V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 My aunt has an old Dell Latitude 100L that originally ran Windows XP. A few years back, I wiped it and reinstalled a fresh installation of Windows XP on it for her. I set her up with all the security and antivirus goodies; everything set to auto-update/scan, etc. She only pays bill and her bank's website and checks her ISP webmail occasionally, so this was fine for her. Unfortunately, XP went by the wayside thanks to MS abandoning that OS and no longer providing updates. I warned her to stop using the computer to access her bank and mail, as it may no longer be safe and secure. She ignored my advice, of course. I don't think any of her logins or data were stolen, but she had a bazillion trojans, malware apps, and other carp on this system. I told her that I could not reinstall XP, as that would not be a solution. I also told her that with a Celeron 2.6Ghz processor and only 512M RAM, she wasn't going to be running 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 ever on this little laptop. She has no means to buy a new computer, so I've talked her into letting me install a Linux distribution so she can safely continue her banking/emailing chores. Here's where it gets fun. This system only has a CDROM. The BIOS does not allow for USB booting. That means I'm severely limited to what I can put on this system these days with regards to Linux distributions. Most are DVD-sized .isos, so that's a problem. A few distros (very few) offer a lite weight CD .iso. Even fewer seem to be offering net installs nowadays. I wanted a Linux that's not to techie; one that she could get started using right away without having to ascend a sharp learning curve. Zorin OS was my first choice. No dice there. Their smallest installation medium is 933M. Tried their Lite version. It was ugly and very minimal. The system is capable of more than the minimal, but I didn't feel like spending hours downloading different WM/DEs from the repos along with accompanying apps. Next I thought of Ubuntu or Mint, but they don't make minimal installation easy. I could even find a CD or net install for Ubuntu. I guess they figure no one is using older systems anymore. Well, fark 'em. That's what I say. I ended up with Vector 7.1 32bit. It's a bit minimal out-of-the-box with IceWM, so since I'm much more familiar with Slackware based repos and software management, it wasn't any problem at all to remove IceWM and install Xfce4 along with a few apps that I think she might need to have onboard. I tweaked Xfce to look as close to Windows XP as I could, installed a pretty wallpaper for her, and set up Chromium for ease of access for her ISP webmail and her bank's website. *not aunt's setup, just a generic pic I'll sit down with her this week sometime and show here the basic ins-outs of this new operating system. She's 73 and lives about 3/4s of mile from my house, so I imagine I'll be visiting often to answer questions or fix carp she's screwed up. Myeh... it is what it is. I think she'll like her new setup. Outta' here... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Nice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Is she using dial-up? I failed miserably to get a modem to work with Ubuntu. It's a city only distro now. I'm curious if Vector has rural user support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) I had to make one small change to the setup for her this evening. I found that cruising around with Chromium just don't do so well with only 512M RAM. I dumped Chromium and went with Midori, a nice lite browser with all the features and goodies she'll be requiring. . Edited November 9, 2015 by V.T. Eric Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) Is she using dial-up? I failed miserably to get a modem to work with Ubuntu. It's a city only distro now. I'm curious if Vector has rural user support. No, auntie has Verizon FIOS. Yeah, somethings in Linux just never evolved. Telephone connectivity is one of them. Bruno and I went up/down round and round trying to get FAX to work in Slackware years ago. I finally said to heck with it, booted in to Windows, FAX'd from there. All's well. . Edited November 9, 2015 by V.T. Eric Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Last week on ebay I got an old router that has a built in serial port for a modem. I'm hoping it will work as a less than elegant dial-up interface fix for Linux. Luckily I don't have to use dial-up much anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Well, got auntie all fixed up tonight. She loves her old lappy with her new VectorLinux. Unfortunately, I could not stick with the Midori browser. Her bank and ISP wont let her do anything on their sites unless she uses fully updated FF or IE browsers. I even tried cheating by changing the user agent. Didn't work. I had to install FF for her. It's a bit hoggish on the 512M RAM, but for what she