Forget Winders and the Mac!


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Bleddy hell!

I am working on an old XP Laptop I have tried to get working for months.

It just keeps getting the blue screen of death and shutting down.

Booted from Hiren's disk and chose Linux.

Its running lightning fast and browsing the net without any page delays.

Must install the full Linux version, and have a boot choice.

Anyone ever done this??

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Never tried Linux, but I do have a copy of 7 I'm getting ready to load in when I have a spare hour or two. I gather 7 also runs old programs from the Win 95/98 era.. Not all, but some.

There's other OS's that are supposed to be better than Bill Gates's crap too.

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I did buy a copy of Linux fedora core 5 on a magazine a couple of years ago but never did anything with it.

I know you can download the latest version free. Must get started on installing it on one of my old machines.

I often wondered how fast Dos would run on the new machines.

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The greatest benefit of using Windows is there is more software available.

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Thats very True John,

But at the moment Linux us doing all I need, running Firefox for Linux.

Going back to my topic of Using an external hard drive as a 'personal cloud'

This would be the answer, if I wanted to leave a computer running 24/7

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How much memory and HD space does it need Mick. I have an old IBM laptop with 64 meg of RAM and a 4 Gig HD. It came with Win 98. It loaded XP but runs pretty slow. Still sitting under my couch. Probably only good for a doorstop.

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I recently bought a replacement laptop. It's a Sony and a decent machine but I get so tired of Windows and it's various problems. I don't really have a need for loads of different software and if I'd had a larger budget would have definitely gone for a Mac. Used them for study in the past a bit and you quickly get used to them. They make the Windows OS seem so ponderous and problem-riddled.

Don't know too much about Linux but everyone I've known use speaks very well of it.

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I dont think its a hungry system.

You can run it from a CD or for more speed boot it from a USB memory drive.

If you have a couple of hours spare you can set it up without removing your original operating system.

I am jus figuring out what is the latest and best system for Dual Boot?

There is one called Ubuntu which is Linux based.

I am very busy at the moment so no chance to play around with it.

If anyone does let us know here.

I like it because its like a more graphical version of the old DOS.

I am currently maintaining an old machine by booting in to DOS from a

Hiren's CD. This also has a cut down version of WinXP and Linux.

Look out for this CD free download, it contains some fantastic rescue tools.

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Ubuntu is the one I couldn't bring to mind yesterday, I have a friend who uses that, and she swears by it Mick. Most of those OS are open source, ie you can add to them if you want to take up programming.

I'm getting ready to load win7 on this machine to make full use of the 8 gigs of ram, XP only recognises about 2 gigs. The extra ram will be much appreciated when I'm photo editing.

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I have a copy of Ubuntu Linux on cd. Downloaded it couple of years ago but never got around to installing it. Probably been upgraded many times since then. Built a windows machine a year or so ago. Keep it just for video editing. Not connected to the Internet so no firewalls or av software. Running win 7 seems to be really fast. I suspect much of the problem folks have with windoze stems from all the extra software needed to keep the bad guys out.

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Every piece of software that's loaded onto the hard drive will require some memory, each bit of memory used is less for the computer to operate with, so in essence slows it down, no idea without checking, but I'll bet Kaspersky is eating ram, then photo editing is RAM hungry too, I often run out of memory when editing photos and website construction, where I have several windows open at a time.

I've also noticed photos taken in Raw mode are very RAM hungry when downloaded to the computer.

That's the main reason I'll be upgrading to Win 7 very soon, it recogises all the RAM. Why on earth Microsoft limited the amount of RAM XP can use I don't know, very baffling!

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Downloaded Ubuntu 700mb

created bootable pen drive but the laptop went past it and loaded xp

Then bootable CD but it did not work?

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You need someone who knows about Ubuntu...I just know someone who swears by it on FB. She said she'd never go back to Windows.

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I'm going to give it a try when I have a bit more time next week. I'm thinking you would have to go into the boot setup, Mick and tell it to boot from the usb. Not sure you could do that on an old machine, but should be able to make it boot from a CD. Probably much slower though. I'll post how it works out when I get a round tuit.

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on booting press F12 continuously or if you get key stuck beeps, keep tapping F12

You can choose to continue booting from CD or device there or go to BIOS setup.

In BIOS you can set the order of booting, mine is set to CD first then device then Drive C:

Setting the order of booting means you dont have to press F12 on booting.

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Windows 8 will not support DVD playback or Bluray you will have to buy extra addon software

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Is there an 8???

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So there is, hadn't heard about 8.... just did a Google.

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DOS.....

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BTW I needed a Computer that had a parallel port to run my CNC machine my old one crapped out

So i bought a off lease Dell from Comp USA for $125 & free shipping it turns out this is the most stable computer i have ever had & also the cheapest

It also came with a copy of XP the actual disk ,Mouse & keyboard.

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