How many users here are using Linux

[keachfan]

I switched to Linux after my Toshiba laptop of 5+ years grew slow and cluttered under XP. Currently I am using Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin previous to that I was using Linux Mint until they too grew to large for my old laptop. Are there any other Linux users here?

 

[th1bill]

yes Sir,
I have been running Ubuntu LTS since ´05 on both my desktops for the past five years and on my laptop for about a year now, I'm hooked! I loaded my 1995 latop with 64 meg of Ram and seven gig HD with Puppy 5.25 Linux and until it died of old age it ran faster than my desktop with four giig of RAM.

I have pushed Linux form six months after my first trial and found some older hardware not supporting the advanced versions of Ubuntu and as a result I tested Simply Mepis/Linux and now load this on anything that eill not support Ubuntu.

 

[Magnetic Poles]

I use Linux Mint on one of my PCs.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Dumb Question... what are the advantages. I have an older cluttered laptop my wife uses. Can this be cleared out & adapted?

Thanks

 

[Magnetic Poles]

Dumb Question... what are the advantages. I have an older cluttered laptop my wife uses. Can this be cleared out & adapted?

Thanks

Linux is definitely leaner and will add new life to an old PC. That said, a lot depends on how old it actually is. The good news is you can try download and try out several distributions (versions of Linux) without even installing. I'd start with Linux Mint. It has all the codecs for a great out of the box experience. You boot from the CD and try it out, and if it works, then install from within that desktop. It will only be faster once installed on the HDD.

For really old hardware, or limited power PCs, you can get a minimal distro like Puppy Linux. It will run on older machines, no problem.

 

[A Faithful Sidekick]

<raises hand> Me too!

Beginning with Linux Mint, then exploring other Linux distributions from Crunchbang, Debian, Ubuntu, and Mepis to PCLinuxOS and SalixOS (a slackware derivative). When I have time to "test drive" Linux distros it's kinda fun.

Currently using my "old standby," my "fallback distro," Xubuntu (12.04). It brought better-than-new speed to my 9-year-old, hand-me-down Dell Dimension, despite it's paltry little 512 mb of RAM.

-Robin

 

[Jkdbuck76]

I have Maverick Meerkat on an old PC using the Wubi.

I have Xubuntu 11.10 and DSL and Puppy on a my work PC via VWWare Player.

Folks, if you have an old PC that is slow, boot up a Linux distro (or do the live CD) and you'll be amazed at how fast it goes.

Just make sure that if you're using a wireless internet connection that you pick a distro that will support it. Also, play around with the different desktops---I prefer Xfce over Unity and all others. But that's me....

 

[just-want-peace]

OK folks, you've sparked my interest!!!!!!

I have a, roughly, 5-6 yr old desktop that I've come pretty close to trying out a sledge-hammer on, and this talk of using a new OS to cure(?) many problems is intriguing to me.

First off, where do I get this "Linux" cure,& how much does it cost?
Can I still run all the MS programs like WORD etc?
Is it difficult to install and set up? (My 'puter skills are approx. a "4" on a scale of 1-10; 10 being expert.)
Can I still use any hardware now in use?

If something like this will solve my problem, to me, it will be as wonderful as "orthopedic surgery" was to medicine.

Thanks!!:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

[Magnetic Poles]

OK folks, you've sparked my interest!!!!!!

I have a, roughly, 5-6 yr old desktop that I've come pretty close to trying out a sledge-hammer on, and this talk of using a new OS to cure(?) many problems is intriguing to me.

First off, where do I get this "Linux" cure,& how much does it cost?
Can I still run all the MS programs like WORD etc?
Is it difficult to install and set up? (My 'puter skills are approx. a "4" on a scale of 1-10; 10 being expert.)
Can I still use any hardware now in use?

If something like this will solve my problem, to me, it will be as wonderful as "orthopedic surgery" was to medicine.

Thanks!!:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

Here, let this victim of a fatal disease lend you a hand. :thumbsup:

You can download various "distributions" of Linux online, totally free. I recommend Linux Mint as it includes all multimedia codecs for a seamless out-of-the-box experience. You get it at http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php. Ubuntu is available at http://www.ubuntu.com/download.

Once you download it, don't just copy it to a CD, but rather use your burning software to burn an image file. If you need one for Windows, a good one is at http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home, and is also free.

Once you burn the image to CD, reboot your PC and go into the firmware setup. Watch the screen..usually F12 or F2 or other key. Then find the boot order and make your CD the first boot drive and the hard drive second choice. Put the CD in the drive and reboot from the CD. It will probably let you run the Linux system from the CD to insure everything is working. There will be an icon for a hard drive install which is faster than running on CD. During setup, you can choose to use the entire drive, or dual-boot Linux and Windows.

To run Windows software, you can use WINE which comes with Linux, but it is not perfect. Or download VirtualBox for free and run Windows in a virtual machine, or just dual boot. Best to find a substitute native Linux program. For MS Office, most people do fine with what comes with Linux for free...OpenOffice or its derivative, LibreOffice. Handles MS Office files just fine. There are tons of free programs in the software manager that you can download, all free of charge.

Give it a try, and good luck. Let me know if you need help.

MP

 

[Jereynolds]

I currently use Ubuntu on one of my laptops but have bumped around from Linux Mint, Xubuntu, lubuntu, Jolicloud, fedora and a few others...kind of a hobby to test different distros. Just make sure you really want to get rid of windows and not dual boot if you decide to become totally committed to Linux...I did this on my netbook and kind of wish I had windows back for a few things.

 

[Jereynolds]

Here, let this victim of a fatal disease lend you a hand. :thumbsup:

You can download various "distributions" of Linux online, totally free. I recommend Linux Mint as it includes all multimedia codecs for a seamless out-of-the-box experience. You get it at http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php. Ubuntu is available at http://www.ubuntu.com/download.

Once you download it, don't just copy it to a CD, but rather use your burning software to burn an image file. If you need one for Windows, a good one is at http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home, and is also free.

Once you burn the image to CD, reboot your PC and go into the firmware setup. Watch the screen..usually F12 or F2 or other key. Then find the boot order and make your CD the first boot drive and the hard drive second choice. Put the CD in the drive and reboot from the CD. It will probably let you run the Linux system from the CD to insure everything is working. There will be an icon for a hard drive install which is faster than running on CD. During setup, you can choose to use the entire drive, or dual-boot Linux and Windows.

To run Windows software, you can use WINE which comes with Linux, but it is not perfect. Or download VirtualBox for free and run Windows in a virtual machine, or just dual boot. Best to find a substitute native Linux program. For MS Office, most people do fine with what comes with Linux for free...OpenOffice or its derivative, LibreOffice. Handles MS Office files just fine. There are tons of free programs in the software manager that you can download, all free of charge.

Give it a try, and good luck. Let me know if you need help.

MP

You can also download the iso to a usb using wubi

 

[Magnetic Poles]

One more thing...older hardware is actually more likely to have drivers. The good thing is that you can run from the CD to test it all out and make sure everything runs as expected without touching your current Windows installation.

 

[exscentric]

I have toyed with it for years and found it to be way above my learning curve, but recently used wubi again to set up a dual boot of Ubuntu on a vista laptop and found it much more user friendly. I was able to install wine and then esword without a bunch of hoops to jump through. Last time I tired esword it took quite some time reading through instructions, steps and hoops to get it installed then more to get it to work

I have to much windows stuff to make a switch but would definitely recommend Linux for young people getting started as well as folks that are sick and tired of microsoft.

I find most of the freeware available quite acceptable and definitely cheaper