Thank You Ubuntu

[ArunGupta]

I just created Ubuntu community account to post a big Thank You message to Ubuntu. Yesterday, my neighbor called me asking about alternatives to Windows XP. He is a retired person who uses an eight year old desktop with 1GB memory. He uses the desktop to check e-mails, do online banking, manage his retirement IRA account, do some stock trading, filing taxes, reading news, Skype with friends and family. He wanted a secure platform.

My intial reaction was " throw away the 1GB desktop and buy a new one". Then I realized that he did not $600 to spend on a new desktop. I asked him if we was willing to let me install Ubuntu and give it a try. He agreed. I just finished installing and configuring Ubuntu on his desktop. I had to change the desktop to GNOME (without any effects) and the desktop is now faster than it used to perform under XP. Ubuntu automatically recognized all the hardware and installed drivers for it. I showed him how to use various programs and he is so happy. He saved money and got everything he wanted. He doesn't even have to worry about viruses. The desktop will probably last him another few years.

I just wanted to convey big THANK YOU to Ubuntu.

Arun

[bapoumba]

And a big thank you from me

With 1GB, you may want to give lubuntu a try. My laptop could not cope with unity any more either.

[d-cosner]

+1 from me too!

Ubuntu has saved several computers for my coworkers now and it just saved my bacon on a used laptop I bought yesterday. The laptop had EFI and secure boot. It took some Googling to find the answer to the EFI, GTP or whatever but the answers were out there. I went with Ubuntu 14.04 x64 because I have been running it on a desktop for some time now and it is very close to the final release.

The laptop has a manufacturing date of August, 2013, it is an HP 655. The processor is just an AMD A1 running at 1,4 GHz but it is just fine running Ubuntu. It has 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, 320 GB hard drive, AMD/ATI graphics, DVD combo drive, 15.6 matte screen and other than being a little dirty it was in very good condition.

I bought the laptop at a pawn shop for $130.00 and I was so happy that my wife let me get it! My wife pointed out right away that the processor was not very powerful but I assured her that it would meet my needs just fine, I mostly just surf the web, check my e-mail, play videos and music and it is doing all these things just great on 14.04!

I plan on staying with 14.04 and I really like running Unity on the laptop. Much to my surprise the open source graphics drivers are working beautifully and Ubuntu's use of Grub 2 is what made the install possible in the first place. Multimedia plays smooth on this hardware, no skips or anything with full screen flash! The laptop is also running nice and cool, so the kernel developers are really doing a good job at fixing the problems I have had in the past.

Unity is especially nice in 14.04, it looks and feels more refined and I enjoy using it. Canonical has my sincere thanks for their hard work on 14.04! Ubuntu's quality has greatly improved since they started developing Unity. I am really thankful to my wife and Canonical for making all of this possible. My Dad is terminally ill and I will have to go to his house and help care for him. My Dad has Windows laptops but I never mess with them. Now I can bring my system with me! I also like being able to show others that Linux is a great replacement for Windows.

[gifford]

Thanks ArunGupta for the share. It's good to read stories like the one you posted.

[jbaerboc]

Awesome! Always good to hear stories like this. I think the loss of support will frighten a lot of standard Windows XP users into trying new things, such as Linux! I know personally I've been trying to get my wife to upgrade from Vista to Linux for years now. Well the innards of her computer all died and I had to swap out her MBoard for my old one. Well this made ******* Vista not work of course and we didn't have a way to re-install it without a crazy purchase price from MS. So I installed Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon and my wife has so far had no complaint. Everything she needs works flawlessly. Netflix, email stuff, facebook and facebook games, World of Warcraft, etc... Oh and I'm drinking coffee from my Ubuntu mug as I type this haha!

