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Topic: XP after XP (Read 48516 times)

Re: XP after XP

Reply #25 –
A tricky part is I have a "lifetime warranty" for my NP, so... They say I'll lose it if the servicemen don't find Windows as - the? - op.system.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #31 –
I've never heard of a lifetime warranty on hardware?

Replacement of the main board would exceed the cost of a newer machine. So just make sure that's the problem... And that's why that doesn't make sense.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #33 –
Quote from: Josh on

Quote from: ensbb3 on
I've never heard of a lifetime warranty on hardware?
It was a paid thing.
I have a separate "terms" and a "club card". :faint:

Is it your lifetime or the netbook's lifetime? :)

Seriously, the warranty makes no sense. It's only understandable if there was no way to make the purchase without the unnecessary warranty.

The fact remains that Windows doesn't have a very long life cycle on such a machine and is doomed to be replaced. You can make it dual-boot to keep Windows for sentimental or whatever reasons, but this means you have to be more careful when installing Linux.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #36 –
A lifetime warrantee on a computer doesn't mean much simply because of the upgrade cycle.
Right now, my old laptop is near the end of its life. Windows XP is nearly at the end of its cycle, and while it looks as though the old machine could take Windows 8 it would mean getting a bigger hard-drive at a minimum, and it would be struggling to keep up with now limited RAM (when I got the machine 2 gigabytes was almost unimaginable, now it's pathetically tiny). I have to really think about it before spending money trying to update the old machine.

I don't think I would spend much on extended warrantees for that reason. Anything much over a couple of years, you're probably looking at replacing the machine anyway.
What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Earth?
According to several tests involving a watermelon and a large hammer, it would be really bad!

Re: XP after XP

Reply #37 –
Quote from: mjmsprt40 on

Right now, my old laptop is near the end of its life. Windows XP is nearly at the end of its cycle, and while it looks as though the old machine could take Windows 8 it would mean getting a bigger hard-drive at a minimum, and it would be struggling to keep up with now limited RAM (when I got the machine 2 gigabytes was almost unimaginable, now it's pathetically tiny). I have to really think about it before spending money trying to update the old machine.

Upgrading a machine for money is conceivable, if you really need additional hardware. With 2GB of RAM, this machine should run any kind of Linux comfortably, experiencing glitches only with the heaviest desktops, such as KDE with all the flashy effects.

So, if you only need to replace the software, it can be done free of charge. Which is how I usually do it. 2GB may seem minimum RAM these days, but I have made machines with below 1GB run smooth with up-to-date set of programs, Firefox, Libreoffice, multimedia players, etc.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #38 –
I seem to have not more than 1 GB RAM, remember?
It seems that I'd like to start a separate topic on ways to boost the RAM.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #39 –
Quote from: Josh on

I seem to have not more than 1 GB RAM, remember?
It seems that I'd like to start a separate topic on ways to boost the RAM.
Yes, I remember. And my netbook is the same, remember? I put Manjaro Linux Openbox on it. Runs like a rabbit and flies like a hawk. I see no need to add RAM.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #40 –
My netbook with 1GB RAM runs Xubuntu perfectly fine. But I only do light browsing and text editing on it.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #41 –
Quote from: Frenzie on

My netbook with 1GB RAM runs Xubuntu perfectly fine. But I only do light browsing and text editing on it.
About half of the time I boot to shell, without starting X. That's how I do light stuff. However, I really mean rabbit and hawk also with X running: Libreoffice does word processing, Vlc does HD videos, Firefox does Youtube, etc. No hiccups, no slowdown. I'm sure it's the same on your machine too.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #42 –
Fine, I meant light in the sense of only opening a dozen pages or so in my browser, opening merely a few PDF documents, and probably only one LibreOffice writer instance. :P That'll leave a fair bit of RAM to spare even on 64-bit. (I think it feels more responsive in 64-bit. Sue me.)

On TTY 1GB is virtually limitless. But I'm not the biggest fan of Vim or Nano, although they'll certainly do the trick. And are there any spreadsheet applications similar to e.g. Works 2.0* which I used to use back in DOS 4?

The primary difference is that on my desktop computer, I don't (or rarely) have to worry about ever closing anything. If I stop one activity, I switch to a different workspace and leave it open. On 1GB RAM it's more likely that you'll have to close your applications so you can open others without having to worry.

Quote from: ersi on
Vlc does HD videos, Firefox does Youtube, etc. No hiccups, no slowdown. I'm sure it's the same on your machine too.

It can play regular video; I have no idea if it can play full HD. It's kind of a moot question considering the resolution of the screen. I expect it'll cope in MPlayer, fail in Flash, and it may or may not be able to do so in VLC.

