Re: [AMC-list] No Computer Savvy??

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

This is probably my last post on this off-topic subject. 

Mark, your observations are spot on. If what you have is running fine and you don't get occasional crashes I wouldn't change it either. I want to upgrade to a faster, more crash resistant system with fewer bugs (MS usually calls them "features"), and that I can tweak if I desire. MS locks users out of more and more  of their own system, and I've had enough! XP isn't bad to tweak or work with to get things running, Vista is a nightmare to do things that used to be reasonably easy in XP. 7 is supposed to be a little better, but still buries configuration stuff to keep the user out of as much as possible. That's fine for a business network, and understandable, but not for my home machine! 

Linux seems to run a lot better/faster on older hardware than XP. Mint just works right out of the box, though there will be an occasional problem with some obscure hardware combinations. The developers are accessible and will work on problems that aren't too esoteric, and there has usually been help available over a 2-3 day period for strange things -- like me installing the incorrect video driver and losing all video. Couldn't get that back without reinstalling everything! 

If you ever get the urge to try Linux stick Mint on one of your internet only machines (maybe the shop computer) and give it a whirl. The techie types gravitate toward more technical distributions, Mint if perfect for a user who doesn't want to delve into the deep innards of Linux, just want a good stable, usable system that they can get into if/when they desire. Since it works well on older hardware (I've got it on a PIII 1GB machine w/128MB graphics card and it is MUCH faster than XP was... it's usable now!) it's a good way to put it to work, though I wouldn't try to push it. Good internet machine though. I used my old PIII to play music over my stereo at a Halloween party (the alternate use for the shop!). Picked songs of the internet with Limewire as they were requested and played them. It would play and search at the same time with ease, and then d/l another song or two without interrupting the player. Not heavy use, but it was multi-tasking!

I've started a blog at http://newtolinuxmint.blogspot.com/. Take a read and you'll see some of the big differences between Windows and Linux. Most of the graphical based Linux distributions ("versions") have similar features to Mint, but Mint has some unique ones like Software Manager and the Mint "start" menu. 

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Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:47:54 +0000 (UTC)
From: Wrambler <wrambler242@xxxxxxxxxxx>

I, don't have ton of savvy, don't get into all the "stuff".
Tried, just gave me headaches  :( 

What I see when not wanting to buy new computers is that
when you are working on an old PC based machine you
see a need for three things on the web now.
RAM
Video RAM
NO dialup!

Of, course some good virus protection helps, but if you use good judgement
on websites, don't pop off your email, just leave it on the web. 
Everything seems to work pretty much ok.

 In my workshop is an old Emachine, with a new Motherboard, old 1.7 or 1.8 Processor.1 Gig of ram, 32 mb of video ram and the things runs fine with XP on board. IIRC I bought the thing around 2001. All my old machines that lack room for video expansion are dogs, woof, woof. Websites all want the flash a bling, that just slows the crap out of everything.

 Linux looks interesting, but, The machines I now have will all handle what I throw at them. I don't see a need to experiment. I got enough trouble keeping the fleet running and TWO houses in repair...

--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)


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