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Greetings from Canada


raymac46

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Hello and best regards from Almonte Ontario Canada - the only place in Canada named after a Mexican general who was at the Alamo. :drooling: I'm a friend of SueD and she was kind enough to point out this forum to me.My interest is getting old hardware working again with Linux. My current stable of junkers includes:(1) A Dell Dimension 4100 desktop from 2000 running Ubuntu Gutsy. (PIII 866)(2) A Compaq Armada 1700 laptop from 1999 running Vector Linux 5.8 Standard (PII 266)(3) A Fujitsu Lifebook 735Dx laptop from 1998 running Deli Linux 0.72 (P133 MMX)I also have available to give away a Compaq 5360 desktop system (K-6-2 450) which is running SimplyMepis 6.5.Nice to be here and hope I can contribute in some way.

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(2) A Compaq Armada 1700 laptop from 1999 running Vector Linux 5.8 Standard (PII 266)
Dang... I "Zenwalked" one of those couple of weeks ago. :drooling: Welcome!
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Hi Ray, nice to see you here. This is a great bunch and one I'm sure you'll really enjoy hanging around with. :P

Dang... I "Zenwalked" one of those couple of weeks ago. :drooling:
Urmas, Ray is the one I told you about who had success with Deli. I'm sure you two will have alot in common when it comes to getting old computers back up and running. :)
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Welcome at ATL raymac46 !So you've been busy according to (1) (2) (3) :P :drooling: Enjoy !
Well I've also refurbished the following machines with Ubuntu and got them back on the Internet for other folks - some of whom could not afford a PC otherwise.Compaq desktop with Celeron 667Whitebox desktop with Pentium III 500 (first generation PIII on a card)Whitebox desktop with Celeron 400I just wish somebody would want to give away a Pentium 4 someday. :)
Hi Ray, nice to see you here. This is a great bunch and one I'm sure you'll really enjoy hanging around with. :) Urmas, Ray is the one I told you about who had success with Deli. I'm sure you two will have alot in common when it comes to getting old computers back up and running. :)
Thanks Sue for pointing this place out.
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Cluttermagnet

Welcome, raymac46!I'm glad you surfaced in the Linux forum. Sounds like you will have a lot to contribute.

I just wish somebody would want to give away a Pentium 4 someday.
In my area, being more densely populated, a lot of more recent gear is now getting tossed, given away, and recycled. The elusive 'free P4 computer' is becoming a little more commonplace these days. Recently I inherited an old Dell Dimension 8300 with a 3.2GHz processor. The owner had tossed it with nothing more than a bad power supply (but had wisely pulled the hard drive). That fast processor lives on, moved to a better platform, and the Dell box itself continues to run with a new power supply and a slower CPU.BTW the P4 processors themselves are getting so cheap they sometimes go begging (unbid) on Ebay. 10-25 USD price range for the slower 478's (under 2GHz). I like to build 'white box', mix and match systems around P4's running at 1.6-2.4GHz. Although I've spent as much as 300 USD on one box, a few years ago, it's more like 0-100 USD lately. I recycle pretty much everything, although the MB has usually been a purchased item. I've standardized on DDR RAM and 478 pin CPU's- the latter are cheaper and more plentiful. As you know, such a system is a natural for Linux distros, and will play very well indeed. :drooling: Your location is both blessing and handicap, in this regard. Lower population density means less computers getting tossed. BTW I lived for 3 delightful years, as a youngster, in southern Ontario, back in the late 50's. About half way between Ottawa and North Bay (near Pembroke). I have some wonderful childhood memories of a sort of idealized winter wonderland, with all those deep, fluffy, lake effect snows. And, just for contrast, I first learned to swim in the Ottawa River. It was an experience I'm grateful to have had. :P
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Hi RayWelcome to the forum !!! Glad to have you on board. :drooling: I see you run Ubuntu, VectorLinux and Deli . . . those are nice choices ! ( VectorLinux is one of my favorites :P ):) Bruno

