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Frugal Friday
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which have changed as we've proceeded. (As things have settled down to a nice steady conversational pace, for example, I've deleted the rules about only one tip per person per week and about limiting the length of comments; I was worried early on about people flooding the forum with too much too fast, but I think we're past that risk.)Rule #1: this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #2: this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #3: please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about. Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.
Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.
With that said, have at it!
Re: Computin' like it's 1984
(Anonymous) 2024-02-11 12:13 am (UTC)(link)If you have a decent size USB thumbdrive, it is possible to put a Linux image on it, restart your PC and run Linux without altering your Windows installation. Performance will be reduced because the thumb drive is slow relative to a hard drive, but you can take it for a test drive. Actually installing Linux is simple, except for the part where your hard drive gets re-organized into two regions, which as I recall was much more painful with older Windows versions than the new ones. However, if you are content to wipe the whole hard drive and start fresh it is easy, especially if you have backup computers to do web searches, put things on USB drives, etc.
However, there is one caveat - the power saving functions of many laptops do not work properly under Linux due to a lack of driver support. This is better with newer hardware, but a laptop I owned of about the same vintage as yours lasted three hours on battery with Windows, and 45 minutes with Ubuntu. Your mileage will very depending on the exact model, but Lenovos are the most likely to have proper driver support.
Thank you for all the work you have done over the years to explain the situation we find ourselves in. I am sorry about your impending? loss and wish Sara and you the best in what remains of this life and the next.
And you know, as you have said in this post (or perhaps the covid one), if keeping busy helps, switching one of your computers to Linux and learning to use it is one such activity. It won't take you long.
Raspberry Pi is also an option, although it will make your Core 2 Duo seem sprightly. Raspbian (the OS provided by the manufacturer) is fairly easy to use, and although there are a few "geek" things needed to set up a Rasberry Pi properly, those procedures are exceedingly well documented. Of course, Raspberry Pis do not have displays, keyboards or mice, although they are compatible with just about anything out there.
I happen to have a stash of surplus Raspberry Pi 4s that were saved from the trash, and if you provide me with a way to contact you, I would be pleased to mail you one or two in "plug in and use" condition.
Re: Ubuntu
(Anonymous) 2024-02-11 01:00 am (UTC)(link)My concerns about recommending Ubuntu for JMG are
- for someone used to Windows 7, current Gnome desktop is a radical change rather than a moderate evolution
- 32 bit support has ended, and JMG's hardware may be somewhat below what Ubuntu runs well on
- with the large number of different user interface environments, finding tips that actually match what is on the screen may be challenging
- with Canonical's push for big business (ubuntu.com is as Enterprisey as you can get without beaming up Spock), "little machine on the prairie" type of uses might get lost
Since JMG clearly would benefit from "it just works, smoothly" experience, and seems to not want a new hobby of computer tinkering, I don't see what a Pi installation would get him more than his existing laptop. All reviews I've seen of using it as a daily driver for non-programmers have hit one gotcha snag or another, sooner or later.
C from C
Re: Ubuntu
(Anonymous) 2024-02-11 04:03 am (UTC)(link)I assume JMG does the following with his computers:
* Use a web browser - this is OS agnostic
* Edit documents using a word processor - perhaps there is a transition from Microsoft programs to LibreOffice, but if what you do is edit text without complex formatting, this is a small change
* Perhaps maintain a budget or keep track of sales using a spreadsheet - again, perhaps a learning process from Excel to LibreOffice Calc, but for simple use cases they are the same thing
* Manage files on his computer - for the non-geeks, Ubuntu is the same as Windows in this respect
And finally, I'm not suggesting JMG take up a new hobby as Linux Geek, learning to do the same thing he did on Windows on Linux would be a temporary phenomenon which would leave his relationship with his computer unchanged.
Re: Ubuntu
A quick search showed that Intel Core Duo is 64 bits from the blog linked below
"Intel Core 2 is a 64 bit CPU that dates back to 2006.
MX linux would be my first choice although you could try running debian 11."
and some other points regarding it
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/best-debian-linux-version-for-a-core-2-duo-laptop-4175711538/#:~:text=Intel%20Core%202%20is%20a,could%20try%20running%20debian%2011.&text=Probably%20best%20to%20avoid%20Gnome%20or%20KDE%20though.&text=I%20also%20recommend%20Debian%2011.
Given your points on hardware, I think MX Linux might be a better option than Ubuntu as you say. Linux is different than Windows both in UI and in user experience but it is also more intuitive I think. The good thing is that a "live USB", the way Linux is installed these days mostly, allows you to test and look around without installing it and they are not hard to make, it requires a program and downloading the OS.
From Ubuntu's site they recommend balenaEtcher as the program to copy/burn the OS since it supports multiple platforms, and looking at their site they do have a "legacy" version for older hardware. You might provide a better option regarding something to burn an image that runs on Windows 7 though, as their site says they have a version that is compatible but is not clear if the one labeled as "legacy" is the one they are referring to.
If I may, I think you complicated instructions a little bit above.
There are only three steps: 1) Downloading OS image (the name for a file that needs to be burned into a media in order to run) 2) Burning it into the selected media, which has to be at least 2GB, for Ubuntu at least. and 3) Turning off the computer and and booting up again with the media inside or plugged in to the computer. Most modern Linux distros already boot if plugged in, so no need to tell the computer to change it's boot loader.
Re: Computin' like it's 1984
(Anonymous) 2024-02-11 02:19 am (UTC)(link)