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Cheap but good Linux Mint computers (Read 460 times)
Oldfeller--FSO
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Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
02/26/19 at 00:56:50
 

Let's see, WHY are you buying another Linux computer ....... I thought they never died.

Answer is that they don't,  I am typing this on my old Dell and it is still working great.   Linux Mint is a pleasure to use and I would have/use nothing else personally.

My wife's laptop is dying because MS says it was too small to hold a large spring/fall major upgrade on top of what was already loaded on it and MS will do nothing to fix the damage that they did a few weeks ago with their spring upgrade disaster.  

The little Lenovo laptop machine tha got broken in the last major upgrade, it has stopped recognizing its own built in USB ports and can only be run by the trackpad.   This is now a repeater MS update issue having happened twice now.   MS keeps breaking the little laptop machine .....

The Wife can't live like that and wants something done about it --- but don't spend any money because her retirement account got hit by the market decline and she is on a frugal mode kick because she lost so much money out of her retirement account.

So, while looking forward in time to a Linux Mint for Everybody future, I still have to provide Windows 10 right now for the wife to use to communicate with her work environment.

So, lookie see what I spotted on Ebay and bought.   I couldn't even get a Win 10 Home license for the money I paid for this machine.   Quad core early i5 processor, 500 gig hard drive and a brand new (documented) Win 10 PRO license ...... not bad for $38.95 plus shipping.  

Total with shipping is $59.72 and I can pack it slam full (8 gigs in total) of memory for an additional $13 shipped but I will wait on that as Office 2010 doesn't require but 2 gigs and it has 4 gigs in it already as shipped.

Wife will recognize everything since her school uses these things in a lot of their computer labs and offices.   Once she retires I can trust MS to give me a good excuse to flip it over to Linux Mint before too much time elapses.


If you want to expand the image so you can see it, just click on the screenshot.png link listed immediately below for a full sized image.
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 07:08:38 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #1 - 02/26/19 at 09:00:45
 

I spent the morning getting back into the Windows frame of mind again .......   lemme tell you Linux Mint is worlds and worlds and worlds simpler and easier to deal with.   Linux is different though, and a tiny bit of that makes it past the Linux Mint "tuned to be like XP" interface.   It doesn't take much though, Windows people are known to ADVERSE to change of any sort.

I spent 2 hours downloading utility this and utility that and running them against the laptop just to see how screwed up it really was.   My final impression was that it WAS NOT filled up 100% on hard drive space as reported by Mickey, but the Windows Registery got screwed up instead.   Some key Logitech drivers got "missing" too ......

I cleaned and deleted and cleaned again and deleted more and cleaned again --- there were layers of MS crap on top of layers of MS crap on top of ..... until it got all filled up with MS CRAP.   It needed a laxative.   I freed up 25% of the hard drive just by cleaning useless temp file Mickey poo off the machine.

----- you get the impression.

Final thoughts, I think the little laptop can be used again now and it will work "better', but I fear MS will break it again in a couple of months.

In Mickey I Trust (he can screw up anything) -- a wet dream isn't even Mickey proof.  Yep,  'ol Mickey can foul up ANYTHING that he touches.

But my darling will be pleased that she can get her stuff off the old machine with a working standard mouse and preserve it on jump drives or move it over to her new machine .....

..... for a while anyway.
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 07:10:35 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #2 - 02/26/19 at 11:20:18
 

 I am still trying to find the motherboard for the unit you use, actually I need six of them.

 Would this one from eBay be similar and possibly interchangeable?
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #3 - 02/26/19 at 11:25:47
 

No, this one is two generations more modern than mine.   What are you trying to do that you need so many older moldier machines?

From what you have said earlier you already have multiples of far more current machines than this stuff.
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #4 - 02/26/19 at 16:15:43
 

 I am attempting to replicate your machine.
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #5 - 02/26/19 at 21:26:22
 

Step #1

Decide if you are a Windows world person or a Linux user.
   

Completely different worlds here -- I just spent 2 days dusting off my Windows skills and getting Nancy's laptop running well enough to get her information off of it.   I have spend 16 hours doing this and I had to upgrade her pointing mouse to something Win 10 supports better currently (so Mickey will stop deleting the drivers for it, in other words).

What did I learn -- Windows takes over twice as much hardware (processor CPU and systems memory and hard drive space) to run more slowly and be less reliably than Linux.

