Do I Need A New Computer? - Comments Page 1

If versions of Windows starting with a 3 or a 9 need to be replaced, so much more so with the version starting with "M" (WinMe). I always called that Microsoft's greatest operating system disaster since DOS 4.0. That is, until Windows Vista came out. :-D

A computer that's "old" by people who want to sell you a new computer is often an excellent candidate for installing Linux. Linux is more secure than Windows will EVER be, and doesn't require nearly as much hardware. And I am awed by how readily it just installs and just works. A week ago, I did my first hard drive install of Linux ever (Ubuntu 7.04, "Feisty Fawn") and it went slick as a whistle. It found all of the hardware (including the winmodem) and set everything up. I hardly had to do a thing until it was time to set up the users and passwords.

An "old" pc with a 500 mhz processor and 128 MB of RAM (256MB, so much the better) would make a fine Linux PC for writing letters, doing calculations, checking email, listening to music and many other things for several years to come.

If someone has used a computer and has not done any maintenance, that can certainly affect performance. Adding to your list, its amazing how a little Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag can help open things up. I know some dispute Defrags use but after several years, it can make a difference.

The other thing to note if you are buying a new computer, it will likely come with Vista. While it is very nice, it does require certified drivers for all your devices. If they are not available, you may suddenly find your scanner and printer have to be replaced too. So look before you leap.

You said "the mere presence of a floppy drive on your machine may indicate that it's time to take it out back and shoot it." I don't agree as I put a floppy in my new computers. I keep my passwords on a floppy disk. Even if my harddrive is stolen, my passwords are safe. My computer uses a floppy to boot into Puppy Linux. Otherwise it boots right into Windows. No delay like you get with Grub.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You might want to think about flash drives...

I messed around on an IBM 570 laptop 300Mz PII processor(with 390MB of RAM) that I bought for $130 and took the 11GB hard drive out and stuck in a 2GB IDE Flash drive. Loaded up Win2000 onto it to see if it would fly, and it did! That was the whole reason behind getting this laptop. It only has a 300MHZ PII processor but with the Flash drive it loads Word for Windows almost instantaneously, where my other laptop with a much faster 2GHZ processor and a 20GB hard drive takes a while. A real test would be to install Open Office, which is a hog and takes forever to load, on the IBM 570 to see how fast that loads. My idea is to change old computers to IDE Flash and use USB thumb drives for storage. The Win2000 with service pack4, Firefox, and Word 2000 only take up 1.3GB giving me 700MBs leftover. Surfs the web just fine! A 4Gig Flash would be much better! I like breathing new life into old machines... //bob

Just to second Mike's comments. Most Linuxes with KDE desktops will run on sub 1GHz processors and 256MB RAM. GNOME desktops (e.g. Ubuntu, Mint) need only 196MB RAM.
Then you have the lightweight distros such as Puppy, Austrumi, DSL, which will run on sub 500 MHz machines - so even those old Pentium II and K6-2 machines need be considered redundant.

Bob, the 33ASR photo brings back memories. Our first timeshare service (GE) was with such a machine at 110 baud. Later, a lab data acquisition system I purchased used the 33ASR as the system console. Reloading the system from the large roll of paper tape using such a machine which sat in a dusty lab environment was always such a tense operation -- one bit off and start over!

I own a Dell with W98 that I intend to convert to Linux for just the reasons Mike indicated. The only thing holding me back is no experience at all with Linux.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Start with Ubuntu, I think you'll find it pretty smooth. http://askbobrankin.com/ubuntu_linux_feisty_fawn.html

Hi Bob, can you help? I've got a 512mb usb2 flash drive that has got formated as RAW. It says Q+plus Technologies on it, but they don't seem to exist. I trawled Google and found recommended software and tips to make it format, but it just error messages that it can't be formatted. The best sounding tip was to try to partition the drive, but again it wont do it. I can see the drive, but, as a RAW drive, and nothing seems to touch it. Any ideas? Peter (member since the late 80s, thanks, I wouldn't be as competent today if it wasn't for the Bus).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Click Start, Run, then enter the diskmgmt.msc command. Rightclick on the flash drive, and select Format. If that doesn't work, it's probably defective.

I have a cable modem that is nearly six years old, soon. I pay a few extra dollars a month for a 8Meg internet connection and lately i heard of talk of newer faster modems. I was wondering is it time to get a new modem And if so, which modem would you recommend?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I had a cable modem that started acting flaky after a few years, so I do think they have a limited lifespan. Check your speed at http://speakeasy.net/speedtest and see if you're getting what your ISP claims.

My computer is running slooooooooowwwww and every website I go on it comes out to big what do i do?

Hi Bob, I have 2 hard drives on my system. An 80gb on the C: drive and a 120gb on the F: drive. The 80 gb was added becasue I thought the 120gb was on the way out. It turned out to be my power supply. My question is does the F: drive 120gb need to have windows on it. It has windows xp. Thanks for any help.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You only need Windows installed on the boot drive, which seems to be your 80gig (C:) drive. So if you want to remove Windows from the F: drive, that's fine.