does, it's OK. All's well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Is she using dial-up? I failed miserably to get a modem to work with Ubuntu. It's a city only distro now. I'm curious if Vector has rural user support. No, auntie has Verizon FIOS. Yeah, somethings in Linux just never evolved. Telephone connectivity is one of them. Bruno and I went up/down round and round trying to get FAX to work in Slackware years ago. I finally said to heck with it, booted in to Windows, FAX'd from there. All's well. . Reminds me of a song from Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie ... Internet Help Desk ... setting up their ADSL on Windows 3.1 with 4megs of RAM man! Just updated for today LOL! It is awesome that you got it working with Vector and were able to get a better GUI for her but I am so sad that you had to go with Midori! That is very lightweight but awful browser. Ice Weasel or equiv for Slack wouldn't work? You did an outstanding job considering the system you had to work with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Cool job VT! Now that you got it working in a functional manner for her, time to start tweaking it for her. That 512MB RAM is a real bottleneck, but it's the reality you're working with. Can't bump the hardware "up", so you gotta bump the software load "down". And Firefox isn't "light"... I can't help but wonder if Seamonkey would work for her? When you have such a small amount of RAM to start with, anything you can shave/save becomes a huge boost, percentage-wise. They're both Mozilla browsers so perhaps the bank site will see Seamonkey as Firefox, especially if a user-agent switcher is enabled. Want to give it a try and let us know? http://www.linuxveda.com/2015/03/16/seamonkey-review-firefoxs-lightweight-hyper-functional-cousin/ The only other lightweight versions of Firefox I know of are Pale Moon, Slimjet, and Light. But they are forks of Firefox, whereas Seamonkey is directly related and comes from the same source code as Firefox. Pale Moon has a linux version: https://www.palemoon.org/ Oops, my bad...Slimjet is based on Chromium, so probably won't work for her, but another tool for the box: http://www.slimjet.com/en/dlpage.php Light is a stripped down, lightweight Firefox, but no Linux version...YET. Might wanna keep an eye on this, as it sounds perfect for your Aunt: https://www.maketecheasier.com/light-lightweight-firefox-alternative/ Have fun tweaking, ya Slacker! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Pale Moon has a linux version: https://www.palemoon.org/ Forgot Pale Moon has a Linux version now. Good call. It is what I use on WinXP to get updates to certain things online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 It might be worth upgrading a little. Used ram on eBay is $4.99 for 512MB and $14.99 for 2GB. If it has the lower ram slot cover it's a 3 minute job to replace one stick of ram and is a good way to verify the ram works before opening up the computer to get to slot two. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=dell+latitude+100l&_sac=1&_osacat=58058&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xdell+latitude+100l+ram.TRS1&_nkw=dell+latitude+100l+ram&_sacat=58058 The manual is here: http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/edwin/laptops/dell/LATITUDE/L400/67CUJ0.PDF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 @ Fran... You missed the above post where I explained that Midori would not suffice. I had to go with FF. It's running OK with it. @ Robert... Yup. I know. She's very, very tight with money right now, though. $15 is a lot. I might be able to upgrade her a bit in the near future, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Well done mate. An they say linux is hard to learn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 *** UPDATE *** A member here contacted me via PM to offer a couple sticks of 512M RAM that they thought might fit Auntie's machine. I really appreciated the offer, but I'd already put out a couple feelers locally; one to a pal from the neighborhood with whom I occasionally barter/trade stuff. He happened to stop by my house the other day looking for an old AGP vid card and some other items to revive an old AMD K7 machine that he's working on (building as home Linux server, actually). Well, I had the parts he needed, which sure made him happy. He asked if I was tinkering with anything presently and did I need anything. This guys has boat loads of old laptop junk at his house, so I asked if he had any RAM that would for Auntie. He told me he had a drawer full and he'd go search around in it for me later in the evening. Well, he came through big time! He brought me two sticks of 1G RAM that will work in this old 100L Dell machine. The bad news is that I can't upgrade Auntie till Tuesday. Her and hubby are on a long weekend vacation at one of the Indian Reservation Hard Rock casinos down in S. Florida, I think. Hope they hit it BIG! Anyway, later this coming week, I'll stick those 1G sticks in there and quadruple Auntie's RAM. That will sure help with performance issues. Off I go... