Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

mgb360 t1_ivnq877 wrote

Ah yes, Linux, the thing that would make my old laptops usable if only I could figure out how anything works on it

233

In-Gloom t1_ivnsjn2 wrote

"William E. Shotts, Jr. - The Linux command line: a complete introduction" - changed my life.

113

edwardianpug OP t1_ivnqg7o wrote

Mint is one of the more user friendly versions

43

mgb360 t1_ivnugvp wrote

Oh I've tried it, I recognized it immediately. Still end up bashing my head against a wall trying to solve some minor issue that pops up.

37

PermanenteThrowaway t1_ivoh3pr wrote

Two years in and I've come to accept show-stopping bugs as just another unavoidable fact of life.

22

A_number-1234 t1_iw2hsl3 wrote

Same here. In general it works good, but in some cases it's like they have their priorities backwards, regarding what they make easy. I soon need to upgrade from 19.3 in order to keep getting security updates, but it's a "major upgrade", which is high risk and requires command line knowledge. I can do it, unless something goes wrong (which I estimate to a 40% risk), then I'd need to know every detail about how the system works to troubleshoot and correct it. I always take full disk backups before upgrading, but that will only get me back to the old version, not help me with a successful upgrade...

1

mgb360 t1_iw3i9vr wrote

See, that's exactly the kind of thing I mean. There's no reason you should need command knowledge just to update. Really, needing command knowledge to do any basic functions is pretty user unfriendly

2

A_number-1234 t1_iw4rwnd wrote

Indeed. It's stupid. Mint is better than many other distros, but I can't say it's good. It has pretty much modern functionality day-to-day-wise (AFAIK, I haven't used Windows 10 or newer much, and Mac not at all), but even things like updating, repairing file systems after not unmounting before disconnecting something, and other necessary but rarely used functions are like Windows 98 level at best - sometimes DOS. If it wasn't for increasing privacy concerns with Windows, I would have stuck with it. Open source philosophy is better, but the current state of the distros I've tried is definitely not. Nor the availability of information, when problems occur.

1

mgb360 t1_iw4vn10 wrote

Privacy concerns are a big one. I've been holding on to windows 7 for as long as possible but it's getting to the point that a lot just won't work with it. I'd like to switch to Linux, it's just not easy

2

Quirky_Inflation t1_ivpougi wrote

Don't worry, after two years of headbanging and multiple system reinstall, you will somehow understand how to use it

16

WayneKrane t1_ivpy4p5 wrote

My coworker tried to get me to switch to Linux. He showed me his setup and I was like, nah, hard pass. Not trying to get a degree in computing just to avoid using windows.

11

crash-alt t1_ivqtt44 wrote

Less þat its more complicated, more þat you aren’t used to it and you are used to windows. Or he has a complicated/more CLI based setup. I personally use enough GUIs þat some in linux communities would dislike me for it, but you can generally ignore þe toxicity of þe larger community.

0

dasWolverine t1_ivr1jf2 wrote

Don’t that me, friend, but I think your “th” is broken

8

Significant-Weight64 t1_iw0cgmv wrote

Figures that the kind of guy who insists on using Linux would be the kind of guy who insists on using thorn. ;)

2

crash-alt t1_iw1qx2g wrote

Kinda right, but i do use windows for gaming

1

Freedom_Fighter_0798 t1_ivoy8nr wrote

Why don’t you try ChromeOS Flex? Linux-based so it’s lightweight but with an easy to use interface.

5

galactadon t1_ivp1xj5 wrote

ChromeOS Flex doesn't support 32 bit, not sure of the architecture on this model but that's been my issue with older laptops

12

dandydudefriend t1_ivqshs4 wrote

They really don’t make it easy. Sometimes they try, but they forget that not everyone is a programmer or just has 50 years of context to understand computer terminology

4

WayneKrane t1_ivpy939 wrote

My coworker tried to get me to switch to Linux. He showed me his setup and I was like, nah, hard pass. Not trying to get a degree in computing just to avoid using windows.

2

majornerd t1_ivqtwua wrote

Linux for Windows Admins by Mark Minasi is amazing too

1

wowsomuchempty t1_ivpgb4g wrote

Well, by doing nothing I guess you gave it your best shot :p

−7

mgb360 t1_ivpugwu wrote

I've installed half a dozen different distributions, and spent multiple afternoons on forums trying to find the solutions to the problems I've had.

11

[deleted] t1_ivo4yal wrote

I can relate, did the same with my Toshiba NB305 Atom notebook running bodhi, and an old HP G7 1317c running Lubuntu.

