linux advice please

tombruton87

I would recommend not using XP security is an issue, a pretty big one at that even now before support ends. Vista was a big step forward for the Microsoft camp. Not saying your device will be breached but if your doing things like banking not worth the hassle.

First question is what programs do you currently use lets see if we cant a Linux alternative to all of those for you.

This would probably be your best option as you are limited using a net book, also is there anything you would be using it for in the future, both lxde and lubuntu are good starter distros for low powered devices

searchlight123

thanks for information.
main reasons for maintaining xp on the machine is to carry on using the installed MS office 2003 suite. also it has a built in sim card running a vodafone chip and the vodafone 'mobile connect lite' software.
installing a linux os, would this erase my xp and if not how do i install it so that when i press the power button on my netbook it gives me the option to boot to xp or lubuntu / LXLE?
thanks again.

Mr_Toad

There was a Linux version of the Asus eeePc 901 and If I remember correctly it came pre-installed with Xandros Linux.

It might be a better option than Lubuntu to see if you can get the version built for your Netbook as all the relevant drivers etc. will be included so it should be an install and go.

You could start with the Asus support site or the Xandros site.

fenlander_uk

Anyone like to give odds on the XP Apocalyse being the biggest non-event since the Millennium Bug?:)

Mr_Toad

fenlander_uk wrote: »

Anyone like to give odds on the XP Apocalyse being the biggest non-event since the Millennium Bug?:)

For most people yes but in recent months new security exploits have almost dried up.

Smart money is on the creators holding back until support stops before selling their wares to the unscrupulous.

Let the games commence.

emptybox

tonygold wrote: »

thanks for information.
main reasons for maintaining xp on the machine is to carry on using the installed MS office 2003 suite. also it has a built in sim card running a vodafone chip and the vodafone 'mobile connect lite' software.
installing a linux os, would this erase my xp and if not how do i install it so that when i press the power button on my netbook it gives me the option to boot to xp or lubuntu / LXLE?
thanks again.

The Linux installer, of whatever version you choose, will have an option to install alongside Windows XP (what we call dual booting).
It will shrink down the XP partition, and make a partition for itself on the HDD.
That's presuming you only have one hard drive, and there's at least 8GB free space left on it.

As for choosing, it's already been explained in posts 6 and 10 of this thread, but the Linux installer puts a little bit of software called a "grub" in the master boot record of the drive. That will offer you the choice between Xp and Linux at boot up.

esuhl

Mr_Toad wrote: »

There was a Linux version of the Asus eeePc 901 and If I remember correctly it came pre-installed with Xandros Linux.

It might be a better option than Lubuntu to see if you can get the version built for your Netbook as all the relevant drivers etc. will be included so it should be an install and go.

You could start with the Asus support site or the Xandros site.

Oh, god nooooo!!!

I bought a second hand EEE 901 on eBay, which had been restored to the default Xandros-based Linux distro image. It was truly awful -- just updating pre-installed applications failed. I think they more-or-less gave up supporting the EEE Linux distro in the end.

I tried XP on it, which was fine as a clean installation, although MS Office ran really slowly, and the whole OS ground to a halt once I installed an antivirus.

I finally installed Arch Linux on it, and the performance and reliability has been amazing. Stuff just works and Arch is really simple and customisable. But Arch definitely isn't for Linux newbies... unless you're already interested in IT and vaguely technical... and don't mind reading a lot of instructions!

Arch works brilliantly for me, but I don't really know anyone else (personally) that I would recommend it to (which is a shame)...

Mr_Toad

esuhl wrote: »

Oh, god nooooo!!!

I bought a second hand EEE 901 on eBay, which had been restored to the default Xandros-based Linux distro image. It was truly awful -- just updating pre-installed applications failed. I think they more-or-less gave up supporting the EEE Linux distro in the end.

I tried XP on it, which was fine as a clean installation, although MS Office ran really slowly, and the whole OS ground to a halt once I installed an antivirus.

I finally installed Arch Linux on it, and the performance and reliability has been amazing. Stuff just works and Arch is really simple and customisable. But Arch definitely isn't for Linux newbies... unless you're already interested in IT and vaguely technical... and don't mind reading a lot of instructions!

Arch works brilliantly for me, but I don't really know anyone else (personally) that I would recommend it to (which is a shame)...

Ah, I didn't know that.

I use Arch on my Raspberry Pi and agree with your view on the techie aspect.

Jivesinger

fenlander_uk wrote: »

Anyone like to give odds on the XP Apocalyse being the biggest non-event since the Millennium Bug?:)

The Millennium bug was only a non-event because lots of people spent lots of time and money to ensure it was a non-event.

The difference with XP is that if your computers worked on 2 January 2000, you knew everything was probably OK. With the XP support ending, the problem just starts now and keeps on being a problem for months or even years. The hackers could attack next week or as Mr_Toad says, they could hold back and attack later.

In fact a good time would be after Microsoft publish their next set of patches in May, because MS will handily publish a list of vulnerabilities for the hackers, some of which might be exploitable in XP.

Mr_Toad

Jivesinger wrote: »

The Millennium bug was only a non-event because lots of people spent lots of time and money to ensure it was a non-event.

The difference with XP is that if your computers worked on 2 January 2000, you knew everything was probably OK. With the XP support ending, the problem just starts now and keeps on being a problem for months or even years. The hackers could attack next week or as Mr_Toad says, they could hold back and attack later.

In fact a good time would be after Microsoft publish their next set of patches in May, because MS will handily publish a list of vulnerabilities for the hackers, some of which might be exploitable in XP.

Ah yes the the famous millennium bug.

I made a fortune from that. As one of my companies few employees who admitted to being an ex COBOL programmer I was paid so much money to go through millions of lines of mainframe and server code it was almost embarrassing.

I spent 5 years between 1995 and 2000 earning so much money it paid off my mortgage in full when I was 40 and bought myself a very nice Merc AMG.

I also had enough left over to fund my very comfortable early retirement last year at 55.

People were expecting some kind of armageddon and then complained or were disappointed when it didn't happen. No mention of the great success that it was due to people like me who spent years making sure things didn't fail.

Happy days.