I also learned that Win 10 Pro is a somewhat different beast than Win 10 home upgrade, something I never had "fingers on" before.    Win 10 Pro is better, but it essential operates the same.

My gut is that I am simply expending effort to flog Windows 10 along for another couple of years so my wife can indulge her yen to teach college for another couple of years.    It is a labor of love, not something I enjoy doing.

It's funny, we both use the same browsers and the same internet connection.   I program all the stuff she uses so it is available on my machine.   One works, the other dies repeatedly.  

Linux works  it works tomorrow just like it does today.   It is Boring ...... (but sometimes boring is good).

I am building her an over powered "pro grade" Windows 10 box to do a relatively few simple things.   I am going heavy on systems memory and quad core CPU and large hard drive  space (relatively) to give Win 10 enough room to roll over in bed at night.   I am getting the IT grade of Win 10 Professional so Mickey will stay out of it at night as much as possible.

I am trying to avoid all the shite Mickey has done to her over the last 5 years in as much as I can ......
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 04:16:08 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #6 - 02/27/19 at 13:59:34
 

Large orange note taped over the on button of the new computer.


PLEASE BE AWARE THAT WINDOWS 10 CAN TAKE 10 MINUTES OR LONGER TO INITIALLY START UP THE FIRST TIME WHEN YOU TURN IT ON, WHICH IS NORMAL.

DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER DURING THIS TIME !!!
IF YOU DO YOU WILL CORRUPT WINDOWS 10 AND THIS IS NOT COVERED IN YOUR WARRANTY.



Mickeysoft is such trash -- really, I mean it.

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #7 - 02/27/19 at 14:40:35
 
This is probably an issue with the refurb house rather than MS.
They probably loaded the hard drive from a ghost and it has to register everything.
They probably thought the same thing... 10 minutes... F that, make the customer do it.  You get what you pay for in the end.  Just hope it don't stick out to far.   Huh
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #8 - 02/27/19 at 16:51:37
 
 I for one am interested in comparisons as I do not have any of these issues on about 40 or so machines.  They start up in seconds and run fine.  I loaded a 1200 page spreadsheet in Excel in less than 20 seconds from a complete shutdown, yet I hear of these disaster stories where people can barely use their PC.  We loaded a 3D model from  SurfacePRO device remotely to 12 machines today and allowed for 12 separate revisions to run simultaneously seamlessly.  

 My computers are all individually bought, with my money, with MS individually owned programs, not a company, business, group, PRO or otherwise non-personally owned and installed PC unit.  All of them Dell so maybe that's part of the equation, for instance none of my PC's came with any indication that it would take 10 minutes to start up initially, other than the setup process where you input information such as a PC name, Time/Date etc.

 Also none of them are registered to an MS account as I have no MS account.  I just click the install with no registration option.

 I am currently attempting replicate the setup that Oldfeller uses to start seeing how it works.  Linux is easy to find, but Dell had many options for the OptiPlex platforms.
 

 
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #9 - 02/27/19 at 19:36:25
 

I do not believe you have to pick and choose so much between the various Dell motherboards when installing Linux.  I think any of the relatively older full sized Dell 760-780 generation machines (less expensive FULL SIZED mid tower machines sporting the 305 watt power supply) are what you need for your Linux experiment.  

The smaller Dell half sized case stuff is unsuitable as it gets real prickly about only being able to seat half height adder cards (and only having ONE (1) full length expansion slot on some of the small case units pared up with two of the short length slots) and not having enough power supply to run whatever you wind up getting for a gaming video card.  

It is Catch 22 crapshoot when using the smaller Dell flat case units ......

Another benefit of using the older mid-tower Dells is that you can stuff them with sticks of memory for like $13.95 shipped -- older pulled memory sticks that are DIRT CHEAP and easily gotten on Ebay.

Key thing is to get Microsoft completely off the machine so Mickey will stop fighting to own all the hard drive real estate and trying to control the drivers and such.

This 100% Linux approach also gives you a full Linux hard drive reformat of your entire hard drive, which is most conducive to no errors, no faulting, and not requiring defragmentation or re-compression or other forms of routine Windows-style hard drive maintenance.

My new Dell Win 10 machine is on pause for a couple of days while I wait for the 2 sticks making up the 4 additional gigs of memory to arrive -- then we will install the memory and go for a full boot up and find out if all the warranty voiding crap and slow start up really is just the reseller just being a lazy SOB and not initializing the hard drives properly after dropping an image on them (as Verslagen thinks).

