Thanks for posting such an informative review. I'm going to (hopefully) buy a new PC and use this old PC as a Linux machine.
I've dabbled with some "live" linux distros, but it appears to me (and I may be wrong) that "Linux" is actually not an alternative OS so much as a BUNCH of alternative OS'es under the "Linux" umbrella. There's Red Hat, SuSe, Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc. etc....
The impression I get is that all these Linux builds are incompatible with each other, and that programs have to be compiled for each particular distro. If true, that's too complicated!
I've finally decided that I'm going to need to buy a new PC; this one is just too old (even though it was top-of-the-line back in the day), so I'm going to install some version of Linux on this machine. I just don't know which version!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
One issue that I had with repurposing an old laptop as a Linux machine (Ubuntu - I had them send me the free CD's for Mac and PC) was an issue of drivers. It did a good job with finding equivalents for most drivers, but others I simply couldn't get to work, like the critical internal wireless (I even tried a PCMCIA card as an alternative). That to me is going to be your biggest issue with repurposing an old machine, particularly a laptop, getting working drivers. On a fairly standard desktop it should be less on an issue. In fact, I still plan on converting one of my extra Mac RISC machines to a dual boot Ubuntu machine (or maybe a pure Ubuntu machine). I figure that should have far fewer issues.
So what did I do with that laptop? I just put a clean install of Windows XP on it, which it thinks is unauthorized, so no updates allowed. However, I was able to get drivers for everything, so it works as a bedroom laptop when I want to do some work in bed without bringing up my main laptop. It works beautifully for that (in fact, it's basically an Internet machine with only one or two small applications installed to really keep it indefinitely perky -- obviously the more stuff you install on a PC, particularly a Windows-based PC, the slower and more corrupt it can potentially get).
And you're right about incompatibilities between different versions of Linux, but if you install one of the standardized packages you should be fine, and in fact many of them automate a lot of those tasks, so it's not a major concern.
My last major Linux system was an EEE PC UMPC I recently sold to get the money for a Pandora (which will also run Linux). There's really nothing wrong with it and you don't need to be a Linux whiz to do the basics. In fact, most distributions come with a whole suite of applications.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Thanks for posting such an informative review. I'm going to (hopefully) buy a new PC and use this old PC as a Linux machine.
I've dabbled with some "live" linux distros, but it appears to me (and I may be wrong) that "Linux" is actually not an alternative OS so much as a BUNCH of alternative OS'es under the "Linux" umbrella. There's Red Hat, SuSe, Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc. etc....
The impression I get is that all these Linux builds are incompatible with each other, and that programs have to be compiled for each particular distro. If true, that's too complicated!
I've finally decided that I'm going to need to buy a new PC; this one is just too old (even though it was top-of-the-line back in the day), so I'm going to install some version of Linux on this machine. I just don't know which version!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
One issue that I had with repurposing an old laptop as a Linux machine (Ubuntu - I had them send me the free CD's for Mac and PC) was an issue of drivers. It did a good job with finding equivalents for most drivers, but others I simply couldn't get to work, like the critical internal wireless (I even tried a PCMCIA card as an alternative). That to me is going to be your biggest issue with repurposing an old machine, particularly a laptop, getting working drivers. On a fairly standard desktop it should be less on an issue. In fact, I still plan on converting one of my extra Mac RISC machines to a dual boot Ubuntu machine (or maybe a pure Ubuntu machine). I figure that should have far fewer issues.
So what did I do with that laptop? I just put a clean install of Windows XP on it, which it thinks is unauthorized, so no updates allowed. However, I was able to get drivers for everything, so it works as a bedroom laptop when I want to do some work in bed without bringing up my main laptop. It works beautifully for that (in fact, it's basically an Internet machine with only one or two small applications installed to really keep it indefinitely perky -- obviously the more stuff you install on a PC, particularly a Windows-based PC, the slower and more corrupt it can potentially get).
And you're right about incompatibilities between different versions of Linux, but if you install one of the standardized packages you should be fine, and in fact many of them automate a lot of those tasks, so it's not a major concern.
My last major Linux system was an EEE PC UMPC I recently sold to get the money for a Pandora (which will also run Linux). There's really nothing wrong with it and you don't need to be a Linux whiz to do the basics. In fact, most distributions come with a whole suite of applications.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.