Convince me to use Linux Mint on my old HP desktop

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antiqueshell

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I'm really tired of Microsoft and Windows, and now with this new disaster called Metro on the next release of Windows 8 without a proper desktop default looking for a practical alternative.

I don't know too much about Linux other than what I have read and much of that is very good. It sounds like it would be a good fit for me, BUT I am concerned about driver issues. It seems like such a better alternative to Windows, especially from a security aspect but also from a resource aspect as well.


My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7955 with a 40 GB HDD.
1.25 PC133 GB memory and a Nvida TNT2 64MB video card.My printer is the HP Laserjet 1000.

Considering those specs how does my luck look for workable drivers?



So if you have any knowledge feel free to offer your expertise.

One other thing I also was considering Linux Puppy because it is a light OS.

I would prefer to actually download the OS onto my HDD.
 
I think the easiest way to know if you're going to have any driver issues is to just try it on a liveUSB. See if anything doesn't work by default and if there is anything like that do a Google search to see if there's an easy way to make it work.
 
Most of the distros are freely downloadable, via SF.net, torrents, etc......that's not a big deal at all.

As far as "convincing" you....eh....I can't
wink.gif
I still haven't taken the plunge....but I'm considering it too......actually considering taking the plunge into the iOS or "GoogleBook" route too even.....since I've come to a point, where almost everything I do.....revolves around the internet.....and almost everything online, "there's an app for that" somewhere that will perform the necessary function "in the cloud" - i.e. trimming mp3s, listening to music, etc....

But yea, like you, my biggest fear is driver functionality.....If I recall, it was either HP, or Lexmark, that actually finally "took the plunge" and now distributes "proper" *NIX (general term for the whole Unix, Linux, etc.....OS...) device drivers.....



My recommendation though, would be to take a look at some "Live CDs" around the distro sites.....and find one you like, almost all of the "major" *NIX distros have available "Live CDs" that allow you to load the "basics" onto a CD or DVD, and play/access the OS through your optical drive......kind of like a "try before you install" type deal
smile.gif





Back when I was "looking" Ubuntu and "Kubuntu" (basically a fork of Ubuntu....) looked very "promising".....
 
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I have lubuntu 12.04 installed on a 10yr old Gateway laptop. 1.6 GHZ 512mb ram works very well. Very easy on memory,I boot in to the LXDE environment.
 
All this talk of Mint lately just gave me the poke in the ribs to install MATE on my desktop where I've been missing Gnome 2 for so long. I can't remember the last time I've been this happy.
 
Originally Posted By: antiqueshell

I don't know too much about Linux other than what I have read and much of that is very good.

My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7955 with a 40 GB HDD.
1.25 PC133 GB memory and a Nvida TNT2 64MB video card.My printer is the HP Laserjet 1000.

Considering those specs how does my luck look for workable drivers?

So if you have any knowledge feel free to offer your expertise.

One other thing I also was considering Linux Puppy because it is a light OS.

I would prefer to actually download the OS onto my HDD.


Mint has lower hardware requirements listed than the Ubuntu flavors. For an older machine like that I'd go with the LXDE desktop http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=98

It should work "out of the box" though but that older Nvidia card might give you issues and you'll have to use the flgrx drivers. The good thing is with mint (and now IIRC Ubuntu) there is an option at install to use 3rd Party/"Non-Free (Non-open source)" drivers.

It should run fine on that machine.

As for downloading the OS to your HDD, you mean install right? You'll have to have a CD burner at a bare minimum as you'll have to boot from the CD to install. That machine is (likely) too old to support booting from a USB stick. However if it is capable of doing it you can use this program http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ to create the bootable USB stick.

One thing to be aware of is that say goodbye to "neat/clean" looking fonts especially if using an LCD. Microsoft and Apple have spent a lot of money over the years developing their "True Type" Fonts. They look so good/clean/readable because they paid through the nose over the years to have font designers do custom "hand hinting" and fine tune the anti-aliasing as well as subpixel rendering.

Quote:
To ensure its wide adoption, Apple licensed TrueType to Microsoft for free[2] . By 1991 Microsoft added TrueType into the Windows 3.1 operating system. Microsoft and Monotype technicians used TrueType's hinting technology to ensure that these fonts did not suffer from the problem of illegibility at low resolutions, which had previously forced the use of bitmapped fonts for screen display. Subsequent advances in technology have introduced first anti-aliasing, which smooths the edges of fonts at the expense of a slight blurring, and more recently subpixel rendering (the Microsoft implementation goes by the name ClearType), which exploits the pixel structure of LCD based displays to increase the apparent resolution of text. Microsoft has heavily marketed ClearType, and sub-pixel rendering techniques for text are now widely used on all platforms.


