lot of people trying to migrate to Linux do go back to their old Windozy ways because they get stuck, but please bear with it, Linux can be very rewarding if you'll just give it a good chance.

Oh, and if you do get stuck, feel free to ask in here, we're always keen to liberate others from their Windozy ways.

P.S. don't forget, you'll need to refer to Windows as "windoze" from now on too, or we won't know what you're talking about.

croo

I often hear of people who, wondering what all the fuss is about, install linux on some "ancient" pc and are disappointed by what they see.
A great benefit to linux is that it will actually run on this ancient hardware but to really see what all the fuss is about I think you'd do better to install something like ubuntu on some nice modern hardware, with even a basic modern graphics card you can enable the enhance desktop effects that great a very impressive UI. So do keep this mind if you find linux sluggish or uninspiring on your old hardware.

Another possibility is ubuntu can run as a "live cd", i.e. it will run from the cd without needing to actually install. This can be a great way to see what all the fuss is about on modern hardware. Even still it will naturally be slower as it's running from the CD & the enhanced desktop effects would not be enabled but it's a good way to evaluate

oscarBravo

vibe666 wrote: »

check out Xubuntu it's an offshoot of Ubuntu designed for lower spec PC's which will give you a handy intro into the world of Linux.

I've installed xubuntu on a laptop with 128M, and it's still painful. I actually reckon it would be OK with 256, until you try to run any actual apps.

vibe666 wrote: »

A year or so ago I made a conscious decision to FORCE Linux to work for me, so I ditched windows completely (no more dual booting and only my g/f's laptop with XP on it (which I'm shortly going to change to Ubuntu very soon anyway) and my work PC is still XP, but I'm looking for ways of fixing that too.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that it's easy to fall back to Windows and a lot of people trying to migrate to Linux do go back to their old Windozy ways because they get stuck, but please bear with it, Linux can be very rewarding if you'll just give it a good chance.

I switched several years ago, and won't be switching back. I have a couple of apps that still need Windows (Ulster Bank business banking, grr) but VirtualBox takes care of those.

gufcfan

croo wrote: »

I often hear of people who, wondering what all the fuss is about, install linux on some "ancient" pc and are disappointed by what they see.
A great benefit to linux is that it will actually run on this ancient hardware but to really see what all the fuss is about I think you'd do better to install something like ubuntu on some nice modern hardware, with even a basic modern graphics card you can enable the enhance desktop effects that great a very impressive UI. So do keep this mind if you find linux sluggish or uninspiring on your old hardware.

I have a great hatred from Microsoft deep within my soul. My lack of knowledge of linux doesnt cloud my ability to look at the situation objectively.

I dare not do anything with my main computer as it is enough trouble as it is (Vista, don't ****ing ask...)

The old pc i'm trying out linux on is ancient but it is just to give myself the oportunity to use linux. Flashy graphical effects hold no sway over me in any case. I switched off all that Vista crap as soon as I could when I switched it on, on day one.

If I could get the linux guinea-pig machine to work at all, I would be happy. I could use it for word processing and net and the like while the evil:mad: VISTA machine is tied up with something or someone.

At the very least the whole experience will be able to give me some perspective when I read stuff about Linux on the web.

My mother is doing a media studies course and probably knows more than me about Linux. That is a very scary thought...

Quick question also, would it be easy/complicated/advisable to dual-boot Vista with some form of Linux, considering i'm a noob in the field.

I'd love to see what it can do, but I'll stick the piece of crap PC for now...

croo

gufcfan wrote: »

The old pc i'm trying out linux on is ancient but it is just to give myself the oportunity to use linux. Flashy graphical effects hold no sway over me in any case. I switched off all that Vista crap as soon as I could when I switched it on, on day one.

great then you should not be disappointed.
I actually run linux on a number of very old 500Mhz up machines, without any GUI, to provide things like firewall & and network services like file & printer servers. These days there are many small devices with embedded linux that could probably do the same only using less electricity & taking up less space
But it has been a valuable learning experience setting them up.

gufcfan wrote: »

If I could get the linux guinea-pig machine to work at all, I would be happy.

well then I would second vibe666's advice and look to the distributions he mentions. Try a few to see if you have a preference.

gufcfan wrote: »

Quick question also, would it be easy/complicated/advisable to dual-boot Vista with some form of Linux, considering i'm a noob in the field.

I don't have any vista machine to actually confirm personally that all works without but problem, but I see no reason why not. I do run one XP machine (a laptop) with dual boot without any problems.
The unbuntu version of linux I installed can actually read the windows disk too, so swapping files between both is easy too...
Have a read of this and see how complicated you think it is... http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first

Also it is possible to get a version of the DSL ("Damn Small Linux") vibe666 mentions on a USB key that you can then plug into any machine to boot it in linux!! remove the key and it will reboot in windows (or whatever OS it was running) again. You can install DSL on the USB key yourself or buy a key with DSL pre-installed on it.

good luck

oscarBravo

I got this PC last week with Vista pre-installed. I downloaded the alpha-6 release of Ubuntu 8.04 and installed it - it took less than half an hour and went flawlessly, including resizing the Vista partition.

The official release of 8.04 will be towards the end of April.

vibe666

nice one oscarBravo, glad it went well for you. I've installed and re-installed so many apps over the top of each other in my Ubuntu 7.10 install (due to the learning curve and wanting to keep trying everything new) that I could do with a fresh start so I'll give 8.04 a go in April.

as for windows partitions, if you're stuck, or use a lot of fat32 or ntfs USB drives that need mounting/unmounting with RW permissions (like I do) then there's a debian package of disk manager http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/ that does a great job of that sort of thing. i have it as one of my 'must have' apps. i couldn't do without it, I hate manually mounting stuff and trying to get the various file systems to work properly and this takes care of it all.

ethernet

vibe666 wrote: »

nice one oscarBravo, glad it went well for you. I've installed and re-installed so many apps over the top of each other in my Ubuntu 7.10 install (due to the learning curve and wanting to keep trying everything new) that I could do with a fresh start so I'll give 8.04 a go in April.

as for windows partitions, if you're stuck, or use a lot of fat32 or ntfs USB drives that need mounting/unmounting with RW permissions (like I do) then there's a debian package of disk manager http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/ that does a great job of that sort of thing. i have it as one of my 'must have' apps. i couldn't do without it, I hate manually mounting stuff and trying to get the various file systems to work properly and this takes care of it all.

Wise waiting for 8.04 seeing as it will have long-term support (LTS). You could go an inplace upgrade from 7.10 to 8.04 however but it's always safer to keep things simple.

Is Ubuntu mounting your FAT(32) partitions without write permissions?

vibe666

ethernet wrote: »

Is Ubuntu mounting your FAT(32) partitions without write permissions?

it was, until I found this little gem: http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/

allows for automation of all those tedious disk mounting issues for fat32 and ntfs disks. tis a godsend, 10/10.