Breathe
new life into your old computer
Many
people have older model laptop's and desktop computer's, possibly XP
machines, that they don't really want to part with. The problem with
these machines is that the modern internet and modern programs are
too fast and heavy for these machines. There are a few ways that you
can make improvements, but if you have a machine running, for
instance, Windows XP, then Microsoft are no longer supporting this
Operating System (O.S.)
This
means that you have your XP laptop upgraded to maximum memory, a nice
big Harddrive and a fresh install of XP, the machine then downloads
all the old updates from the Microsoft server, then basically
updates no more. Any threat towards the XP operating system after 8th
April 2014 will not be catered for. XP ran for 14 years but was quite
heavily flawed from day one, they released 3 service packs, and
hundreds of majors updates, but it is no longer supported so what do
you do?
Firstly,
we look at the machine itself, is it capable of being upgraded to
Vista, if so, it may be possible to upgrade to Windows 7. Can we
upgrade to Windows 8 or 8.1, or even Windows 10.
The
answer will probably be that Vista is possible, if it will upgrade to
Vista, then it might be worth skipping Vista and move on to W7. As
far as W8 and above goes, probably unlikely, but if you did manage to
get it installed, it probably wouldn't work properly. I have usually
told people to look at the hardware drivers for their machine and see
what drivers are available, and for which O.S.
If
you have an XP or Vista machine with an old dual-core, it will
probably run a low end version of W7 (Starter, Basic or Home) quite
happily, but not particularly quickly.
If
you have an old machine that carries a single core processor, such as
a Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon, for instance, you could possibly get W7
Starter or Basic, running Vista Drivers, but performance would be
seriously sluggish even with the memory maxed out.
To
give an example here, I have a Dell Optiplex SX260, a tiny little
thing, single core Pentium 4 processor, onboard intel graphics, IDE
HDD (non-sata board) and maxed to 2GB ddr1 memory. I ran a few
systems with this board, and managed to install W7 starter from a
dell netbook disk and used vista compatible drivers, then basically
went into setting's and turned everything off so it had the visual
appearance of windows millenium. When this was was done, it managed
to get a fair amount of performance, but I only really use the
machine for testing, retro games and emulators.
There
are some machines on the market currently, that carry single core
processors, both cpu's and apu's, but these are modern processors
fitted to much faster motherboards, sometimes physically fitted to
the board, meaning that they cannot be upgraded unless you are
seriously good with a soldering iron.
So
lets get to the point, Windows operating systems are too heavy, too
demanding and not very secure. One of the options for the older
machine is a completely new operating system that will be lightweight
and increase performance.
I'm
talking about Linux Operating Systems. I have been using linux
systems for a few years now, and I have grown quite fond of linux,
but a lot of my work requires that I use Windows, so I have not fully
made the transition to linux, but you would be surprised at how many
different types of linux you already own. For instance, if you own a
PS3, it uses Yellow Dog Linux, I should know, I've fixed enough of
them in my time.
Ok,
so it's time to make a disclaimer. I don't know what machine you
have, and I don't know what O.S. will work best. You will probably
have to do a bit of research, watch a few youtube videos about your
machine running linux. All I am going to do here is put you on the
right path. If you are worried about any data that you may have, then
remove your HDD, and replace it with one that you can use for trial
and error.
So,
you have a computer with a spare HDD installed, so we are good to go.
When testing linux products there are two important facts that will
benefit you. The first is that all of these operating systems are
Open Source, this means that they are FREE. The second is that the
majority of these O.S.'s are downloadable as ISO's so that they can
be burned to a blank dvd disk and when inserted to the dvd drive, you
simply boot from that drive and have the option of running the O.S.
from the dvd disk before you decide to install. This means that you
get to 'try before you buy' so to speak. These are called 'live'
disks
Step
one, choose an operating system
I'm
actually not going to get to deep into this bit, it all depends on
your machine, it's capabilities, and your own personal preference, I
am merely going to make a few suggestions on potential choices. You
want to go to a site called Distrowatch (http://distrowatch.com/)
and have a look around. You will find hundreds of O.S.'s, including
Android, reviews on the various versions
of each O.S. I would probably say to you, go with anything that is
based on Ubuntu Linux, simply because they are popular and there is a
lot of help out there should you need it.
If
you are looking for a linux replacement for windows or mac, I would
recommend giving Zorin (http://zorinos.com/)
a try, due to it giving you the ability to change the desktop to
different O.S. layout's so it can look like windows or mac os or even
a different type of linux. If
you need to see the O.S. in action, just nip over to youtube, there
are plenty of examples. The
popular kid at the moment is Linux Mint, you have ElementaryOS. If
you have a really old, low spec machine, then try Puppy linux, slax, antiX or DSL
(Damn Small Linux – http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/).
Also, don't forget Ubuntu itself.
I'd
like to mention here also, that if
you are musically or video minded, and would like a completely free
audio studio take a look at Ubuntu Studio (https://ubuntustudio.org/)
this is the Ubuntu Operating System pre-loaded with open source
software as a full digital studio, and it's completely Free.
So
you have chosen and downloaded your O.S.'s ( as ISO's) and now you
need to burn them to disk. You can run these from a USB, but I'm
keeping this simple, so we'll stick with the disks.
On
a windows pc, download and install an ISO burner
(http://www.freeisoburner.com/)
insert a blank dvd disk into your dvd drive and burn the iso to the
disk. Remove the finished product to the test machine, turn on the
test machine and press either the f2 button or the Delete button (f10
for HP machines) to enter the bios or f12 for the boot menu and
choose to boot from the dvd drive on the machine. What
will happen now is that when you boot from the dvd drive, the machine
will read the dvd and boot from it, and will go to a working desktop
that you can test-drive without installing to harddrive.
I
have just made a quick video showing this and I'll post it on youtube
for you.
The
other option to linux is android and the best place to go would
probably be http://www.android-x86.org/download
where you can download the lastest android and give it a try.
Remember,
do your research, have a look around, if you install anything then
have problems, wipe the harddrive with hirens boot cd or similar,
then try again. If you use a live cd, then you wont be installing,
you'll be running from the disk itself. If you install any of these
systems, more often than not, they are a complete package and
everything should work fine, but not always. With android take a look
here
http://here-we-go-again.com/converting-an-old-netbook-to-android-with-android-x86/
If
you fancy turning an old netbook to a chromebook, it is kinda
possible, but not very easy to do. I have found an article over at
lifehacker that you can have a look at. Personally I'm not a fan of
chrome but this method actually uses a linux version called Chromium
OS https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os
Chromium
OS download - http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/
If
you would like to get an independent opinion of various Linux
operating systems, then I would recommend a tripover to youtube and
watch Quidsup https://www.youtube.com/user/quidsup
If
you would like to test drive Windows 10 on your machine, but don't
want to upgrade and would rather do a fresh install, I have found an
ISO link which will help you
If
you are looking to refurbish an old xp netbook or speedup a W7
netbook, with the Acer Aspire One I would usually recommend
Jolicloud, now Joli OS, but sadly discontinued, but still availible
though distrowatch. Failing that, zorin works well with most netbooks
and there is LXLE http://lxle.net/
LXLE
is
a Linux distribution which is based on Ubuntu, but it is only based
on the LTS releases, a good operating system for older
computers
Download,
test, have fun, and I hope that you get to breathe new life into your
old machines
Best
of Luck!
Comments
Post a Comment