While most Linux desktop environments can do subpixel rendering and hinting they don't do nearly as good of a job as Apple and MS.

All that being said, the Mint installer (and Ubuntu) are dead simple. Click click click and you're done. If you want to install it alongside XP there are guided and manual options.
 
Originally Posted By: buickman50401

It should work "out of the box" though but that older Nvidia card might give you issues and you'll have to use the flgrx drivers. The good thing is with mint (and now IIRC Ubuntu) there is an option at install to use 3rd Party/"Non-Free (Non-open source)" drivers.



I think you meant the NV drivers? (which it would use by default), the fglrx drivers are for ATI cards.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: buickman50401

It should work "out of the box" though but that older Nvidia card might give you issues and you'll have to use the flgrx drivers. The good thing is with mint (and now IIRC Ubuntu) there is an option at install to use 3rd Party/"Non-Free (Non-open source)" drivers.



I think you meant the NV drivers? (which it would use by default), the fglrx drivers are for ATI cards.


Yep. I misread that and thought he had an ATI card.
 
Thanks to all the folks that have taken the time to comment and give suggestions. No thanks to dishdude. LOL

I am also thinking about putting Linux on my next NEW desktop too. I figured that trying it on my old HP would be a pretty good test.

As for the old GPU and Laserjet, those were my biggest concerns. But yes I will burn Mint to CD and give it a try.

I'm sick to death of MS and some of the absolutely STUPID things that happen with their OS, like Windows Updates often times breaking the OS even with nothing other than bog standard programs and drivers!

The DUMBEST thing yet is the apparent forcing of desktop users into having to first default boot into the METRO UI before you can load a classic desktop. THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS!

If MS doesn't offer Win 8 with a "one click and stick" solution so that desktop users can select the default UI as classic desktop when we first activate the OS I am done with them.
 
Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Thanks to all the folks that have taken the time to comment and give suggestions. No thanks to dishdude. LOL


Sorry, I couldn't resist. Glad you have a sense of humor!
grin.gif
 
I did a little searching and indeed Nvida does have a legacy driver for the TNT2/model 64 that came with the Pavilion 7955.

I also saw that OVERKILL indicated in another thread that he has found rendering drivers that give font quality as good as Win 7 and iOS. Interesting!

I really think that Linux is going to see a huge uptick in usage because of the disaster and arrogance of MS with Windows 8.

If they could persuade the OEMs like HP, Dell and some others to offer it preloaded it would be great too.
 
Ubuntu 12.04 is an excellent operating system that I have installed on some older machines to play around with. I am amazed at how comprehensive the core programs that are installed with it are. Firefox, a full office suite, messenger programs. I also find it very intuitive and easy to operate.

If I could purchase a laptop with it preinstalled, I would seriously consider it.
 
It would be nice if a Linux umbrella organization could come together and push for OEMs to adopt Linux in them.

More than half the battle with the general user accepting Linux is getting it on the system in the first place.
 
Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
I did a little searching and indeed Nvida does have a legacy driver for the TNT2/model 64 that came with the Pavilion 7955.

I also saw that OVERKILL indicated in another thread that he has found rendering drivers that give font quality as good as Win 7 and iOS. Interesting!

I really think that Linux is going to see a huge uptick in usage because of the disaster and arrogance of MS with Windows 8.

If they could persuade the OEMs like HP, Dell and some others to offer it preloaded it would be great too.


Hey, we Linux users get hit with diseasters as well. As I've mentioned before, mine was when Gnome 2 was eunicised.

Dell did offer desktop and laptop machines with Linux preinstalled (do they still?) but only with low-spec hardware. Again, I'm not sure if they still do, but for a while both HP had a policy in place to use only hardware with native Linux drivers available in desktops. Actually, that might be the answer to the OPs question.

Major PC OEMs don't have a giant conspiracy going to marginalize Linux. They want to make money for their shareholders. MS understands the PC market and can use the "stupid and lazy american consumer" stereotype to maintain control. In server-land they have to try to compete with technical merit and functionality. In the tablet/phone market they have had the same issue to fight, but technical merit may soon become less of an isse there as hardware has been improving so very quickly. So long as Windows meets the minimum demands of so many PC users it's tough for anything else to encroach because so many of the users feel intimidated.
 
If you have an older PC that you can get the drivers to work correctly on with a linux distro, then you are pretty lucky.

I worked a ton to get linux working on an older toshiba laptop for my dad. I ended up using Puppy Linux as nothing else would work with the drivers without a bunch of hassle.

For newer computers, Ubuntu runs GREAT, no driver problems at all and much faster than windows 7.
 
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