[bcschmerker]

Glad ye all have found Ubuntu® enjoyable. I was actually introduced to Ubuntu® by a roundabout route: Back in 2007, Wal-Mart® was selling the Everex® TC2502 economy mid-tower (1.6 GHz VIA® C7-D CPU and pc2500 chipset with UniChrome™ GPU), which ran a derivative of Xubuntu™ 7.10 rebranded as gOS® 1.0.1, packing the Enlightenment window manager. (Good OS LLC is now with the ages; Everex Systems is now a subsidiary of First International Computer, Inc., of Taiwan, ROC.) This TC2502 is, as of April 2014, a gPC™ in name only, having gone through two major rebuilds with a third in planning as I write this; but Ubuntu® has stayed through all the rebuilds - 8.04-LTS on the stock hardware, a short-lived setup with the still-in-the-rig Advanced Micro Devices® Athlon 64® X2 5600+ and an Elitegroup® mobo packing the nVIDIA® MCP78U chipset (sidelined by a bad BIOS that caused uncommanded shutdowns), and the current set-up with the same X2 5600+ on a Gigabyte® GA-MA78GM-S2HP (Advanced Micro Devices® 780G chipset with integrated ATi® RV600 GPU). The X2 5600+/MA78GM set-up has kept running through Dist-Upgrades to 10.04-LTS and (as of this writing) 12.04-LTS.

I never got the LinUX RT or Lowlatency kernels to run reliably on my equipment, however, so I am spec'ing out candidates for another rebuild: Intel® 3rd-Generation Core Processor™ i5-3570K, ASRock® Z68 Pro-3M motherboard (Intel® Z68 Express Set™), 8 GB DDR3-1600 RAM, and a new quartet of SATA hard drives. This upcoming build is slated to run Ubuntu® 14.04-LTS (which will also run on my current equipment under LinUX Kernel Series 3.13.0-generic), under LinUX Kernel Series 3.13.0-lowlatency (metapackage: linux-signed-image-lowlatency). Carryover gear from the current build definitely includes an Antec® TruePower® New™ 750 Blue™ (supersedes a 500W Athena Power® PSU that came due for rebuild in 2011, after itself superseding the stock 200W LiteOn® PSU) and a Mitsumi® FA404 3.5" disquette drive and USB 2.0 CF/Microdrive/SM/MS/SD/MMC reader/writer; potentially a Creative Laboratories® SB0350 PCI 2.0 audio card and SB0250 I/O Drive, dependent on stable video drivers for the Intel® Media Accelerator™ HD 4000 (integrated into the i5-3570K). Creative Technology, Ltd., not having released a PCI-Express product in the Sound Blaster® Audigy™ range with at least the functionality of the SB0350 (the new SB1550 lacks both an S/P-DIF input and provisions for an I/O Drive), I have left open a contingency for retrofitting an Advanced Micro Devices® Radeon® HD™ 6870 and Asus® XONAR® Essence™ STX™ II, which are already supported, respectively, by the X11 Organization and the Advanced LinUX Sound Architecture Project.

[Tar_Ni]

I also use a Pentium 4 1GB RAM machine almost as my main computer for web browsing.

I also switched from XP to Ubuntu at first (anything is faster than an old clogged up XP OS) but quickly realized that I wasn't getting the most out of my machine with Ubuntu.. That's when I discovered Lubuntu. Now my PC boots lightning fast and is much more responsive.

It is much more lightweight than Ubuntu using the LXDE desktop environment and has everything Ubuntu has to offer in the software center and compatibility wise. It enjoys full support in the Ubuntu family. It's meant for older hardwares and to give multitasking ability to these aging computers.
http://lubuntu.net/

[jbaerboc]

I also use a Pentium 4 1GB RAM machine almost as my main computer for web browsing.

I also switched from XP to Ubuntu at first (anything is faster than an old clogged up XP OS) but quickly realized that I wasn't getting the most out of my machine with Ubuntu.. That's when I discovered Lubuntu. Now my PC boots lightning fast and is much more responsive.

It is much more lightweight than Ubuntu using the LXDE desktop environment and has everything Ubuntu has to offer in the software center and compatibility wise. It enjoys full support in the Ubuntu family. It's meant for older hardwares and to give multitasking ability to these aging computers.
http://lubuntu.net/

Just for comparison when 14.04 comes out you should try Ubuntu again. The reason I say that is i've always avoided unity due to it being sluggish and just glitchy. Well it's been a bit since my last attempt at it and so I installed the 14.04 Beta 2. And wow what a difference, Unity is just as fast on my computer as KDE, or MATE. XFCE might be less of a resource hog but it doesn't "feel" any faster now. So good job to the Ubuntu team on their Unity boost.