Revive an old PC with a Linux CD [BT broadband office]

Revive an old PC with a Linux CD

Posted 13 November 2007 at 8:39AM by Simon Dickson in IT systems and support

Old office PCs tend to end up in one of two places: a dusty corner, or a skip. It's perfectly understandable: Microsoft has now effectively killed off Windows 98 and ME, and leaving aside the upgrade cost, older machines may just not have enough oomph to run XP or Vista. But hang on... you might be surprised how much life you can breathe into an old system, courtesy of the free Linux operating system.

Ubuntu, which received its latest update last month, seems to be the darling of the Linux scene just now. Their main version comes with the Gnome desktop; but there's also a side project called Xubuntu, which comes with the more lightweight Xfce system. They claim it will make 'older computers feel lively again, while newer ones will run faster than ever before' - they aren't kidding. And if you think that means it'll look ugly, you might be surprised. It comes with plenty of software preinstalled, including most importantly the Firefox web browser; other Linux applications aren't names you'll necessarily recognise, but they're generally well-established, and at least as powerful as their Windows equivalents. Prepare yourself for a long download, though: at nigh-on 700MB, it'll fill a full CD. (Worth reading our recent piece on BitTorrent....)

But when it comes to reviving old machines, the undisputed champion is Damn Small Linux. At only 50MB, it's a 'nearly complete' Linux system, albeit with some inevitable sacrifices - but the tradeoff is that it runs on machines whose glory days were thought to be far behind them. Version 4, released in October, is by far the best looking and most usable release they've done - but it still feels too techy for the average user. Mind you, it too comes with Firefox preinstalled, and if you plug it into your computer network, it should configure itself. Perhaps that's all you need?

Both these systems come as 'live CDs': in other words, they run entirely from CD without needing to be installed on your hard disk (until you choose to). It's a great way to take Linux systems for a testdrive, without making any commitment to it. You'll find yourself downloading a file whose name ends in '.iso': think of this as a snapshot of the CD's contents. You'll then need a tool to burn that snapshot back to a CD: I heartily recommend BurnCDCC, a tiny program which does what it needs to do, and nothing more. Reboot your machine with the CD in the drive, and prepare for a stream of unintelligible system messages to scroll past: eventually, you'll find yourself looking at a graphic desktop, all revved up and ready to go.

Keep your expectations in check, and you won't be disappointed. Linux doesn't come with any guarantees: it may not recognise all your hardware initially (if at all), and it may take some effort and expertise to configure everything properly. But there's a very good chance that you'll be up and running immediately; and personally speaking, I'd be more than happy to use Xubuntu on a daily basis.

Tags: damnsmalllinux, firefox, linux, windows 98, windows me, xubuntu

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Comments

1. At November 13, 2007 9:27 AM, anjanesh wrote:

Excellent thread. In this age where windows machines are pushing the bar on hardware requirements , linux goes the other way and implements the best in a simple way.
Knnopix distro is great if you want to recover files from a crashed windows pc. besides linux has been into parallel processing using multiple PCs even before others came up with a working demo. Linksys routers and file server hardware run on linux . Another useful cd to have is the 'gParted' which is actually a live linux CD with system recovery tools. very very useful when a pc crashes.
Linux could be a solution to recyle old pcs or extend life of a pc .

2. At November 14, 2007 5:06 AM, Adrian wrote:

Congratulations on promoting Linux.

It's nice to hear something positive about it.

3. At November 15, 2007 10:21 AM, james lyon wrote:

Great article - No need to dump those older computers - They are great for doing necessary small business/office tasks that dont need loads of power. So many new computers are filled with goodies that the small business will never need - Such as Vista. Why pay for goodies that you dont require.!!!

4. At November 24, 2007 12:31 AM, Dave wrote:

At our business, we run Linux on some machines that would be lucky to work well with Windows 98!

The flexibility of the Linux Operating System makes it ideal for so many roles in organisations, it also helps keep costs down and reduces computer waste impact on the environment.

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