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Ok, first things first, recently I installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my old PC and all went well for the first few hours. After that it kept randomly crashing. the whole screen freezes except I can still move the cursor. Tried a few other OS's (Gentoo and Puppy) and they work perfectly but I just like Ubuntu and want to fix it. Anyone know whats up with it?
Second question, I'm off to Uni soon (hopefully ) and am looking for a UMPC to take with me. Don't really care if it's not exactly high powered as I'll be putting Puppy Linux on it. Have a thing for touch screens too so if possible I'd like one of them too. So far I've found This and This.
Does anyone know of a good laptop similar to these? And BTW, I don't want an EEE, the stupid shaped screen puts me off (unless I found one for dirt cheap).
anyways, if these small versions of linux work fine, maybe that's what you need; a smaller linux. Have you tried Xubuntu, which is an Ubuntu distro meant for lower-end machines?
grossaffe wrote:you say "old PC". how old are we talking?
anyways, if these small versions of linux work fine, maybe that's what you need; a smaller linux. Have you tried Xubuntu, which is an Ubuntu distro meant for lower-end machines?
Should have been a bit clearer
4 years old about. Pentium 4 3GHz processor, 512Mb ram, 128Mb Graphics card. All I can remember off the top of my head.
hmm, I would expect a machine like that to run fine with Ubuntu. Maybe you'd get better help from the folks down at UbuntuForums.org as I myself am still pretty new to Ubuntu (started around January)
edit: Maybe you could give Gutsy Gibbon a try, though, as my system has comparable specs to yours and it has been extremely stable.
Your Linux problem most likely has to do with some incompatibility between your graphics card and the X server, or X to Gnome, or a countless number of other system services. Just put your laptop model and "ubuntu" into Google and something should come up. This is why I don't like Linux as a desktop OS: no matter what the distro, some minute yet critical component will suddenly die in a way that's virtually unique to your setup, and you'll have to waste a bunch of time tracking it down. Computers should work for you, not the other way around. In my opinion, you're better off running Windows on computers you use on a regular basis, and set Linux aside as something to tinker with or a home server.
As for a laptop, it's not exactly ultra-portable but look for a Toshiba Portege. My 7200 with 384 MB of RAM is just fine for Office, Firefox, and other desktop programs. (Just don't try to play modern games or do video editing on it.) 600mhz P3, 13" screen, about an inch thick. Make sure you get the dock, rather than just the port replicator. That way you get a normal DVD drive you can boot from. Again, don't bother with Linux on it. XP will run fine, all the hardware amenities (WiFi and power management, for example) will work flawlessly, and your coursework might come with training software that only runs on it.
DK wrote:And Bic, it did have XP on it until the hard drive exploded and I lost the XP install disc and I'm not a pirate
You're good if you still have the product key. Thats all you really buy.
Triton, ketchup, and I would recommend the Lifebook B26x0.
Yeah, all you need is a key, and a disc for the same version of XP (pro or home), and you're fine. You can even borrow one from a friend or something (assuming it's an actual XP disc and not a "restore" disc tied to a specific computer). I did this recently when I used my new XP SP3 disc (purchased June 30th ) to reinstall XP on my Dell desktop, using the serial from the sticker that was put on there 5 years ago.
And Lifebooks pwn. Like vskid said, get a B26x0; they're great, and Linux-friendly if you're into that.
Glad to hear you got it working. Once you learn (and I mean REALLY learn) how to use a Unix or Unix-like system, you'll never want to use anything else. I'm not a Mac fan at all, but i'd switch to OS X before using XP again, and thats saying something.
) and am looking for a UMPC to take with me. Don't really care if it's not exactly high powered as I'll be putting Puppy Linux on it. Have a thing for touch screens too so if possible I'd like one of them too. So far I've found This and This.
) to reinstall XP on my Dell desktop, using the serial from the sticker that was put on there 5 years ago.
Like vskid said, get a B26x0; they're great, and Linux-friendly if you're into that.
