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@brogrammerology Since he had been using the PC under Vista before, where it was a lot slower, he's actually impressed how usable it is now with Linux. Of course, I also explained that the hardware is very slow and I'm surprised it works at all.
@irene It's not just the browser, it's also Windows itself. He doesn't trust MS and rightfully thinks that Windows itself is spyware. -
@Fast-Nop That sounds like a tinfoil hat thing but it really isn’t that crazy. System plaintext indexes and audio from cortana were going to remote servers when it first started. Maliciousness is unlikely but still it is like hiring someone to paint your house and they take pictures of your valuables on arrival.
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@irene Win 10's privacy problems are one of the reasons why I abandoned Windows after Win 7 in the first place.
Sure, you can muck around with settings, hope that Windows respects them (it sometimes doesn't) and that it will keep them (after updates, it doesn't). -
@irene It's just that this takes time, and I don't like spending my time on trying to tame an OS that has been designed as spyware from ground up.
Instead, I prefer to spend that time on an OS that may have its rough edges, but at least isn't deliberately fucked up. -
@irene And lastly, the "tinfoil" argument has been ridicilous (and ignorant at best) ever since Snowden's disclosure. Stuff that used to be "tinfoil" with regards to IT has turned out to be actually true. Using that argument in 2020 is pretty bizarre.
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@Fast-Nop Preach it. I don’t like that everything is enabled out of the box so that it works without turning it on. It is a massive design flaw that things can’t ask user permission to be enabled at the time they are used the first time. There is no modularity either.
Back in XP era I could build my own version of stripped down Windows. I only needed about 5% of the features and the rest are turned on. -
Great story, though the fact that the PC's specs don't sound too bad to me (certainly not steam-enginy) made me feel old.
My first own PC was a Pentium III with, I think, 40GB HDD and probably 512MB RAM. SuSE Linux ran beautifully on it.
And before that I learnt computing on my uncle's discarded PC: an IBM something, something with MS-DOS. I don't remember the specs, but it had a 20MB HDD (Yes, mega! It ain't a typo.) and a Turbo button. If you don't know what the Turbo button is, I hate you for being so young!
I'm only 40. That's not too old, is it?
BTW, my private PC at home is 8 years old already, and it's a true work horse. Two years ago, I replaced the old 2GB RAM module by a newer 4GB one, and it feels like a new PC entirely! The good machine has never had an M$ Windows Virus on it. It came without OS and it has only ever run Ubuntu, Debian and Mint. -
@acz0903 Ah the good old turbo button that actually was a "slow down to 8 MHz for games with moronic, uncalibrated delay loops" button. ^^
My first PC was an Atari ST with 50 MB HDD, followed by a 486. -
@acz0903 I had a PC with 512mb ram and at the time is was pretty useful
With 2gb I even had the power to run steam with DotA 2 and cs 1.6 -
@Ubbe I think I got the Linux virus. In my company, I'm on Windows, and it starts feeling odd - both Win 8.1 and, even worse of course, Win 10. I had a similar effect before Win 7 when I was already on full-time Linux at home.
In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have trusted MS with Win 7, as good as it was. Given where they've gone with Win 10, I won't repeat that mistake even if they should remove the spyware, abolish the forced updates, and build up their old Windows QA again.
Now that they've burnt my trust completely, even a whole flock of Windows swallows still wouldn't make a Windows summer.
Another dev on my team just got a new machine. Before he came in today I made two separate USB installers and ...
So, today for my SO's father who is already over 70 and wants to try Linux. However, he doesn't want Linux on his main PC for now, rather on the old one so that he can take his time to get familiar, which is a reasonable plan.
But holy crap, what a machine! Intel Core2 Duo 4400, 2 GB DDR2(!) RAM, 250 GB IDE(!) HDD, DVD RW drive. Graphics, sound and LAN integrated on the mobo chipset. It's half a miracle that it doesn't run on steam. The machine had been delivered with Vista and has always been painfully slow.
It doesn't even support booting from USB, but I had prepared a DVD just in case. Surprise: it booted from DVD without issues and with full HW support!
Partitioned and installed, deleted Vista in the process (felt good). I went with the full blown Mint 20 Cinnamon edition because XFCE isn't as beautiful. Also, having XFCE now and then Cinnamon looking different on the other PC would be confusing.
Installation took some time, but worked. Cinnamon's RAM usage is at 750 MB idle, and at 1.1 GB with Firefox started. Once the PC is booted, it runs pretty OK with reduced swappiness and noatime on all file systems, plus unnecessary startup applications disabled. Updates took long, but ran through successfully. Installed LibreOffice and some small games, Firefox got uBlock Origin, Youtube worked OOTB.
That PC somehow had escaped disposal several times - and now has a proper OS for the first time in its miserable existence. It runs so much better than it ever has. Just wow, a "big" Linux desktop from 2020 blows a contemporary Vista out of the water on such an old machine!
rant
super old pc
linux