What To Do With Old Netbook?

I have an older Netbook. I considered selling it, but could probably only fetch a few dollars for it. While I have deleted everything from it, there was at one time sensitive financial files on it. It has Windows XP installed on it which isn't supported any longer. It only has a a 144GB hard drive and 1MB of ram. So it isn't going to good for a lot except perhaps web browsing. I don't have a tablet to take on vacations (though my wife has an iPad). I would like to get rid of Windows though since Chrome is no longer supported on XP. Any chances of installing a different operating system such as Linux? Would I have issues given the low RAM installed?

You may find specific info at this thread: http://www.linux.com/learn/answers/view/1227-min-sys-requirement-for-mint-14

Dave

Thanks, I created a boot-able USB stick and am in the process of installing Ubuntu on the netbook right now. I opted to just have it wipe out Windows instead of installing along side it. It will either work or be a brick, but I am no further behind I suppose than I was before.

Consider giving remix Os a try.


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Here's a list of where you can recycle

https://www.epa.gov/recycle/electronics-donation-and-recycling

taterhed said:

Consider giving remix Os a try.


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Thanks. I did download it and it is installed on a USB drive. I like that it is contained on the USB drive and doesn't do anything to the data on your PC. The problem is that when it installed on the USB drive, it shrunk the available side of the stick from 16GB to 3.44. It also seems very primitive. Not really sure how to get the Google Play Store installed or Google Chrome. I found some stuff, but some of the comments seem to suspect there may be problems.

I have Ubuntu installed on the hard disk drive and am so far liking it. I like that it also includes Libre Office. I wasn't able to install Chrome because Google is no longer supporting Chrome on 32 bit Linux installations. I have to use 32 bit because the Intel Atom processor won't support 64 bit. It is fine since I just installed Chromium instead. Pretty much the same.

Now to figure out how to reclaim that lost space on the USB stick. Formatting it doesn't work, I have some leads through some Google searches.

I got the un-allocated space back for that USB stick. Disk Management didn't work but was able to do it with Diskpart. I now have it loaded with the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 14.04. I am going to install it on another full size laptop that we have. If I can work on KMyMoney well enough to replace MS Money 2008, I would consider switching my everyday laptop over to Ubuntu from Windows 8. I could also install Ubuntu along side Windows 8 on that same laptop.

dioxide45 said:

I got the un-allocated space back for that USB stick. Disk Management didn't work but was able to do it with Diskpart. I now have it loaded with the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 14.04. I am going to install it on another full size laptop that we have. If I can work on KMyMoney well enough to replace MS Money 2008, I would consider switching my everyday laptop over to Ubuntu from Windows 8. I could also install Ubuntu along side Windows 8 on that same laptop.

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Sorry, late to reply.... DM didn't work? you couldn't see the partitions? I just checked my stick (remix) and I can see the partitions (and presumably delete them). I was also going to suggest EaseUS Partition master.

The remix might need dual boot to work well. Haven't played with it yet. Also, others have indicated bad luck with slow transfer rate usb keys.

Maybe I'll try some others. You say chromium worked well and Ubuntu 64? My machine is one of those weird 64 bit (almost) units. Will run some 64 but not others. ???

taterhed said:

Sorry, late to reply.... DM didn't work? you couldn't see the partitions? I just checked my stick (remix) and I can see the partitions (and presumably delete them). I was also going to suggest EaseUS Partition master.

The remix might need dual boot to work well. Haven't played with it yet. Also, others have indicated bad luck with slow transfer rate usb keys.

Maybe I'll try some others. You say chromium worked well and Ubuntu 64? My machine is one of those weird 64 bit (almost) units. Will run some 64 but not others. ???

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DM could see the partitions. There were actually three. I could delete one but not the other two. When I deleted the one it just became unallocated space. Three command lines in to Diskpart did the trick. Just used a little Googline.

I have Chromium running on Ubuntu 32 in the Netbook. The processor on the Netbook won't let me install the 64 bit version. I tried installing Remix OS 64 bit and it wouldn't work. The processor is only 686 and not x86. The full size laptop will support it. We have three laptop and the one netbook. It seems that Ubantu is a good way to extend the usable life of an older computer if you only need to perform basic tasks.

Thanks....we'll see how my adventure grows.....That or pitch that piece of plastic!

taterhed said:

Thanks....we'll see how my adventure grows.....That or pitch that piece of plastic!