The HP dual boots Windows 10 if I have to, but mostly I run Lubuntu.

Linux brought them both back from the dead.

55

kalpol t1_ivq4mf6 wrote

I'm still flogging an Acer Aspire One, running Mint. Its slow but the form factor is really nice.

14

[deleted] t1_ivr0cw9 wrote

I tried several Linux distros on the Toshiba Atom and (for me) the best results were with Bodhi

That's what I like about Linux, multiple flavors to trial and error until YOU decide what works best on your machine

6

lwrdmp t1_ivnqq6p wrote

Did you switch it to linux right when you bought it or much later on ? I do have pretty much the same situation with an old thinkpad on mint who does the job

24

edwardianpug OP t1_ivnrkyo wrote

I bought it for 30 eur a year or so ago because of nostalgia. It came with Windows XP on it and I popped linux on because I just wanted it to do the occasional bit of stuff unconnected to the internet. The pic was taken when I was updating things over ethernet.

32

sandybuttcheekss t1_ivpr13z wrote

Did the same thing with a refurbished Dell. Cost me $100 with a guarantee it'll work or my money back from a major retailer, put Ubuntu on it once I was sure it booted and was able to connect to the internet, hold a charge, etc. I've never been happier with a laptop.

5

Bubbly_Collection329 t1_ixxrmhm wrote

does it run well? i have a old t43 with broken screen, and i was wondering if i should buy a screen and maybe hook it up to an ssd via a usb 3.0 to sata cable i have.

1

bigdaddychainsaw t1_ivnq71b wrote

Nice! What OS are you running?

15

edwardianpug OP t1_ivnqdbt wrote

Linux Mint.... there are leaner ones that I could use, but I use it rarely enough not to care about a slow boot up.

23

Cowmama7 t1_ivonuhk wrote

mint xfce is relatively lightweight and comes with essentially all of the features of mint plus insane customizability from the fact that the xfce de is like 20 years old and has really great documentation.

4

cybernev t1_ivqn5am wrote

Lubuntu and xbuntu are my fav. Light weight distro.

Puppy Linux or something is very light weight at 128 mb.

1

crash-alt t1_ivqty17 wrote

I tried puppy. It is way more confusing þan it should be.

1

Verynearlydearlydone t1_ivp08rc wrote

I’m just realizing my laptop that’s 11 years of works entirely fine.

13

Sweet_Guard3904 t1_ivp58tn wrote

Gotta love those classic keyboards and not the chiclet keys nowadays

12

Troutsicle t1_ivpz4qk wrote

I have win98 on one of my IBM A20M's that i should try this on.

I love the trackpoint enough that i still daily my 02R0400 IBM keyboard.

7

CunningRunt t1_ivplj31 wrote

I have a Thinkpad 600E from 1999 that still connects to the internet.

Yes, it's running linux. Since I love old tech, I still find it quite useful without a lot of clutter. I've learned how to use a lot of debugging tools with it.

6

NCFlying t1_ivom4y6 wrote

I love me some IBM Thinkpads!! Those things were built like tanks!

5

XS4Me t1_ivq6ebo wrote

Lenovo has kept a lot of the design in their current T series.

1

Nice2meetyoutoo t1_ivs88fo wrote

And they felt like it! 😆 They were heavy! My laptop bag broke on the busiest and most pickpocket dense railway station in my country just when I got off the train. Thud! Lots of legs but I managed to grab it before someone else could.

1

brhyatt t1_ivq9k03 wrote

That keyboard is amazing. Probably one of the best laptop keyboards ever as far as travel and tactile feel (IMO).

5

Jonyb222 t1_ivpnh07 wrote

I'm pretty surprised it had a 1 Gbit ethernet connect at that time, a quick google search tells me most hard-drives capped out at about 50MB/s or 400Mb/s in 2005 and those were likely for the Desktops.

2

vMambaaa t1_ivpsrv4 wrote

the bandwidth of your NIC hasn’t nothing to do with the write speed of your hard drive.

6

Jonyb222 t1_ivq05to wrote

Well yea, but you're not going to have much use of it a 1Gb connection if there isn't much you can do with it

3

vMambaaa t1_ivq2fny wrote

…..you streaming content and loading web-pages has nothing to do with your HARD DRIVE write speed 😂.

2

Jonyb222 t1_ivq6s20 wrote

There wasn't that much streaming going on in 2005, and you were limited by internet speeds, which in 2005 was roughly 1-2 Mb/s.

So the main place to use a 1Gb/s connection would be a local network

4

Significant-Weight64 t1_iw0ccd8 wrote

A good high-bandwidth, low-latency network connection such as you might find at a university was great back then because it meant you often retrieve anything from the Internet faster than you could load it from your HDD.

