6 Lean Linux Desktops
December 1st, 2008 by ComputerBob
Several weeks ago, I needed to setup several 10-year-old PCs for some computer beginners to use in their homes.
Having used Linux myself instead of Windows for the past 2 1/2 years, I hoped to install a newer, lightweight version of stable and secure Linux with its hundreds of free and open source applications on those computers instead of an old, insecure, no-longer-supported operating system like Windows 98.
I was able to get various LiveCDs to boot up on each of the older computers, and it only used a tiny fraction of the old CPUs and RAM, but I ran into a few problems that ended up being show-stoppers — like the versions of Linux that I tried didn’t recognize the old PCs’ USB ports.
What I learned is that I know enough about Linux to troubleshoot minor problems that might occur with the versions of Linux that I’ve personally used on my own PC, but I don’t yet know enough about Linux to setup and troubleshoot unfamiliar versions of Linux on unfamiliar hardware that’s going to be used by other people.
So I ended up reluctantly installing Windows 98SE on one of the PCs and Windows XP on the others. They all run, albeit a couple of them pretty slowly, and Windows recognizes all of the old hardware. Plus, I installed the free and open source OpenOffice.org productivity suite on each one.
As I’ve said many times before, I’m a pragmatic idealist — or is that an idealistic pragmatist? My first choice is to use whatever I believe in, but when push comes to shove, I’ll use whatever I have to use in order to get things to work.
If you’ve ever been — or think that you might be in the future — faced with that type of situation, you’ll probably want to save a browser bookmark to 6 Of The Best Lean Linux Desktop Environments.
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Consumer Info, Hardware, Linux, Security, Software, Tech Support, Windows