Old PC Linux

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I'm having a clearout. I have an old PC which has 1.8Ghz processor and 400Mb of RAM (no spare slots), so before I consign it to the skip I thought I'd load linux and have a play, then if I like it I can alter my new PC. Anyone recommend which version of Linux will fit on this rather limited machine? It's currently running XP OK.

It's too small to run Mach3 or I'd have a go at that. All an excuse not to chuck it I suppose! My first computer had 32k and I managed happily, where did it all go wrong?

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

XFCE (x-face) using debian 8 (32bit – if you also tick load Gnome on setup then you get some additional utilities even tho you don’t run that windowing system)- good chance it will work – I have several old machines but can usually add a little more memory (you can often buy DDR2 512/1G strips for 50p ! from CEX a highstreet consumer 2nd hand shop)

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

For a compact installation for browsing the web you could try Puppy Linux.

Thor

[richard 2Participant @richard2]

I have used Linux Ubuntu (now 10.01) for many years and nothing would induce me to chante to that other costly,complicated and non-dependable system.

It has never crashed and I have not had any problems.

I do not play games as I use my brain for serious work and in the workshnop.

PLEASE try Ubuntu – you will not be sorry.

It is free, totally dependable and there are thousands of people in the forum will always help.

If I can help send me a PM.

All the best

Richard.

[richard 2Participant @richard2]

Sorry – should read "change" not "chante".

Richard.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

My first computer had 256 bytes of memory (which I upgraded to 512 !!) , a 7 segment display array and hex keyboard. It ran off a PP9 battery. I later made an RS 232 port and hooked it up to a massive Hazeltine monitor and could then display the alphabet – not a lot of use, but there we are. Interesting enough (or not) it used tri state logic where you could use on off or neither (i.e. the region between + 0.1 and – 0.1 volts).
So with 400Mb of RAM, the world should be possible ?
BobH

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Linux Mint is currently one of the most popular distributions. I'm currently running Linux Mint Cinnamon which officially has the following requirements:

System requirements:

• 512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
• 9GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
• Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).
• DVD drive or USB port.

I suspect it will run OK in 400 MB if a bit slow. What can cause problems on older machines is support for old graphics cards. Your best bet is to download a few different versions as live disks which you can run without installing and see which you like the look of before installing to disk.  Running as a live disk doesn't give you a true indication of speed though.

Are you sure it's 400 MB? That seems a very strange figure. 512 MB is more likely or did you drop a zero?.

Russell

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 27/01/2016 09:02:16

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 27/01/2016 09:04:19

[Clive IndiaParticipant @cliveindia]

Posted by richard 2 on 27/01/2016 07:28:02:

I have used Linux Ubuntu (now 10.01) for many years and nothing would induce me to change to that other costly,complicated and non-dependable system. It has never crashed and I have not had any problems. I do not play games as I use my brain for serious work and in the workshop.
PLEASE try Ubuntu – you will not be sorry. It is free, totally dependable and there are thousands of people in the forum will always help.
If I can help send me a PM. All the best. Richard.

What programs are you running on your machine Richard please?

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

+1 for Ubuntu. There is also a LinuxCNC distro that comes bundled with Ubuntu I believe.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Mint + Ubuntu both derive from Debian tho they are probably more conveniently packaged – if the 400MB (agree a very strange amount ) is correct then suspect too small for modern desktops thus my recommendation of XFCE which in many ways is similar to XP desktop – anything that runs on Mint + Ubuntu will run on Debian

WINE will allow nearly all XP programs to run under Linux

(If we are into bragging then my 1st home computer (a commercial British built running system a Unix derivative in very early 80’s) is part of Science Museum’s collection!)

Edited By Frances IoM on 27/01/2016 10:39:35

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I use Mint v.13 which has long term support to 2017. I have it on two computers, both with 2Gb RAM. I have also tried it on an old laptop, Toshiba Satellite Pro 4620 (or something similar) which has a small amount of RAM, something like 320 Mb or so. Unfortunately, the laptop is packed away in the loft so I can't readily check it, but from memory, it seemed to work.

Similar to other contributors, having escaped from Microsoft (I was a very happy user of XP) I will never go back – Mint, in general does all I want.

Programs I use:

Internet browser – Firefox,

Emails – Thunderbird.

Office stuff – Libre Office, but note that I only use Writer & Calc.

Graphics – Paint Shop Pro v.7.04(PSP) via WINE. I have had to adopt a fudge in order to have my main toolbar show all my desired icons. This appears to be because under Windows, PSP can save whatever state the main window is setup as, but this doesn't work under WINE. Instead I use the facility to import a Workspace. The program doesn't load from the Main Menu, but does load satisfactorily from the panel. I have not found any other major issues, but then I am not a power user. Photos, PSP pictures etc do sometimes automatically open PSP, but I find it easier to open PSP first, then search from within PSP for the required file.

CAD – Design CAD Pro 2000 (DC2K) via WINE. This is an old program, but it works extremely well in this configuration. I have setup a template for my desired layers & colours etc, and by using a startup macro can load it automatically. For some reason, native saved DC2K drawings are not recognised by Mint as such: instead, it thinks they are a Dreamcast Rom. Therefore, to load a drawing, I simply load DC2K, then within DC2K, I search for the drawing and load it. Job done.

I also have DesignCad v.17 (DCV17). Although the program will load and run via WINE, there are one or two semi-major problems which can be got around, but frankly, for my purposes, DC2K is easier to use. Interestingly, under Mint v.17, DC17 is much better, but does still have an issue with "File, Image" which can be a show-stopper unless I remember to avoid it. This suggests to me that the issue is actually WINE as my version of Mint 17 uses a slightly later version of WINE.