Mind you, fast network connections are still great, but the days when the Internet could be faster than local storage are pretty much gone.

2

galbi66 t1_ivppwol wrote

It's not 17 years ago this photo was taken. His laptop is 17 years old.

3

vMambaaa t1_ivpyeti wrote

he’s probably thinking of the bandwidth of the physical NIC on the laptop vs the bandwidth of the internet connection and he’d be right to wonder about that.

idk how it was for things like laptops, but it wouldn’t be that uncommon to see a 100mb bandwidth NIC on an enterprise switch, although 1gb was certainly common as well.

2

LichK1ng t1_ivqoyfh wrote

How are you pretending to be tech inclined? You aren't getting the inclination that he is referring to the fact if you download at 1Gbps and your laptops HD only writes at 400Mbps then it's a waste to have a 1Gbps NIC? And where were you working that a 1Gb NIC was common in 2005?

−1

qumast t1_ivqt687 wrote

Love T43 and T43p ♥

2

MJBrune t1_ivr7soa wrote

I love linux but boy is it a pain to do most things on. I've worked on Linux desktops and Linux servers for 10+ years. I still end up with issues like "oh you updated your kernel but your graphics drivers didn't automatically resetup, time to restart into the command line and now you get to figure out how to configure nvidia drivers from cli. ENJOY! Hope you didn't want to actually start working!"

The alternative to that seems to be "great you use a distro that updates packages ever decade. Here is this new app you gotta use for work to get the thing you want to do done but it requires libbullshit 2.0.1 but you have libbullshit 1.0.-1 installed. Enjoy figuring out a workaround! Typically I then just extract it to ~/bin and manually compile everything then put ~/bin in my path but really it takes 10 times more time to install something on linux than windows where it's click -> click -> click -> launch -> working.

I'm really waiting for someone to take linux and offer a better workflow for installing things. The windows ecosystem got it right when it just included most libraries next to the executable in order as a fallback.

2

kapone3047 t1_ivrejxr wrote

Old ThinkPads and Linux. Name a more iconic duo

2

srekkas t1_ivpy3u7 wrote

Now open some modern web page :)

1

Toothless_Dinosaur t1_ivq846u wrote

I have one that bought 15 years ago and still works. The only problem is that heats up very quick. But gets fixed putting a bottle of water over it. Don't use it very frequently but is still alive. And with Linux, the laptop saver.

1

8dogsinatrenchcoat t1_ivqh0vj wrote

Ohhhh Mint on a ThinkPad... that's the good stuff right there. I rocked that for quite a while.

1

kindofharmless t1_ivql7w6 wrote

Ever considered an upgrade? Not sure if it’s available for this model, but there are some upgrade kits for older ThinkPads. I’m talking motherboards with newer processors and such.

1

edwardianpug OP t1_ivqp6f8 wrote

I'd definitely consider..... the keyboard snd the aspect ratio of the screen are perfect, if I could speed it up, even better...

1

celticchrys t1_ivqs8sa wrote

I truly miss the old IBM Thinkpads. Last one I had lasted a decade.

1

banditx19 t1_ivr16xb wrote

I just bought a $150, 13.3” thinkpad chromebook. The build quality is absurd in the best possible way.

1

4linosa t1_ivr34x0 wrote

Awesome!

I miss my T61P! These were beasts in their time. Made my EE coursework easier to bear (less waiting for computer to catch up) AND I could game on it since the discrete GPU was basically and 8600GT. Good times.

1

pyramix t1_ivr8k9e wrote

Oh, the Thinkpad T43 was a fantastic laptop!

1

bonedaddy-jive t1_ivr8s0k wrote

That was my prime laptop for several years. Excellent build quality, and really good monitor for the day. I especially like the rubberized coating.

1

magoulet t1_ivrgsqk wrote

I can relate! Going on 3 years with my T480s, wouldn't trade it for anything else. Thinkpad keyboards are out of this world, not to mention the trackpoint.

1

BornAgainSpecial t1_ivva4il wrote

You can't even browse reddit on it. The soy devs who own reddit are in a racket with google and all the others to deliberately make everything bloated.

1

edwardianpug OP t1_ivx71i5 wrote

Reddit has one animation that I'm obsessed with. When you view a profile on a phone and as you scroll, the pfp gets smaller and appears after the name.

1

seantabasco t1_iy8hz08 wrote

unrelated to this sub, I always preferred that little baby joystick thing in the middle over a touchpad. I imagine it must be patented by IBM or something and that's why it seems like no other company ever does it.

1