Okay, so I need some recommendations/advice on Linux for my home computer. Here’s the machine:
I have an old HP machine. It’s a Pentium III, 450 MHz, 256 mb RAM, DVD-R/W, CD-R/W, and a plain old DVD drive. Everything else is what came with the computer. It also has a wireless networking card in it. It currently has Windows XP (not SP2) Pro.
Here’s what I use it for:
Mainly to surf the web using Firefox. I also watch DVDs, burn DVDs/CDs, and watch all sorts of random video files using various codecs. I use iTunes, but I’d be willing to switch to something else since the only thing I use it for is to organize my iPod.
So my problem with it right now is that it’s slow. I could put more RAM in, but I’m in between possible future schooling, so I’d rather wait until the fall and find out if I need to get a new computer anyway. If I installed a Linux based OS, would it be less of a memory hog than XP? I’m assuming that there are probably tons of apps out there for watching video files and listening to mp3s and such, so that’s not really a concern. But what are the chances that I can find drivers for the various components?
Any recommendations on a good Linux OS (free, preferably) that is fairly easy to use? I’m not completely computer illiterate, and I like to be able to control as much of what’s there as possible.
256MB of RAM is simply not enough for XP. That’s at least a large part of the reason your system is performing poorly. Get that up to 1 GB or RAM and you’ll be in good shape (and probably surprised at how much better your system runs). Obviously, even 512 is better than 256, but RAM’s cheap go for the GB. The kind of use you describe is more RAM-intensive than CPU-intensive.
Oh, I definitely realize that RAM is the real solution to this. I guess I wasn’t very clear. It’s not really a matter of wanting my computer to perform much better, it’s more a matter of me wanting to experiment with Linux and using my old computer (since I may have to get a new, already picked out for me computer in the near future) to do it on. Plus, my computer can only take 512 max, so the 1 gig isn’t even an option.
Hmm… on preview I see exactly where I went wrong in my OP. I said explicitly that the problem was that it’s slow. Let me amend that to, “My computer is slow and old, and I’d like to do something else with it anyway.” Performance gains from using Linux would be icing on the cake, albeit the flat pan crappy kind that’s been sitting out for three weeks at Wal-mart cake.
Knoppix is definitely intriguing. Dramatic really isn’t too big of a deal - as I said, my computer doesn’t get used much for anything important. I’ve got my badass work computer for that. How does Knoppix fair (fare?) against the other OSs?
Try Debian - it’s a free distribution, and as long as you have an internet connection, you just download the base installer, and then all subsequent packages are just pulled off the net.
Make no mistake about this, though. You will not be able to just install the software and be up and running with all your favourite apps in no time at all… the advantage of avoiding the Microsoft type of “dumbed down” installation is countered by the necessity of actually needing to learn something about your OS. Expect to spend a bit of time getting all your peripherals set up (drivers, etc.).
Get the “unstable” distribution of Debian, installed on the latest available kernel (there is a particular command in the installation script to do this - NOTE this is not the default). Unstable is actually a bit of a misnomer - all this represents is the latest development versions of software packages, as opposed to thoroughly tested (and often long obsolete) packages. This will enable you to get the best support from developers if you ever need to ask any direct questions.
Next, surf to, and bookmark, LinuxQuestions.org. I guarantee you that you will have some sort of hardware recognition issue, software installation issue, or other aggravating problem which has a very trivial solution, but which is not documented anywhere. The LinuxQuestions forum has been immeasurably helpful to me when I encountered such issues.
With such issues as you mentioned, Fuji Kitakyusho, why would one wish to use Linux? That question wasn’t directly aimed at you Fuji Kitakyusho, I hit reply before I had a chance to quote the part of your post where you mentioned the problems.
I’m just curious because I’ve been wondering about the advantages of Linux over Win for awhile now.
I agree, you’d be better off throwing another 256 megs ram into your machine rather than switching to Linux. But anyway: the “surfing the web” part is easy. It’s these things that may cause you problems:
You would first want to find out programs to do all these things BEFORE switching, and there may not be any suitable programs for some tasks, and that are compatible with the hardware you’ve got. You would want to search online and first find other people who have the same hardware as you, and have it working 100%–or else, you’ll be living with less than you had before, and overall you will not be happy.
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The advantages are largely a result of the fact that Linux avoids the “bloatedness” (for lack of a better descriptor) of windows, and in many cases will run equivalent applications faster on the same hardware. One can recompile the Linux kernel to use only those modules and devices relevant to the particular user, resulting in a much more compact disk footprint and an OS that boots quicker. For me though, the largest advantage is stability. I run dual screens, and at any given time may have spreadsheet, web browser, media player (MPlayer, which incidentally will play pretty much every common format in existence), e-mail, and CD ripping/burning apps all running simultaneously, and can function effectively like this for months without requiring a reboot. Try that with any windows version. The only way you’ll see a BSOD on Linux is if you set it as your desktop wallpaper.