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Worst case, you might just need to install the 32 bit version. If you end up going the Linux route, I found UnetBootin to be very easy. You can set it up to download and install just about any version of Linux to a USB drive. I didn't try it for CD, but I see really no reason to if the computer you are installing it on has a USB drive that you can boot to.

It took me a few tries to figure out how to force my computer to boot to the USB drive. First I tried to change the boot priority in the BIOS, but it still booted to the hard drive. I then found that I could press the Esc key during startup and it would allow me to pick which drive to boot from. All of my laptops so far are F2 to go in to the BIOS settings but one is Esc to load the boot menu and the other is F12. Now knowing that, I would not need to go in to the BIOS settings at all when booting up.

Once I booted to the USB drive, I was able to select several options of what I wanted to do. I just opted to install Ubuntu. During the install process you have the option of installing along side Windows or just wiping out all partitions and installing just Ubuntu. So far that is what I have done with the Netbook and just again tonight on a pre-2009 Windows Vista laptop. I have one more laptop to go, it is the most recent one prior to the one I use every day. I still dig it out every once in a while to look at an old email, but for the most part it isn't used. I am still debating on whether to install along side Windows or just wipe it out too. It is super SLOOOW running windows. The pre-2009 one that I did tonight was pretty much unusable with Windows. I don't know how I ever used it before. It was pretty much been wiped clean and a fresh factory restore because of a failed hard drive, so I don't know what its issue was. So far the two computers I have installed with Ubuntu are much faster, though the netbook still chugs along with some lag but is pretty good just browsing the web in Chromium.

Thanks...yeah, my old W7 laptop takes 3 hours to update an then crawls like a lizard

taterhed said:

Thanks...yeah, my old W7 laptop takes 3 hours to update an then crawls like a lizard

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The laptop I installed the 64 bit version on only has 2GB of RAM and I don't think it is going to work. It seems to just go to a black screen and won't come back without a manual power down. I also tried using the search function and the screen went yellow and didn't look quite right. I am going to switch it to 32 bit if I can.

dioxide45 said:

The laptop I installed the 64 bit version on only has 2GB of RAM and I don't think it is going to work. It seems to just go to a black screen and won't come back without a manual power down. I also tried using the search function and the screen went yellow and didn't look quite right. I am going to switch it to 32 bit if I can.

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Well, I have given up on Ubuntu on this older laptop. After struggling for almost a week, I have installed 64 bit Mint on it instead. I just couldn't get Ubuntu to work well. Tried 64 and 32 bit, tried different video drivers. Just couldn't get it to work. Using the default drivers the screen wouldn't wake after the laptop went to sleep. Close and reopen the lid and the only solution was a hard shut down. When I tried different drivers, it did fix that but presented other problems where the screen wouldn't draw correctly. I did some research on Mint vs. Ubuntu and thought I would try out Mint instead. I just installed it this morning. Much more of a Windows feel vs. Ubuntu which is more of an OS X. I will report back if I like it or not.

dioxide45 said:

I did some research on Mint vs. Ubuntu and thought I would try out Mint instead. I just installed it this morning. Much more of a Windows feel vs. Ubuntu which is more of an OS X. I will report back if I like it or not.

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It is not Ubuntu that looks like OS X but it is the default desktop environment Unity. You can change the default desktop environment if you want. I use Mate with Ubuntu because it looks like my Linux PC at work (linux distro CentOS 6 with default Gnome 2 environment).

http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/5-best-linux-desktop-environments-with-pros-cons

You guys are not making me eager to try this at home....I've got too many honey-doos and haven't started playing yet, but geez. My expectations are now low!

If you want to try different Linux distro, the best way if you have enough memory on your PC, it's to install them in a virtual machine using virtualbox or vmware.

youppi said:

It is not Ubuntu that looks like OS X but it is the default desktop environment Unity. You can change the default desktop environment if you want. I use Mate with Ubuntu because it looks like my Linux PC at work (linux distro CentOS 6 with default Gnome 2 environment).

http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/5-best-linux-desktop-environments-with-pros-cons

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Thanks for the link. As you can tell, I am still very much a novice at this stuff. Right now I have Mint installed on two laptops and Ubuntu on one netbook. I do like the interface of each for a different reason. Unity is much simpler but I find Cinnamon to be more familiar. I will check in to some of the other options at the link you provided.