Tue 4 Mar 2008
Yesterday, a friend of mine gave me an old laptop because I’m too cheap to buy a new one. It’s a Dell Inspiron 2500, a Celeron computer that was struggling with the Windows XP OS installed on it. The first thing I did was, of course, format the computer and reinstall XP on it. It gave it a little boost but nothing to write a blog post about.
Then, while chatting online with another friend, I explained my predicament to him. He suggested I install Ubuntu on the laptop. Now I’ve heard about Ubuntu before and many a friend and co-worker has tried to convert me to Linuxism. Although I love the idea of free open-source software, I wasn’t thrilled that many of my programs won’t even work. Still, with the laptop the way it was running with XP, no programs were working on it so I decided to take the plunge.
Sadly, my first attempt at installing Ubuntu on the laptop failed. You have to understand that I have absolutely no experience with any Linux OS beyond opening a browser and surfing. It turns out my specs were a bit low for Ubuntu and so I installed Xubuntu instead. Xubuntu is a lighter alternative to Ubuntu. The OS worked so well and installed so easily that I decided I wanted to now install Ubuntu on my desktop too!
I didn’t want to replace Vista (although I do hate it so), I just wanted to have both. Ubuntu’s installation made even THAT easy. I’ve been playing around with it all day and I love the look and feel of it! The level of customization is amazing and, best of all, it’s absolutely free! I have a somewhat high-end system so Vista didn’t run slow, but Ubuntu absolutely FLIES!
Take this as a recommendation. Install Ubuntu (or xubuntu at least) and see for yourselves!
March 7th, 2008 at 9:38 am
great story
March 17th, 2008 at 11:23 am
yeah, been trying to get my old man to switch too. unfortunately hes scared of compatibility issues. and doesnt understand that Ubuntu and most of its software is compatible with windows… if only M$ made it this easy.
Did you manage to get compiz working on that system?
Sometimes those old integrated graphics cards have a few tricks up their sleeve…
March 17th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Actually it worked right off the bat! Depending on which features I turned off or on it sometimes lags a bit but that’s fine. It looks great really
March 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Once you do a small amount of online “studying”, you will be truly amazed at your ability to control every aspect of your operating system.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
What kind of graphics card does your machine have? I have an old system with an Nvidia, and I can’t get Compiz to work at all.
Does compiz work with xubuntu, too?
March 17th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I’ve found Xubuntu to be great for computers that don’t have much under the hood. I’ve been using Ubuntu for years, and have dabbled with Xubuntu as well once on an old P2 computer once, and it handled it ok.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Actually I got Compiz to work on my desktop with Ubuntu. I haven’t tried it (and don’t think I will) on my laptop running Xubuntu.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Have you also given Kubuntu(or Linux Mint) a try yet? It uses KDE instead of Gnome(Ubuntu) or Xfce(Xubuntu), which some people like it more.
@Frank
Yes, although it takes a little more effort to get working. You should also note that if it doesn’t work under Ubuntu, it most likely will not work under Xubuntu - the difference is simply in the programs they have installed and running by default(Xubuntu is more lean).
Quite possibly your Nvidia card is out of the supported range for 3d hardware acceleration and thus you can’t get Compiz working with it.
@Rob
If you don’t already know, there are tons of distros which will handle an old P2 better than Xubuntu (Puppy OS is my favorite there)
@everybody
Very glad to see old hardware getting reused, instead thrown away. Hardware is only as old as the software that runs on it, and you can almost always go lighter(if you don’t stay chained to Microsoft).
Stumble brought me in… nice reading of people trying new software!
March 18th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Great story… i’ve been running a dual boot with XP ever since Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) was released. The only reason i haven’t totally converted my laptop (A Dell Latitude 120L) is that I would be unable to play WoW on it. (for some reason i have been unable to get the intel GMA to play nice with OpenGL 3D)
Definitely adding to my stumble list
March 18th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Don’t bother with compiz on the laptop, it’s eating up 38MB of RAM right now and there’s no way that machine has enough to spare.
With the latest & greatest alpha version of Kubuntu, 3d acceleration is working fine on my geforce 7700 out of the box. Compiz for KDE is also now installed by default, and it rocks!
To go even more light weight there is also Fluxbuntu which uses fluxbox as the window manager. I have a similar crappy laptop coming in soon that will be getting Fluxbuntu installed on.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Once you do a small amount of online “studying”, you will be truly amazed at your ability to control every aspect of your operating system.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Perhaps I’ve been handicapped by 20 years of Windows but I find Linux to be just short of a nightmare. I’ve tried a few distros (Fedora, Ubuntu and now openSUSE). I keep having problems with Linux breaking itself.
I am (ironically, perhaps) technical support and have been for some time but I’m just not getting the “hang” of Linux. There is a lot to like but installing a video driver requires re-compiling the kernel! What the hell does that mean? My RPM installer, Yast, broke and I can’t fix it. I look up support on the forums and I can’t even understand the instructions!
Every step of every suggestion seems to require pre-requsite knowledge of a number of other steps which it is usually taken for granted that the reader just knows. It’s just short of maddening. I’m not giving up but Linux is not making it easy.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
my dad was the easiest converter and although linux is i don’t know different? maybe it’s easy to get normalized on it and also every app and thing i have on my windows computer i have it on my ubuntu computer.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I believe that most people simply don’t realize that Ubuntu will work on a great deal of hardware. In fact, it has the largest library of built-in drivers of any operating system. It is blatant to me that that issues with some devices and hearing users complain about them drives people away from even giving a live CD a test to begin with. And while Ubuntu is among the easiest OSs to install and set up dual boot systems with, the common user is simply not used to installing an operating system.
