converting a old netbook

[subaqua]

I have an old XP machine ( don't worry its not going anywhere near a network ) and was thinking of putting a new OS on it to use for photostorage and basic editing, with some internet access and emailing when I am away from home rather than dragging my "big Laptop" with me.

I dont want to go down the widows route as i would like to get my boy interested in doing something with IT .

there are a bazillion ideas out there.

I am thinking Linux and Gimp. any pointers from the real tech geeks ?

 

[Tanis8472]

Linux Mint. Works great on most hardware and yes GIMP is brill too
Networking works well on it too.

 

[Tanis8472]

What is the hardware?

 

[subaqua]

What is the hardware?

It's an old Acer with an intel atom processor .

Would need to charge it up to power if on for processor speeds and RAM.

 

[Tanis8472]

There is also Puppy and Zorin, both should be lighter on resources than Mint if its too slow.

 

[Tanis8472]

This is also a good list of light distros

http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/10/12-great-linux-operating-systems-for.html

 

[subaqua]

well my procrastination finally stopped and i have just managed to wipe the old Acer , and install mint cinnamon. heres to a few days of playing and seeing what i can do on the thing

 

[Smokin Joe]

Linux is like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. Having tried it for a couple of months before going back to Windows I'm in the latter camp.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I use Lubuntu it does what I want on all my machines (4 of them) so haven't bothered looking at other distro's.

 

[subaqua]

I use Lubuntu it does what I want on all my machines (4 of them) so haven't bothered looking at other distro's.

I was advised on this one as the machine was not a new sparkly machine and has to be 10 years old at least .... although reasonably well specced with 1Gb of RAM a 1.6GHz atom processor and 160Gb HDD. if it works as a machine to download photos from the underwater camera when on trips it will be well worth it and cost nothing to get working , which as a tightwad northerner makes me smile.

 

[graham bowers]

Well done.
GIMP may be a bit complicated for basic editing, although I suppose it depends what specifically you wish to do. It takes 13 MB of disk space, so not a lot.
Give Pinta a go, it only needs 2 MB of disk space. Probably quicker for you to install and try it than me list it's capabilities. I have it on my Ubuntu Linux drive on this desktop machine. I also have it on a Pentium laptop running Mint 13 (Maya).
One of the great things about Linux is that the packages are free, so there is no barrier to trying them other than your time.

 

[keithmac]

I've always fancied trying a Linux OS.

Problem is most of my programs are Windows only (tuning the cars etc) and my work laptop is the same for Bike diagnostics

Might dig my old Compaq laptop out at some point.

The way Windows just eats resources RAM and hard disk space is unbelievable really.

Loved my old Amiga, amazing what a 512kb machine could do!.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Loved my old Amiga, amazing what a 512kb machine could do!.

Yes it made programmers really work for their money to get it to do what they wanted it to do, with very limited resources, now if it doesn't work, they just tell you that your machine is obsolete it needs more power, more memory & more disc swapping space instead of programming it smarter.

We had a piece of bespoke software that used to take 2 hours to run, I was complaining about the time it was taking, so we looked at putting it on a bigger machine, then somebody said that they would look at what it was actually doing, he couldn't believe how it had been written, he rewrote some of the scripts & calls, it now runs in under 15 minutes.