Gaudentius
February 24th, 2015, 07:28 PM
Inspiron 1525N
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache
fancy, dancy, black shell
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz, 2 Dimm
15.4" Widescreen WXGA LCDTrueLife
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
120GB 7200 RPM SATA with Free Fall Sensor (better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it)
Ubuntu 8.04 with DVD Playback
Integrated 10/100 NIC
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer
Integrated High Def Audio (2.0)
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11 a/g) Mini-card
I once replaced the hard drive, but soon after pulled it out and used it as an emergency fix for another laptop. Never bought another one for my 1525N and just used the stock hard drive.
I bought this laptop back in 2008 as an early birthday present to myself. I'd only had VERY minimal linux experience and had set up a server for a class project in college. As a stand-alone everyday desktop environment, I wasn't too familiar or comfortable with. But with the server project, I got curious.
I wanted a new laptop. Not only a new laptop, but a laptop with linux. There were only a couple of companies offering linux boxes at the time, but they were pricey and mainly for people with some experience with linux. It must have been kismet because Dell had just begun offering a laptop with Ubuntu. I did a little digging and found that Ubuntu was great for inexperienced linux users. Did some more diggin and found that it was a very powerful desktop environment if needed. So, I pulled the trigger.
I had my teething issues with it, but found that with a little digging here on the forums, most problems were solved. If not solved, then worked around. I can tell you that even today, even though I've been using this same laptop for nearly six years, I'm still a n00b. I've upgraded the OS within the updater only twice from the stock Hardy Heron to Lucid Lynx and just this weekend to the current Trusty Tahr. As you can see, I've stuck to the LTS versions. Even with the laptop spec'ed out as it came stock, Trusty Tahr is fantastic!
My main use is for storing my ebooks as I have a Kindle Paperwhite. I have Calibre installed to transfer any of the books I want to it. Music, I still use my old ******* box. I use an old iPod Nano and it works fine just for that. But for streaming . . . boy, was that a headache. I was able to use Hulu within Firefox until it became a hassle, then installed Chromium and it worked fine there. Netflix still hadn't been resolved easily for me so it'd be Roku time when I was home. I got Amazon Prime a few years ago and was able to watch it in browser as well. Still . . . I wanted Netflix.
At some point a few years ago someone figured out how to get Netflix working and released Netflix Desktop. An install and a bit of digging to finally get it to work (with some hiccups) and I was in business. Every once in a while an update would come along that would screw up Netflix and I would have to wait for a workaround to get it to work. A couple of weeks ago (before the upgrade to 14.04) I had a catastrophic upgrade. It killed my Netflix again.
Mind you, it had been several months ( maybe even about a year) since I had a major problem that I had to look up stuff on the forum. But I went digging again and found that Chrome was now capable of running Netflix within the browser. I was a tad skeptical, but I tried it. Lo and behold, it worked! Since it had been a while, I did a bit more reading and looked into Trusty Tahr and figured it may be time to upgrade the OS. My updater had been bugging me letting me know that 14.04 was available as an upgrade for a while now.
I backed up all my important media and made sure I noted all my programs and began the upgrade.
It took a few hours. I just let it do it's thing. When it was finally done, it wasn't working right. When that usually happens, I shut it down completely and reboot it a bit later. That fixed it. I checked to see if I lost anything, and all my media was fine. All the programs I use were there as well. The test was the streaming stuff.
I started up Chrome and logged into Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. ALL of them were running much smoother now! Netflix no longer had that stuttering that would occur when changing scenes or fast movement.
Only Ubuntu (Linux) would be able to keep an old laptop like this running this fantastically fast, AFAIK. Maybe even Mac, seeing as that is Unix based as well . . . I think. I love this laptop. I'm a n00b in Linux, but I know how to use this forum to find possible solutions. I know that I don't use the full capability of Ubuntu, but for my purposes it is fine.
I posted this up to show my experience with it from using Ubuntu since the summer of 2008. I have been considering looking for a thinner laptop as the 1525N is a pretty hefty thing to be lugging around. So you can guess I'll be doing some more digging on these forums for some recommendations.
I love you guys. The forums are a fantastic resource and I want to thank you all for your contributions and advice.
