Look what I’ve found!

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!

One of those things that put a smile on my face happened today.

I (like many devs) am fond of Linux. So I use Linux on everything.

I'm currently doing an internship abroad in Finland(Linus Torvald's country!) for my college.

So there is this Finnish student who uses Linux. And after a while he asked what I was using so I told him that I'm running linux(arch+i3 like all the cool kids).

So one day he was like; But can you game on Linux?
I was like, yeah sure, might not work as well as Windows but some games run native and some can be emulated through wine. He was like; Hmm maybe I'll try it out.

So he installed Linux mint on his laptop and came to work. I was rather proud (even though he installed the bastard child of Debian and Ubuntu).

So far I've helped him set up streaming games from his pc to Linux and port forwarding.

But then came the big boy. Since I always try to teach him some stuff since they don't teach him a lot at his school.

He asked me if I could help him set up a plex streaming server on Linux.

So we took an old computer and installed Ubuntu Server(Lot's of information for it).

Installed and configured plex server, qtbittorrent-knox and all kind of goodies.

I started showing him how to use ssh, how the rights system works, etc.

It broke my heart a little that he want to be able to teamviewer in it.(since it's running openSSH daemon)

So he installed Ubuntu's desktop ontop of it as well as teamviewer.

It ran slow as hell because the PC has an old crummy core2duo and ddr2 2gb of ram. It chokes when multitasking.

So seeing that as well as telling him everything that can be done with a GUI can be done in CLI.

I saw the lightbulb lighting up. He gets it now. He understand the power of Linux.

That just made me smile all the way home.

Customer: Do you have a 2GB RAM stick?

Me: Yes, we do. Do you know what you have and what you need?

Customer: Yes, I have a one-zero-two-four M-B stick and a two-zero-four-eight M-B stick.

Me: So... a 10-24 Meg stick and a 20-48 Meg stick

Customer: Yes.

Me: Ok.... and do you know if it's going to be DDR2 or...?

Customer: Yes, DDR2.

Me: Okay, yes, we do have some. And will you want us to install it?

Customer: No. I can install it. I've been putting computers together for 30 years, so I think I can do it.

Friend found a crappy netbook and asked me to set it up... With Windows 10... I'd normally tell him to boil his head, but he's a good friend.

So I told him Lubuntu or similar would be a lot better because it's got 1GB DDR2 and a Celeron. Nope, adamant on Windows.

I give in, get him a license key and install it. As I expected, it ran like shit. I showed him, he gave in and said I can install Linux.

Went for Lubuntu, he hates it and doesn't want it.

He called a pawn shop and asked how much it'd be. They said it needs Windows (?!?).

Guess what he's just asked me. Gormless twat.

Sooooo I got new RAM for my low-budget server today.

Now introducing: 24 GB DDR2 RAM

XD yes I know DDR 2 is slow but very, very cheap ECC memory.

(still not enough for Chrome)

A story about RAM and being... well... not so clever...

I've built a mid-range gaming PC for a friend, based on skylake, with 8GB DDR4 RAM. So I filled up only 2 slots to leave 2 more for upgrade. So he decided to do so.
Later he calls me and says "Hey, can you visit me? My PC won't boot".
So I came and he told me what happened: he found a random RAM stick and decited to put it in. He somehow(wait for it) managed to do it and PC refused to boot. He removed this stick, but PC won't boot anyway.
Soo, when I came, he showed me a stick he found: a random ddr2-533mhz 512 mb stick. Ofc, MB was shocked to see "grandfather" and refused to boot. I looked at the post code, which said ram error, cleared the cmos and it booted just fine.

Check compatability, young builders, and use Google if you're unsure :)

Hey guys, wanna install Linux first time, but had some doubts.
Config - core 2 duo 2.93GHz, 2GB ddr2 ram, 320 hdd, AMD graphics card.
Doubts :
1. After writing it on usb and setting it in usb boot mode, the system didn't read the pen drive data ... is it because of the writing software ... I used power iso.
2. What about the partitions ? Do they still remain and will the install guide only ask to format the c drive or the whole hdd ?
3. Which distro do y recommend... I had kali/debian/fedora/mint in mind
My friends complained about fedora taking 45 seconds to boot up, I don't know about the other distro's ..
Thanks in advance

What is a good option for a Soft DDR2 IP core? By preference something open source. To create a wrapper for a Litex SoC.

A quick question, I am thinking about upgrading my system which is currently as

Core 2 duo E8300 at 2.8 GHz
6 GB DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GT 610

I know that its fairly low end but it was fine by me as its 4 years old. The problem is the system gets awfully slow when I fire up Android Studio with Chrome (5 tabs) and also the font rendering and animation of OS (both Windows 10 & Ubuntu) is hideous.

So what would you recommend to upgrade in order to overcome these problems.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
🤗🤗

Found my grandmother's Vista laptop from '07. It has 3 problems:
1. Battery lasts 15 seconds at full charge (not a shock)
2. Plastic shell around screen is cracked (not badly, likely fixable with plastic welding)
3. IT'S SLOW AS FUCK
Point 3 is strange, considering the specs:
AMD dual-core CPU at 1600MHz (better than MY laptop...)
Some NVidia onboard GPU thing (no clue)
2x 512MB DDR2-L (immediately swapped out with 1x2GB and 1x1GB, the most we have at the house)

What I noticed, though, is that it's got a SOCKETED CPU (a rarity only like 3 years later), specifically an S1 socket. There's an AMD Phenom quad-core clocked at 1800MHz with that socket, for $16 on eBay no less!
However, it's a different processor family, so I don't know if it'd work in the board...
Anyone think it'd work?

My college labs have iMacs for us to work with, which is rather cool. The thing is that they're 20-inch early 2008 with C2D 2.66GHz and 4GB DDR2. Add an old HDD and El Capitan to the mixture and you have a really sluggish computer that even takes time to open Safari.

I feel sorry for the ones that actually have to use them to develop os iOS with them... I'm just using them as a second monitor.