Do you have an old laptop or even an old desktop computer at your business or home that no longer does the job? Is it too slow and sluggish to do simple tasks like browsing the internet or word processing?
No need to buy a new computer….
There are a couple of solutions such as buying a new Chromebook or even a new laptop or tablet. Instead of spending a lot of money, you can breath some new life into that laptop for cost of some time, a usb drive and and a little research.
Many people have heard of Linux but are too afraid to take the plunge because they feel it is not as easy to use as Windows. With the new Windows 8 software, ease of us isn’t that easy anymore and with how far the Linux operating system variants have come, using Linux is an excellent option.
The current laptop that I am using to type this is an old IBM ThinkPad T42 from 2005. Any of the newer Windows operating systems newer than Windows XP will be extremely slow, if they even run on this old hardware. Instead of I am using a variant of Ubuntu called Xubuntu.
Xubuntu to the rescue….
Xubuntu is a lightweight version of the Ubuntu operating system that allows me to get all of the benefits of an open source, free operating system on old computer hardware. When using Xubuntu, the old hardware has more than enough horsepower to support speedy web browsing using Google Chrome or Firefox internet web browsers and it even allows me to play skip free videos using a video player called VLC.
There are couple of things that you have to know before installing your new operating system, which includes what version of Xubuntu is needed for your particular CPU and there are some minimum system requirements but those requirements are very low.
Software options galore….
Before you start your installation, understand that it is not 100% fool proof. You should backup and software or files that you want to keep and also realized that software such as Microsoft Office or other Windows applications will not run on the new operating system. With that in mind, there is a huge amount of comparable, free software packages that will allow you to do almost everything you could do on a Windows computer. I am currently using the Google apps for word processing, spreadsheets and other office type applications. I am also using a package call GIMP for photo editing that all but replaces Photoshop. The best part about the using the Google Apps is that you can run them from an internet browser, Chrome, from almost any computer. There are also more office applications that can be installed to the hard drive too but that is too much to cover in the scope of this article.
Do your research first….
The research part that I talked about above should be minimal and there is a lot of great information on the Internet that will explain how to do the installation.
Some of the things to look for are what type of CPU you have, either a 32 bit or 64 bit processor. The hard disk size and how much memory is installed in the computer and if you can use a USB as a boot device. You can also use a CD to boot the Xubuntu software but a USB drive works really well.
A Simple way to get your new operating system installed….
A few things that will help you such as a program called UNetbootin that will help you download and create the bootable USB drive. This software is free and it lets you select the version of Ubuntu, download it and then install it to the USB drive. This is one of the key software programs that I have used and it has worked flawlessly.
After you create the bootable USB drive, you boot your computer and select USB as a boot device. There is a menu of various options and one the most useful is “try “operating system” before you install it. This allows you to see if your hardware will support the version that you downloaded to the USB drive and give it a test drive. If there are any problems, it will give you an error and you can Google it and find the answer easily from what I have found.
If you like how it drives, hit the gas and install it….
If you are able to do the test drive, you can proceed with the installation, which is fairly straight forward, and install your new operating system.
The installation will ask you various questions such as:
- What language do you need
- It checks to see that you have 4.3gb of disk space
- If you want to install third party software (I suggest you do)
- Asks you to connect to a wireless network
- what hard drive to install on (default will wipe out all data but is the best choice)
- Your location
- Keyboard type
- Who are you? (Username and password setup)
After some time, depending upon how fast your computer is, it will complete copying all the files and then ask you to restart the computer.
After the restart, to software will have a some updates to install which depends upon what version of Xubuntu you used. I installed version 12.10 on my laptop and it had about 238 megabytes of updates.
Time for you to enjoy your new, old computer….
Once all the updates are done you can use the Ubuntu Software Center application to install other applications. I find myself using Xubuntu about 98% of the time compared to my newer Windows laptop. I am planning on installing Xubuntu on that laptop too but this one has worked so well, I am in no rush.
There you have it. Instead of sending that old laptop or desktop computer to the recycle bin, try to revive it and give it a second chance at life. You have nothing to loose and even if you already bought a new computer and have an old one laying around, you can always install Xubuntu and keep it as spare or give it to a family member or friend.
If you do an install like this, please leave me a comment below and let me know how it worked out for you.