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedon James Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 And Firefox should run oh-so-fine with 2GB RAM! TADA! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 And Firefox should run oh-so-fine with 2GB RAM! TADA! Lets hope so. As long as she doesn't visit certain sites that suck down the ram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 Auntie doesn't have a clue what RAM is. She'll just be happy the FF doesn't choke on the webpage when she goes to pay bill at her bank's site. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 Auntie doesn't have a clue what RAM is. She'll just be happy the FF doesn't choke on the webpage when she goes to pay bill at her bank's site. Yeah, well I was referring to sites that have a lot of content which will suck down the ram rather quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Yep, today's web isn't the web that that machine was made for to be sure. But 2GB RAM should work very well on all but the most Flash ridden sites. That is awesome new Eric! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Yep, today's web isn't the web that that machine was made for to be sure. But 2GB RAM should work very well on all but the most Flash ridden sites. Except for sites like google+ and some others (I have a netbook with 2gb of ram and it hangs up on g+ and some others) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Really? On Google + ... now that is sad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 Really? On Google + ... now that is sad... Well yeah...think of how much content is continuously loaded on that site. Content is loaded as it comes in so it will quickly eat up your ram: Google+ is a typical Google web application: it uses Java servlets for the server code and Javascript for the browser-side of the UI, largely built with Google's Closure framework, including the Javascript compiler and the template system.. https://en.wikipedia...e+#Technologies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 18, 2015 Author Share Posted November 18, 2015 (edited) Got RAM for Auntie today, but they're still on their gamblecation at the Indian Reservation. Oh, and my Chromium chokes often on G+ when I have 5 or 6 Profile or Reply tabs open. There are a bunch of folks screaming about that on G+ Help Community. Good luck getting any help there. There are hundreds of threads about the issue I'm having with Notifications opening in new tabs and not clearing after being read. Google keep promising they're looking into it. Ummm-hmmm. . Edited November 18, 2015 by V.T. Eric Layton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 18, 2015 Author Share Posted November 18, 2015 Auntie got in last night from her gamblecation... with a much thinner wallet, as usual. Claims she had fun, though. YAY. Anyway, she brought the little lappy to my uncle's house for our weekly coffee get-together. I took about two minutes to quadruple her RAM. Everyone was impressed. Little lappy is much happier now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Good choice of distro and I'm sure easy for you to maintain as a Slacker. I've always liked Vector Linux. My most memory challenged machine is a Dell netbook with only 1 GB of RAM and not upgradeable. Right now I have Linux Mint Xfce on it but it can boot from USB and doesn't have any optical disk. I guess Vector doesn't have Chrome in its repos. There is a .deb version I was able to install from Linux Mint. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 (edited) I can easily cook up a Chromium package from Slackware that will work on Vector, but for what she does, the Firefox is fine and dandy; particularly now that I've quadrupled her RAM to 2Gig. Her and hubby were praising me and telling everyone at our weekly coffee how blazing fast the little laptop is now. I'm glad they're liking it. . Edited November 29, 2015 by V.T. Eric Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 (edited) Yeah I have an 88 year old "client" who got an older Dell desktop I had around here. It's a pretty good one (Pentium dual core E5200) and I got a vintage Samsung flat screen LCD to go with it. She's running Linux Mint Cinnamon as I think she has about 4 GB of DDR2 RAM in the thing. It's plenty fast. Now if she'd only quit forgetting her administrative password, keep her printer on so it doesn't crap out and make everything she prints sit in the queue for days, stop whining because she can't use iTunes, or go on the Web, download some Windows based solitaire program and then wonder why it won't work.... Edited November 29, 2015 by raymac46 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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