GD
a n00b
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache
fancy, dancy, black shell
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz, 2 Dimm
15.4" Widescreen WXGA LCDTrueLife
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
120GB 7200 RPM SATA with Free Fall Sensor (better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it)
Ubuntu 8.04 with DVD Playback
Integrated 10/100 NIC
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer
Integrated High Def Audio (2.0)
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11 a/g) Mini-card
I once replaced the hard drive, but soon after pulled it out and used it as an emergency fix for another laptop. Never bought another one for my 1525N and just used the stock hard drive.
I bought this laptop back in 2008 as an early birthday present to myself. I'd only had VERY minimal linux experience and had set up a server for a class project in college. As a stand-alone everyday desktop environment, I wasn't too familiar or comfortable with. But with the server project, I got curious.
I wanted a new laptop. Not only a new laptop, but a laptop with linux. There were only a couple of companies offering linux boxes at the time, but they were pricey and mainly for people with some experience with linux. It must have been kismet because Dell had just begun offering a laptop with Ubuntu. I did a little digging and found that Ubuntu was great for inexperienced linux users. Did some more diggin and found that it was a very powerful desktop environment if needed. So, I pulled the trigger.
I had my teething issues with it, but found that with a little digging here on the forums, most problems were solved. If not solved, then worked around. I can tell you that even today, even though I've been using this same laptop for nearly six years, I'm still a n00b. I've upgraded the OS within the updater only twice from the stock Hardy Heron to Lucid Lynx and just this weekend to the current Trusty Tahr. As you can see, I've stuck to the LTS versions. Even with the laptop spec'ed out as it came stock, Trusty Tahr is fantastic!
My main use is for storing my ebooks as I have a Kindle Paperwhite. I have Calibre installed to transfer any of the books I want to it. Music, I still use my old ******* box. I use an old iPod Nano and it works fine just for that. But for streaming . . . boy, was that a headache. I was able to use Hulu within Firefox until it became a hassle, then installed Chromium and it worked fine there. Netflix still hadn't been resolved easily for me so it'd be Roku time when I was home. I got Amazon Prime a few years ago and was able to watch it in browser as well. Still . . . I wanted Netflix.
At some point a few years ago someone figured out how to get Netflix working and released Netflix Desktop. An install and a bit of digging to finally get it to work (with some hiccups) and I was in business. Every once in a while an update would come along that would screw up Netflix and I would have to wait for a workaround to get it to work. A couple of weeks ago (before the upgrade to 14.04) I had a catastrophic upgrade. It killed my Netflix again.
Mind you, it had been several months ( maybe even about a year) since I had a major problem that I had to look up stuff on the forum. But I went digging again and found that Chrome was now capable of running Netflix within the browser. I was a tad skeptical, but I tried it. Lo and behold, it worked! Since it had been a while, I did a bit more reading and looked into Trusty Tahr and figured it may be time to upgrade the OS. My updater had been bugging me letting me know that 14.04 was available as an upgrade for a while now.
I backed up all my important media and made sure I noted all my programs and began the upgrade.
It took a few hours. I just let it do it's thing. When it was finally done, it wasn't working right. When that usually happens, I shut it down completely and reboot it a bit later. That fixed it. I checked to see if I lost anything, and all my media was fine. All the programs I use were there as well. The test was the streaming stuff.
I started up Chrome and logged into Hulu, Amazon and Netflix. ALL of them were running much smoother now! Netflix no longer had that stuttering that would occur when changing scenes or fast movement.
Only Ubuntu (Linux) would be able to keep an old laptop like this running this fantastically fast, AFAIK. Maybe even Mac, seeing as that is Unix based as well . . . I think. I love this laptop. I'm a n00b in Linux, but I know how to use this forum to find possible solutions. I know that I don't use the full capability of Ubuntu, but for my purposes it is fine.
I posted this up to show my experience with it from using Ubuntu since the summer of 2008. I have been considering looking for a thinner laptop as the 1525N is a pretty hefty thing to be lugging around. So you can guess I'll be doing some more digging on these forums for some recommendations.
I love you guys. The forums are a fantastic resource and I want to thank you all for your contributions and advice.
GD
a n00b