* Mind you, it also did text processing and database stuff.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #43 –
Quote from: Frenzie on
That'll leave a fair bit of RAM to spare even on 64-bit. (I think it feels more responsive in 64-bit. Sue me.)
I'm not savvy enough (yet) to know what's the big deal between them. When I install the latest and greatest, I naturally install 64-bit. 32-bit is for single-core weaker processors, I figure. Nobody sues me. Then again, I am not doing this for a living or as a profession, and neither does any of my friends. I am the best hacker in my circle of acquaintances. Which means I'm just an advanced dumbuser...

Quote from: Frenzie on
On TTY 1GB is virtually limitless. But I'm not the biggest fan of Vim or Nano, although they'll certainly do the trick. And are there any spreadsheet applications similar to e.g. Works 2.0* which I used to use back in DOS 4?

Pure awesomeness.

I googled a bit and found this http://cafeninja.blogspot.com/2010/06/sc-command-line-spreadsheet.html For doc-viewing in terminals there's Antiword.

Quote from: Frenzie on
Quote from: ersi on
Vlc does HD videos, Firefox does Youtube, etc. No hiccups, no slowdown. I'm sure it's the same on your machine too.

It can play regular video; I have no idea if it can play full HD. It's kind of a moot question considering the resolution of the screen. I expect it'll cope in MPlayer, fail in Flash, and it may or may not be able to do so in VLC.
I meant HD as Youtube labels it. This is, yes, bigger than the screen, but it plays in VLC. Plus everything else I mentioned (and you mention) can run in parallel. Still no hiccups, no slowdown.

I haven't installed Flash on this netbook. Good riddance, I think.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #45 –
Quote from: ersi on
I googled a bit and found this http://cafeninja.blogspot.com/2010/06/sc-command-line-spreadsheet.html For doc-viewing in terminals there's Antiword.

Looks interesting. Unfortunately it only has its own format. Still, something to keep in mind. For a text processing software I meant more something that can read and write Open Document Format, but with an interface that's something of a crossbreed Wordperfect 5.1 and Works 2.

Quote from: ersi on
I meant HD as Youtube labels it. This is, yes, bigger than the screen, but it plays in VLC. Plus everything else I mentioned (and you mention) can run in parallel. Still no hiccups, no slowdown.

I haven't installed Flash on this netbook. Good riddance, I think.

All things considered YouTube 720p is fairly low quality. I know it can cope with it in Windows Flash, I don't think it can in Linux Flash, and in HTML5 I imagine it should be able to do the trick. I take my netbook along for Serious Business™. My phone will do just fine if I want to watch a vid or two.

Quote from: Josh on

Frans, I'm gonna report you to The Administration as being not exactly on topic.:P

It's the answer to what can you realistically expect to be able to do on your netbook. ;)

Re: XP after XP

Reply #47 –
Quote from: Frenzie on

I take my netbook along for Serious Business™.
Really? Therefore attempts to edit doc and xls files in command line? For Serious Business™ kind of work, I find mouse operations indispensable.

Maybe my view stems from the fact that I made proper closer acquaintance with computers only in the end of 90's. To me graphical desktops and mouses are the norm when using a computer for some other purpose than computer itself. Command line is mostly to fix the computer itself and tweak stuff inside it, not so much for third-party purposes. Well, web-browsing, viewing and typing (text input) obviously work, but bigger text operations don't look good...

Re: XP after XP

Reply #48 –
Quote from: ersi on
Really? Therefore attempts to edit doc and xls files in command line?

Um, no? That's just a topic you brought up. :)

Quote from: ersi on
For Serious Business™ kind of work, I find mouse operations indispensable.

However, I most definitely used a mouse in MS Works 2, and just about all DOS programs really. You can install gpm for a very similar effect in Linux. In DOS it was named MOUSE.EXE.

Quote from: ersi on
Maybe my view stems from the fact that I made proper closer acquaintance with computers only in the end of 90's. To me graphical desktops and mouses are the norm when using a computer for some other purpose than computer itself.

The only truly significant advantage is Alt+Tab and the ability to open multiple applications next to each other, and actually MS Works 2 and various other applications already partially implemented such advantages in the form of MDI. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of tmux or screen at the time, plus they probably wouldn't have worked on DOS anyway. Given the RAM constraints of the day, it may not have made much of a difference.

One thing I can tell you: Windows 3 actually came with a really, really good integrated tutorial for n00bs (i.e. me). I haven't been able to find something that good in any Windows since.

Re: XP after XP

Reply #49 –
Quote from: Frenzie on

Quote from: ersi on
For Serious Business™ kind of work, I find mouse operations indispensable.

However, I most definitely used a mouse in MS Works 2, and just about all DOS programs really. You can install gpm for a very similar effect in Linux. In DOS it was named MOUSE.EXE.
So mouse can work without X? Amazing! I didn't know this. Does gpm work with touchpads too? (because we obviously have touchpads on netbooks) Did the DOS mouse enable dragging text around like in a real word processor?

Quote from: Frenzie on
One thing I can tell you: Windows 3 actually came with a really, really good integrated tutorial for n00bs (i.e. me). I haven't been able to find something that good in any Windows since.

Not even the animated tour in XP?