I just rebuilt my primary computer with Debian Wheezy.

[hunter]

I learned that Gnome 3 sucks for older computers, even the fall-back "classic" version for computers without the latest graphics capabilities.

Previously Gnome 2 worked well for me. I considered Mate, which is a fork of Gnome 2, but I decided to go with LXDE which I'm very familiar with because it's my favorite for old obsolete laptops, the kind I repair with duct tape and hot glue.

It took some work to get LXDE working the way I like, but this new desktop is faster than the old Gnome 2 desktop ever was and it runs the latest software. I did this upgrade mostly for GIMP and the newer WebKit variations.

The major problem was my old wifi. The newer Linux Kernel does not play nicely with older versions of ndiswrapper. The debs in the repository didn't work. I had to compile that sucker myself. Not hard, a few lines in a root terminal, but not novice friendly.

I haven't tried it yet. but aside from the wifi issues which will probably be fixed soon, I'd guess lubuntu is a pretty good choice for for anyone who who has an older computer and is done with proprietary software. Pirating older versions of Microsoft Windows is dangerous (who knows what crap other pirates have infected it with?) and it's also pain in the ass.

Better than lubuntu, if you are willing to learn some new stuff and become a computer nerd, are debian and similar distributions.

None of this is something you want to do if you have a working Microsoft XP machine (or higher) and you know nothing about computers, but it's a great thing to know if you find a ten year old computer on the curb with a "FREE" sign on it.

[jrandom421]

1. Don't be a scardy cat

If you really want to learn Linux, go to Gentoo and customize it to your system.

http://www.gentoo.org/

At least go to Slackware and learn Linux as the orginators did it.

http://slackware.com/

Finally, if you're really want to learn hard core Linux, do LFS (Linux from Scratch) and build your own

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[hunter]

2. I'm way more hardcore than that, but very lazy too.

I used to write 8080 machine code in octal and 6502 code in hex. I got my first internet account in 1979 and I've been online ever since. My Slashdot nick is ancient.

I also like beer.

[hobbit709]

3. Why pirate older windows?

Just use and run Remove WGA if you have to run Windows on a machine that doesn't have a sticker. If it has a sticker, just reuse the key.

[hunter]

4. I used to keep a supply of Windows 98SE numbers...

... and there's always Microsoft's refurbisher program:

http://www.microsoft.com/refurbishedpcs

Nevertheless, any computer capable of running XP will be more capable as a Linux system.

People have made some interesting patches to 98SE allowing it to run some XP software with good support of many USB devices, but it's just not worth it anymore. Old XP machines are readily available in my part of the world and I no longer have any reason to rebuild 98SE-era machines.

I've never been a user of the latest and greatest computer games and that may color my perspective. I don't use Photoshop, AutoCad, or anything like that in my work. Open source software does everything I want my computers to do. For a quite a few years now Microsoft Windows and Apple products, and other software running on those systems, simply irritate me. Somebody has to be paying me well if they want me to use Microsoft or Apple systems.

If somebody gave me a new computer I'd probably give it to someone who needed it, but if I somehow felt obliged to keep it the first thing I'd do is wipe the hard drive and install Linux.

[kickysnana]

5. I t hought she died before George did...oh...never mind. n/t

[AgingAmerican]

6. Xubuntu was made specifically for older hardware

It is an official Ubuntu release. It found my wireless driver right out of the box. It ran fast on my netbook too. I have Mint on my netbook now and it's very fast.

[hunter]

7. These days Xubuntu is almost as bulky as Gnome 2 was.

Yes, "older hardware," but the computers I use tend to be older than the current "older."

My favorite laptop, for example, has a Pentium III processor. It ran Windows 98SE splendidly. People have made some spectacular Frankenstein-like patches to 98SE, allowing it to handle modern thumbdrives, printers, documents, browsers, etc., but eventually it becomes too much trouble.

So I replaced the hard drive in this old computer with a compact flash solid state "hard drive" that's much faster than the original 8GB hard drive drive. With LXDE it runs modern software that even a well-hacked Windows 98SE can't touch. Better yet, the fan doesn't go on in normal use. (That's one reason I like this laptop; the all-metal case is an excellent heat sink.)

My desktop machine is more advanced than that, but it's still an AMD single core processor. Gnome 3 made it sluggish. I'm certain the latest Xubuntu would have worked just as well as the old Gnome 2 environment did. That's the sort of "older" hardware it's made for.

The wireless problem was a different beast related to the newer Linux kernel. It's an older wireless device requiring proprietary Windows drivers, and it's rare enough now that nobody will ever bother to create a native Linux driver for it. Sure, I could have ordered a newer USB wifi dongle for a few bucks, but by the time I'd figured out what the problem was I'd accepted the challenge of solving it.

For the upgraded desktop machine I picked LXDE for no other reason than I'm familiar with it.

I'd like to pretend I'm some kind of environmentalist, "Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle," but mostly I ain't got no money.

Just like new cars, cable television, paying medical bills on time, and a bunch of other stuff, new computers got kicked out of the family budget a long time ago.