Finally, I use a DOS based database program (Mpro) via DOSemu. Along with some helpful advice from another forum on how to use DOSemu, Mpro works very well indeed albeit with the occasional problem with speed when searching through 220K records.

My advice? Go for it.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Libre Office Draw is very good, better than PowerPoint for example. For my wife's classes I prepare her slides in Impress. Libre available for Windoze too, and Mac. Though generally Calc is very good and can open Excel files there are a few incompatibilities that can catch you out.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

When I had a spare 64k PC there were 128k builds, when I had a spare 128k PC a few years later it had gone up to 256k and so on…….

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

I'm running Linux Mint 17 on an Acer Travelmate laptop which I bought in 2000 ! Lives in the workshop, perfectly adequate for listening to the radio or looking up threading tables etc.

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Duncan, all I seem to use are Linux computers, or the odd Android or OSX (Apple) product.

A couple of Ubuntu installs done this month

– one on a "2006" computer with 2gig ram, an old Dell slim line tower. Works fine. (it was a donation to me)

– another on an Intel motherboard with a short lived video chipset that was not well supported by Linux, but it works. It is a dual core, slow machine, that draws about zero power. (Intel D2700MUD motherboard for those interested)

For the slow one, it was unusable (screen too slow) until I installed the "window manager" for a distribution for "Lubuntu" – a light (smaller, faster) version of Ubuntu – and it transformed the machine.

For my model engineering, I use QCad for 2D CAD, CamBam for drawing-to-machining, and (on 4 of the computers) LinuxCNC for actual machining.

Whatever you do is up to you; I just applaud anyone who tries to do something different, whether with computers or modelling or *whatever* (opera singing??) so good for you!

John

[egaParticipant @ega]

John Alexander Stewart:

Thanks for the Lubuntu tip. I will try it on my old netbook which is now rather slow under Ubuntu.

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Another Linux Mint 17 supporter. I have used MInt for years now on a range of machines (one was an old 486).

Some points worth mentioning (I think) – Linux Mint takes a more 'traditional' menu-based approach as opposed to Ubuntu, so is more familar to ex-XP users than Ubuntu, which uses the 'dash-panel' type access to applications. This can take a little getting used to for ex WIndows users.

Both LinuxMint and Ubuntu come with a default selection of applications, such as the complete LibreOffice suite (closely resembles uSoft Office for users), media players (such as VLC), and a full range of accessories. Both OSs can be run (and installed) from a USB stick, so provide a useful check if your machine has compatibility problems before you actually carry out an install. (this may be an issue if you have an old machine which cannot be booted from USB or do not have a DVD drive – I believe the live download versions of both OSs is now just too big for a CD.

As well as Wine to run Windoze stuff, it is also possible to install Virtualbox, which will create a virtual machine under Linux, and allows you to install any other OS in the virtual machine. I have found Wine sometimes will not run some Windoze stuff. Virtualbox takes more space than Wine, but personally I find it much better in that so far I have never seen any issues with it. I run an old copy of XP, and Windows 7, because I have some old software which I still need to use.

Another useful application I use under Linux is Gambas – this is a free, Visual Basic like object-oriented programming language, which allows me to access the ports of the machine. I have written my own software to support a homebuilt EPROM and PIC programmer, at virtually zero cost – most Linux software is free under Open Source.

 

Edited By An Other on 27/01/2016 18:43:18

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Thanks guys, that's given me a very good start. I'll start with Mint and see how it goes. I've come across another computer in the attic (forgt it was there)> This has lost touch with it's graphics card, at least I think that's what the funny beeps are telling me so I'll see if the memory out of that will fit the one that works and is any bigger.

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

Just another vote for Linux Mint.

Being based on Ubuntu, Mint offers all the advantages of Ubuntu, but as "An Other" mentioned has a much friendlier use interface, one that will immediately be familiar to anyone who has used Windows XP.

The two main editions of Mint are Cinnamon and MATE. The MATE edition has a less resource intensive UI so would be more appropriate for use on low end hardware.

Clive

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by clivel on 27/01/2016 21:47:22:

Being based on Ubuntu, Mint offers all the advantages of Ubuntu, but as "An Other" mentioned has a much friendlier use interface, one that will immediately be familiar to anyone who has used Windows XP.

With respect, the statement that Mint has a "much friendlier user interface" than Ubuntu is more a matter of opinion than of fact. The Unity desktop is certainly different, but it works well and has advantages. Here's a fuller comparison between Ubuntu and Mint.

Although I happen to prefer Ubuntu and Unity I wouldn't knock Mint. Mint is definitely good news if you like things to be familiar.

Cheers,

Dave

[Roger Provins 2Participant @rogerprovins2]

Been using Linux of one distro or another for many years. Settled on Ubuntu the last few years and don't think I'll change again. Although I do have Windows 7 on a partition on one computer I never use it.

Roger

[SandgrounderParticipant @sandgrounder]

I've been using Linux Mint on my main PC for a couple of years now, it's as fast as the day I bought it with no crashes and blue screens, however I still have to use a Windows laptop to run programs like the Garmin installer for updating my Satnav,.

John

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 28/01/2016 20:40:45:Here's a fuller comparison between Ubuntu and Mint.

I think you'll fiind that comparison is a bit out of date now.

Russell.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

I ran opensuse 13.2 with kde on a netbook to try out some astro software which will control a telescope via skymap software and it's other bits and pieces, focus, camera blah blah and etc. It along with the other apps ran without any problems at all despite the limited amount of memory available. Much quicker than the windows that came with it too.

My main desktop has been running OpenSuse and KDE at various release levels for a very very long time. Has to be well over 15 years now. Sadly KDE has moved on to version 5 which currently looks to be a bit flakey.

I just use windows on a laptop for updating one or two things – Vista. Actually I don't think I need that any more.

John

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