Ubuntu in particular is a great distribution of Linux because you avoid many of the issues of a typical Linux system, such as RPM hell and having to recompile the kernel to get some things to work (as Shandooga alluded to above). A great deal of the time the Ubuntu family of distributions just work. I actually prefer to use Kubuntu with the KDE desktop, but XFCE is a great desktop for lighter systems. It’s about choice there.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
nice story i had a similar thing with linux mint (Best media distro ever) and now dual boot it on all my machines,
linux can only go higher as blotware slows rocket fast hardware down (vista)
March 20th, 2008 at 10:38 am
assalaamu alaykum, bro.
two screenshot of linux of mine.
it looks like mac, isn’t it?
http://moourl.com/qnr5p
http://moourl.com/vb4lz
use gnome theme t-ish brushed overlaid and icon from mac4lin
March 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Linux is rather fun. You will realise that as soon as you learn the basics of shell scripting, and the way linux works…
March 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Wow, those are sweet screenshots!
March 20th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Welcome to the club!! The Ubuntu family of products work absolutely amazing. I, too, am a recent Linux disciple and can’t believe I waited this long. A boon for older computers and computer users everywhere!!
March 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
Where is the substance to this story?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:42 am
It’s just a recommendation from someone who has never used Linux before -> totally embrassing it
Didn’t think it needed to be more than that
March 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Welcome to the club, it’s always great to hear a story about another convert.
My Vista experience has been really bad - it’s slow, awkward and the permissions issues just crazy
Well done for taking the chance.
Now off to play!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
@Shandooga:
Ubuntu is nothing like many other distros. It’s much easier to install a driver.
For that matter, I use Gentoo, one of the harder distros to get up and running, and I never had to recompile my kernel for a video driver, unless there was some option I didn’t enable that was required when I last compiled.
And, as far as Windows compatibility, there are many many ways to run windows programs under linux. I use VirtualBox and run my Windows apps seamlessly (ie: they look like they are running in Linux..) under a virtual HD. This can also be done using your live Windows partition with VMWare (Install VMWare’s SCSI driver or something…) but I didn’t like the speed (or lack of)
And there’s Wine and Cedega for games.
Personally, I thought my conversion would have been more painful, but except for my mapping software (Delorme Street Atlas, I use it to confirm my routes when I’m driving my semi) I don’t need Windows. And someday, there will be a solution for my mapping proggy too.
On a Vista Hater’s note: My new lappy came with Vista. I ran it for 10 minutes, just to be sure of it’s kompleate suckage, then nuked it from my system (I saved the restore partition, just in case…) and threw XP Pro on it.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Xubuntu is perfect for older machines, and Ubuntu is perfect for more modern ones. Been using Ubuntu for a few years now, and recently switched the main desktop computer over to 8.04LTS lock stock and barrel (no dual boot).
One thing I was kind of struggling with was whether to choose Kubuntu or Ubuntu. Like a few other people I’ve read posts by on the web, I like a lot of the KDE apps (K3B, KVPNC, Konversation, Amarok, KRDC, KTorrent), but prefer the Gnome environment. Well, no problem! Ubuntu easily installs KDE apps to Gnome from Add remove programs! The same is true if you prefer KDE, but need some Gnome apps.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Ubuntu IS great! I completely wiped out XP on all my systems. The fact that the Department of Defense (US - DoD) worked with Microsoft concerned my about privacy issues. Who needs that.
The new Ubuntu 8.04 is the best yet. Im downloading Xubuntu to put on my older laptops so I can use them in the kitchen for looking up recipes, watching online TV, listening to music, checking email, etc. The old laptop in the kitchen will work as a quickie family central computer.
My wife is still not convinced yet on linux, but slowly I am converting her
She needs MS office for accounting purposes and says OpenOffice just isnt powerful enough. using an XP emulator called Wine you can get a lot of software made for XP running on your linux system. MS products may need “CrossOver” to work the best in Ubuntu which is like $40 I think, but if you absolutely need MS products it might be worth it. I run XP within Ubuntu using VirtualBox just to brag and tell people I have XP in a little prison on my computer I can do whatever the heck I want with XP. Ha!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Hi Guys (and gals?)….I have a Dell Inspiron 2500 that I bought in 2002 and would like to try my hand at Linux type of OS. I have a working Inspiron 1100 that is connected to the net. My 2500 is not connected (and I don’t want to spend time trying to get it connected). I will use my 1100 to download whatever OS is recommended and then I can either burn it to a CD or move it to my Western Digital External Drive.
Here are my questions (bear with me I am not super technical - but brave!):
I have 256mg, only will use the laptop for surfing and an occasional letter on OpenOffice. I use/will use firefox.
1. Is Xubuntu the OS I want?
2. Any particular site that you have found useful?
3. Assuming I get the appropriate version of Xubuntu on a CD or external drive - do I simply tell my Inspiron 2500, via setup screen, to boot from Xubuntu install CD and then, once deployed, I wipeout any trace of XP? I would like to wip out every trace of Microsoft first, I assume even without an OS, I can still communicate with Setup - true? Any suggestions?
I know these are alot of questions - any and all input will be very much appreciated.
Peter
September 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am
@ Peter
1: Xubuntu is great! If you still have problems with it try Puppy Ubuntu. Runs off a USB key!
2: Sounds stupid to mention it but the obvious one: http://www.ubuntu.com/
3: Either way works fine!