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Dang... I "Zenwalked" one of those couple of weeks ago. :) Welcome!
Yes Sue told me how you got the sound working, and I used a modified command to get it going on my Fujitsu with Deli Linux. Mind you, I still had to turn up the volume control on the side to hear anything. :)
Hi RayWelcome to the forum !!! Glad to have you on board. :drooling: I see you run Ubuntu, VectorLinux and Deli . . . those are nice choices ! ( VectorLinux is one of my favorites :P ):) Bruno
Well I usually choose the distro based on what the hardware will allow...the Dell could run anything but I like Gnome. The Compaq needed Vector because it was the only distro that could recognize the old laptop's ISA sound board. Deli was the only decent thing I could install on the ancient Fujitsu that doesn't even have a CD-ROM.
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Thanks for your welcome.My wife volunteers in a recycling store in Almonte and I generally get any systems that come in. Around here lots of people are still hoarding their PIIIs and P4s because they think they may be worth something (they aren't of course.) Dial-up is still in vogue around here and so many don't think they'll need a fast machine I guess - they keep that old hardware running Windows 98/Me and connecting at 56K.On any of the older machines I've fixed to give away, I've increased the RAM up to at least 256 MB and that helps a lot. My PII 266 only goes up to 160MB and my Fujitsu maxes out at 80MB so choice of distro is paramount in that situation.My daughter has a Dell 8400 desktop and she's making noises about buying a Mac laptop to replace it, so maybe I'll get lucky. :hmm:

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Hi Ray!Big welcome from another fellow Canadian from way out East ( Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to be more specific ). From your replies I know that you'll be a resourceful person to join the company of other very knowledgeable ones. I was just given a Penthium III which I wrecked ( the Mobo ) in the time it takes to take the RAM sticks out and put them back in. I also inherited 2 monitors ( 17 " Sun ) a removable CD-R and DVD-RW. Mayve this winter or later this Fall we can see what we could do with a Intel ThinkPad 380 which I was also given ( the battery doesn't work but I've got the power cord. It doesn't have a CD-ROM (just a floppy drive ) and is actually running Windoze 3.1, believe it or not with who knows how little memory.).Anyway I just wanted to welcome you to our favourite forum on the net. A friend of Sue is always a friend of us.

Edited by réjean
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G'Day Raymac :hmm: Welcome to our forum and I hope you find the answers you need. I tend to try most distros and also like Vector linux. My favourites are Mandriva and PcLinuxOS.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Hi Ray,Welcome to one of the finest forums I've ever participated in on the NET... Scot's Newsletter Forums. And a special welcome to All Things Linux! Have FUN! :hmm:~Eric

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  • 12 years later...

This looks to be my first post on the forum. Looks like I haven't strayed far from Debian although a brief dalliance in a Slackware derivative was on the agenda back then. Hardware is a bit better though.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Ah... another OLD thread from another time and galaxy far, far away. :)

 

And Bruno was right... Vector Linux was one of the best Slack derivatives, along with ZenWalk, Salix, and a few others back then.

 

I had forgotten about Sue bringing you over here. I was actually the one who brought her over here from a Firefox forum on Yahoo Groups, I think. My memory is not what it once was. I'll blame in on the bourbon. ;)

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I remember back in my distro farming days I had an old Dell Optiplex desktop and I was learning about chainloading. You and Urmas talked me through a Slackware install on that machine - along with about 5 other distros. Actually it wasn't that bad because of my experience with the Vector Linux installer.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Yeah, Bruno taught us how to do that. Actually, on my own machines, I never chain-loaded. I would manually edit GRUB or LILO with individual disk and kernel parameters to load my different OSes... still do it that way, actually. :)

 

My current LILO doesn't have much on it these days, though...

 

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/sda1
  label = Slackware
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/sdc1
label = Windows
table = /dev/sdc
# Windows bootable partition config ends

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  • 1 month later...
abarbarian
On 3/8/2020 at 3:40 PM, V.T. Eric Layton said:

My current LILO doesn't have much on it these days, though...

 

Talking of LILO and Canada,

 

 

The shelves may be empty, but the disk is full: Not even Linux can resist the bork at timesWalmart Canada takes a break from slinging ads


 

Quote

 

"Using Linux," Grabowski observed dryly, "is probably how Walmart saves shoppers money."

A good thing too. The company's financials for the last quarter (PDF) saw a small drop in net sales for Canada, although profits and income were up. Its UK tentacle did not fare so well. Clearly needs more Linux.

 

 

😎

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