Frugal Friday
Feb. 9th, 2024 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
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!
Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-09 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-09 09:07 pm (UTC)Here are more: https://itsfoss.com/lightweight-linux-beginners/
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 12:43 am (UTC)I also found out that Linux Lite is basically Ubuntu but stripped down. Given they have good support, I might try that.
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-09 09:19 pm (UTC)Low Tech Magazine recently shifted its server over to being solar-powered, and therefore minimally energy-hungry, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Debian distro they're using could be well-suited to older tech as well: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-low-tech-website/
(The above also puts me in mind of the last time I checked out Debian as a distro, which was when I briefly tried to teach myself Linux in high school 20 years ago - if I recall, they hosted older versions of the distro, so you might be able to find something that was cutting edge when your hardware was too, and just use that, though there are downsides to that approach, of course, like not having whatever hardware-independent improvements or bug fixes have been added in).
The one other avenue for exploration that comes to mind is the Linux community's penchant for getting darn near anything to run on Linux - I've heard of folks running modified distros on things like appliances and watches and what have you. Though these are mostly "stunts," some of them might be better suited to older hardware.
Sorry I couldn't point you somewhere more specific, but hope these help!
Jeff
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 01:31 am (UTC)Over time, these machines had become a lot larger and less cute. Some were even big enough to put in a full-size gaming video card. This gave gamers a lunchbox size machine to take to a party, but ended the "not much bigger than a deck of card" form factor of little computers you could hang on the back of the monitor.
Raspberry Pi's a wonderful platform for tinkerers. But rather fiddly for someone who wants a machine that just plain works and has plenty of mainstream help available. Any answers for a Pi start with, "Oh, I didn't realize you're talking about a Pi. Hmm, let me look up how that's different..."
Availability of Pi components is extremely poor if you ever need a spare machine. If your mainstream PC or Mac conks out, repairs and rentals are easily available anywhere. If your Pi conks out, who knows when you could get one from the next batch? If you have work to do today, can you wait a year?
Apple still makes the Mac Mini and it's still a pleasant little computer, with about the same chips and power as a laptop. Compared to a laptop, it's a little less money for the same computing power, since it's not in a mobile case with screen, keyboard, trackpad, speakers and mics, webcam, and battery. About as compact a desktop computer as you can find in a post-NUC world. But, not an all in one rig you can take along in your bookbag, or slide out of sight in a desk drawer.
Debian is still going strong. It's the basis for many distributions built on top of it, including my favorites of MX for not too ancient machines and antiX for very old, limited hardware.
Without getting too geeky I am very impressed with their balance of up to date functionality and engineering choices that work well on older hardware, such as SystemD being optional - which most people shouldn't have to care about, but could prevent some hard to troubleshoot bugs. I also like their friendly troubleshooting help forums.
After using computers since before the original IBM PC, I now think for anyone who can afford $1,000 to $2,000, and aren't involved in extremely demanding computer uses like heavy duty programming, video production, or the latest hot AAA games, the Macbook Air series is the way to go. Simply pick mobile screen size preferred, knowing a big screen can be added at a desk.
Apple's M series chips have astonishing battery life, full day for almost everyone, two full days for some users in this no-fan silent machines.
There are now ways to run Windows and Linux on these machines for those who need software not available on Mac. In general, Mac has occasional weirdness but still tends to just work and minimize confusion more than other platforms. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't make it outrageously difficult to install a machine without an advertising push account, and they don't hijack the machine for enforced OS upgrades.
C from C
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 06:21 pm (UTC)At the local cellphone repair shop, they have used Apple iPads for sale for a few hundred dollars. Apple hardware eventually becomes incapable of getting an operating system update, but for the iPad I got, the repairman estimated 7 to 10 years more of being able to be updated.
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 12:44 am (UTC)Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 01:23 am (UTC)Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 03:52 am (UTC)Anyways, it is a Dell Latitude 3120. I would like to make it useable. This old apple desktop one of my kids gave me wont download recent operating systems, etc.. and uses more power than I would like and I cant take it downstairs.
Atmospheric River
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 03:05 pm (UTC)Directions can be found in several places online, e.g.:
https://linuxsimply.com/linux-basics/os-installation/single-os/lubuntu
You first need a working computer on the Internet to download an "image" of Lubuntu.
Once you have that image, you will need to install a little program that lets you "burn" that image to a flash drive; that USB drive should be at least 4 gigabytes, and whatever is on it first will be destroyed, so make sure you have copies of its contents.
After you've burned that image to a USB stick, you will plug it into the laptop, and turn it on. Hopefully, it will automatically boot from USB, but it doesn't, try again and hit the "F12" key when you see the Dell logo.
That should load the installer from USB, and you should likely be ok just accepting default answers. (It will ask you several geeky questions that you may not always understand.)
Consult the link for more details, but it this is meant as a quick outline.
Good luck!
*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*
The recipe
Date: 2024-02-11 03:13 pm (UTC)Linux comes in "distributions" because the software an everyday person uses come from several different project teams, organizations, or individuals. Someone assembles all that into a complete package for you, based on their own vision of what's useful. The software is all available for free so anyone can make a distribution. There are a few distributions well known for being comprehensive, user friendly, and well updated.
1 Buy a USB thumb drive.
2 Pick a Linux distribution. See other comments here for a handful worth considering. It will have a web site. It will have discussion forums where you can ask for further help.
3 Get directions on how to set up that distribution of Linux on a USB thumb drive.
4 Following the directions, using another computer you'll run a program that sets up the thumb drive. This will include a large download of the Linux operating system with many applications already installed, probably Open Office, Firefox browser, a media player, a photo editor, a PDF reader, etc.
5 On your own old computer, tell it to boot from USB. The menu for this is different for every computer. You only need to set this once. Turn it back off.
6 Plug in the USB thumb drive to the old computer and turn it on. This will run Linux "live" from the drive. Play around and see if it works for you.
7 If it doesn't work, troubleshoot or else try something else.
8 If it does work, install it to the hard drive, then shut down and remove the USB drive.
9 Now, you have an old computer with Linux installed on it. Now and then use a program from within Linux that manages USB drives. While Linux is already running from the hard drive, plug in the thumb drive and update it. If the hard drive goes bad, or you want to set up another computer, you can keep on running Linux.
10 Back up your files no matter what type of computer you're using, so there's never only one piece of equipment with your vital info on it.
C from C
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 04:26 am (UTC)C from C
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 03:43 am (UTC)https://www.crunchbangplusplus.org/
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 04:48 am (UTC)Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 03:45 pm (UTC)Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-10 07:12 pm (UTC)The underlying streamlined version, antiX (pronounced "antics") is intended to work with very minimal hardware. It's linked from the MX Linux site.
Both systems have active, helpful discussion forums where the developers give specific advice and troubleshooting help.
As my old computer can handle it, I prefer the MX Linux version with KDE, which I find pleasant. It's easy to get used to for someone familiar with Windows. Slightly more powerful computers are recommended for KDE but if your machine's within around five years old, it should be fine.
Christopher from California
Mocha Amphibious Moose
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Date: 2024-02-11 05:25 am (UTC)Re: Arch
Date: 2024-02-11 03:17 pm (UTC)If you want to learn Linux nearly from scratch, it's wonderful for the student.
If you're a computer engineer and need to customize Linux for a task that must be optimized as much as possible, it's brilliant but you probably already knew that.
If you want to have a life outside of learning Linux at a deep level, it's terrible for the person who just wants to turn on a computer that has most or all of day to day stuff all ready for use.
C from C