Wink
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« Last Edit: 02/28/19 at 09:41:28 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #10 - 02/28/19 at 06:33:40
 

Memory came in, I installed it and then tried to boot the computer -- it did not "initialize" Win 10 and then it ran the "i'm busy" dots in a circle for a half hour then it restarted itself and it has been spinning its dots for 2  hours now.  

Got a message in to the people who sold it to me -- the people who failed to send me a machine with Win 10 fully installed on it to see just what they have to say.


===================================================


I got some sympathetic noises and got told to go download an ISO, burn it and install it.  Was given a link to a Microsoft download site to download an ISO image for Win 10 Pro.

Followed up on it and learned that Mickey just screwed the pooch by carelessly putting out an ISO image that is 50 megabytes too big to fit on to a standard DVD.  

Mickey needs to pay attention to the little details when they do stuff,  huh.

The forums are saying you will likely have to burn Mickey ISOs using double layer DVDs in the future.   Question is --- is your DVD write drive modern enough to handle that sort of action?

Mickey, just leave off some of the less used stuff (or supply some older revisions that are a lot smaller in size) and fill it in during the nightly update cycle that you do now anyway ......

Most older computers are not set up to boot off a USB drive --- and MS isn't smart enough to only put the needed files on the DVD ISO to cut down on the pork butt effect they are currently suffering from.

I have a 5 pack of the double layer DVDs on the way from Amazon so I can see if any of my drives are good enough to burn a double layer DVD Win 10 ISO.
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 04:55:15 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #11 - 03/02/19 at 09:47:21
 

With help from the seller, I got the errant vendor image replaced and got the new machine booted finally.

Issue that showed up the very next day was related to MS upgrading the Win 10 Pro OS that very same night in an extensive fashion that shuffled around all my just installed and organized stuff on the desktop and stuck in WHOLE WAVES of competing MS products into my various Win 10 menu views of this and  that --- Mickey is attempting to be  helpful, I think.

Or jest trying to sell some trial version stuff --- you take your pick.

Mickey, I don't use SKYPE, I don't like it and I have deleted it from the machine three times now --- try to pay attention, please.

Ditto for Edge.   Trying to force users to use your sub-par programs works to your disadvantage in the long run.

I don't want Candy Crush Saga on my machine AT ALL --- I don't want the sequel  either.   Mickey, I am not a little girl (where did you get that from anyway, I wonder --- probably my wife's name on the machine ID).

Mickey uses Skype and Edge as key parts of their "total MS system" which is why Mickey keeps putting them back on the machine -- key dependencies for the other stuff they are loading at night get put back endlessly I guess.
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 04:56:22 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #12 - 03/02/19 at 09:57:38
 
You got it running good? Pretty cool. I'm enjoying my old emachine, with Linux that you helped me with.
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #13 - 03/02/19 at 10:25:00
 

I am running Windows 10 pro on an overstuffed large frame Dell machine completely dedicated and assigned to a simple task -- my wife, the making happy thereof.

My older box that runs Linux outperforms the new Win 10 box in all items ....... except Turn it in.com and other teacher only software that have to run on Windows.

The wife has a both desktop and a laptop that are both working on Win 10 --- she is equipped in as much as I can equip her.
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Re: Cheap but good Linux Mint computers
Reply #14 - 03/04/19 at 04:33:50
 

Next issue ---- drivers.

Mickey started deleting all of Brother printer's comprehensive driver packages as part of routine nightly updates.   Mickey's drivers for Brother stuff don't work for much at all on some of the older, less popular Brother laser - drum type printers.  

This is a new catch 22 situation with no instant "easy" answer --- not right now anyway.

I have gone through the "corrected" set up drill 3 times now with Brother printer support and I have printed out check pages that worked afterwards, but nothing survives the next night's MS updates.


===================================

Did you know ????

In a single night of routine Win 10 updates your Win 10 machine will create up to 3,000 and some odd temporary files on your hard drive that if not scraped away routinely by the use of some sort of third party software will BUILD UP ENDLESSLY until your machine gets CONSTIPATED ???

This gives you a rough count of the number of items Mickey changes in a given night.  

Yep, I am keeping track of this stuff on my wife's brand new virgin Win !0 box .......     Grin
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« Last Edit: 03/04/19 at 07:06:54 by Oldfeller--FSO »  

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