The single largest disadvantage, as far as use as a desktop PC is concerned, is opening MS documents (Word, PowerPoint, etc.), as these proprietary formats have unfortunately become effective standards. You can get Linux apps that will make a reasonable attempt at translation, but I keep a box with Debian and XP dual boot, so that I can open these files that won’t translate properly any other way.
One other thing I should mention, are the advantages of open source applications versus proprietary software. On my Linux system, I have a basic packet firewall, but even without that in place I would be very surprised to find spyware/malware or viruses of any type on my system. This has a lot to do with the proliferation of Windows PC’s, but also in the inherent advantages of a peer-review system on not only the OS, but every app you install on it.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Any good sites that have lots of linux plug-ins or apps or whatever you call them? Really, putting in another 256 of RAM just isn’t worth it to me right now. If I get into med school I’ll have to buy a computer that they pick for me regardless. And if I don’t, I’ll just build my own, so this is really a temporary “fun” thing for me to do with my computer. FK, I like what you’re saying in this last post. Windows, for me at least, especially on my aging computer, has way more than I need. I would like to be able to slim it down to the bare minimum (I already do as much as I can by editing the bootup list), but it’s a memory hog. Instead of going back to Windows 98 or something, I’d rather just do something entirely new and have some fun with it.
I tried Fedora and kind of liked it, in general. Didn’t really use it for much except surfing when the WinXP PC was defragging/antivirus-scanning, but anyway. The PC is a PII 350-Mhz running 320 megs of RAM. Win98 seemed to start up, shut down and generally respond a lot faster overall than Fedora did. Fedora has two big advantages (for a newbie user)–
it uses RPM’s. These are Redhat Package Manager files, files that basically allow one-click program installation (Fedora is the equivalent/offspring of Red Hat, which is a pay OS now). You take this for granted in Windows, but all Linuxes don’t normally do it. Of course you can still get a source file and compile it in Fedora if you want, just like with any other Linux, but for many common types of applications, you don’t have to. Which is noce, particularly when you don’t know how to.
At the time I downloaded it (a few months back), it included the Up2Date client. This is an automatic client that gets online and checks your OS packages, and tells you which ones have newer versions available. Then you just select the ones you wish to update, and it gets them and installs them for you. This is another task that a noob Linux user has no idea how to do. And again–you can still do your updating manually if you wish, but you don’t have to.
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The biggest disadvantage was that the install files fill three CD’s, and you need all three CD’s apparently. During installation it detected and ran all my basic hardware well enough, but the videocard I had (detected as an ATI Mach64 card) would not run in hardware-accelleration mode and so I could not play Tuxracer, as it does not seem to allow software-mode display. All normal programs worked, and most of the other games I tried did. IT installs a full-Windows-type GUI by default, and you can play with using different windowing setups as well.
But overall, I tried it on a spare PC just out of curiosity. I never found any Linux-only program I “needed” the Linux box for. I ended up using a USB-keyboard and Fedora detected and ran that just fine automatically. I had a second hard drive in the PC that Win98 had no trouble detecting, but never got Fedora to “find” it. The PC had no CD-RW drive, and I never attempted to hook up any printers or scanners to it.
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Was Fedora a pay-for-the-discs program? Or can I download it? I’m thinking that right now, Knoppix is my best bet to just play around, and then I’ll see about actually installing it later. I’ll probably just set it up as dual boot until I decide if I want to keep it or not. There’s really nothing on my computer that I can’t replace (or that I’d even really want to replace) so I have no problems with having to reformat the hard drive a few times if need be.
I started a thread earlier today about putting linux on my wife’s (older) laptop. The point of this cross-posting is that you might want to try a LiveCD distro (like already recommended Knoppix, one that can run directly from the CD) to try it out first and not screw up your current install.
Along those lines, I came across this page of LiveCD distros that you might be interested in. I just downloaded SLAX and BeatrIX; I’ll post results/problems/etc. on the other thread when I have them. You also might be interested in checking out a article that appeared on OSNews, an 18 LiveCD Roundup, which gives a brief, but instructive, overview of some of them.
Firefox: No problem.
DVDs: Ogle, available with or without GUI (I use without)
DVD/CD burninating: k3b
Random video files: mplayer, again, available with or without GUI
iPod management: iPodslave , gtkpod
Also, I use XMMS for my music listening. For even more software, check out freshmeat.net.
