I need to rant for a minute...

I have a dinosaur of a laptop. It's only about 6 years old, but as we all know, that makes it VERY behind the times technologically. I am currently unemployed, and whether I like it or not, 99% of companies require you to apply online their website or via e-mail. I'm also taking online classes to earn my second Bachelor's degree. Needless to say, NOT being on my computer most of the day is not an option right now.

With my employment situation, I got rid of cable to save some money. Which is OK, because I can watch the (very few) shows I am addicted to online, especially since I have to pay for the internet for school and to look for a job. ALSO needless to say, I can't afford a new computer right now.

It is incredibly annoying to try to watch a show online and h-h-h-a-a-a-v-v-v-e-e-e- t-t-t-h-h-h-e-e-e s-s-s-o-o-o-u-u-u-n-n-n-d-d-d constantly s-s-s-k-k-k-i-i-i-p-p-p and to have the sound and picture out of sync!!!! Also, my computer seems to have a very hard time multi-tasking. God forbid I have two programs running at the same time. The only thing that helps in the least is to restart, and I find myself restarting this machine several times a day.

To add to my frustration, my beloved Holland managed to remove the "R" from my keyboard:



It still works, but not too well, so I have to spend THAT much more time proofreading what I write.

OK, rant over. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest, it just might have avoided me throwing my computer out the window...

There are free solutions.

Must you have windows? If not, drop it for a linux distro with a lighter desktop like Xfce, Enlightenment (pretty one that doesn't use much resources), LXDE, etc.
There are thousands of free application and lots of people use linux to get life out of old technology (or because they can't stand windows BS).

Your other option is looking for some sort of "lite" windows that has been stripped down. Pick your apps based around how much ram they'll use - ditch IE and firefox.
Replace your desktop with a lighter alternative (easy and they all look better), consider replacing explorer file manager with a lighter alternative. Turn off any services you do not need and basically go through and tweak everything to preform better.

For the key... do you or does anyone else have a old unused keyboard that has a key that would fit? Even if it's not black.

OMG, sounds incredibly frustrating!

I had to laugh about the R though

Originally Posted by strange_wings

There are free solutions.

Must you have windows? If not, drop it for a linux distro with a lighter desktop like Xfce, Enlightenment (pretty one that doesn't use much resources), LXDE, etc.
There are thousands of free application and lots of people use linux to get life out of old technology (or because they can't stand windows BS).

Your other option is looking for some sort of "lite" windows that has been stripped down. Pick your apps based around how much ram they'll use - ditch IE and firefox.
Replace your desktop with a lighter alternative (easy and they all look better), consider replacing explorer file manager with a lighter alternative. Turn off any services you do not need and basically go through and tweak everything to preform better.

For the key... do you or does anyone else have a old unused keyboard that has a key that would fit? Even if it's not black.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. Windows is all I know, and I use Firefox for my internet. I have gone into my apps and removed anything I haven't used in the last year. I have done the defragmenting (several times!!).

I still actually have the "R" key, but it won't just pop back into place. I could probably super-glue it or something, but I'm afraid of ruining something BIGGER than just one key. I just wish Holland had ruined my "Z" or my "Q", even the "J"... WHY did it have to be the "R"?!?!?

I'm not sure there's much to be done with this dinosaur... though I will look into Linux or other operating systems.

Sorry, but I had to laugh about the "r" key....truthfully, it wouldn't matter which key it was...I know, my old laptop is missing the "p" for the same reason....... if you want to add to the fun of the dino laptop? Try dropping it and crashing the screen......my three year old acer is sitting on a desk with (1) a plugged in mouse, because it died a year ago, and (2) and old computer monitor plugged in so I can see what I'm doing. And I won't even go into detail as to what throwing it out the window would do......I'm the one who pitched out a PC one day....on the porch....yeah, it wasn't pretty, lol!

Originally Posted by Mystik Spiral

Thanks for the suggestions.

Windows is all I know, and I use Firefox for my internet. I have gone into my apps and removed anything I haven't used in the last year. I have done the defragmenting (several times!!).

I still actually have the "R" key, but it won't just pop back into place. I could probably super-glue it or something, but I'm afraid of ruining something BIGGER than just one key. I just wish Holland had ruined my "Z" or my "Q", even the "J"... WHY did it have to be the "R"?!?!?

I'm not sure there's much to be done with this dinosaur... though I will look into Linux or other operating systems.

Click to expand...

You have to do some stuff in command line sometimes, but it's nothing terrible - there's good user support via documents online, offline, and forums. You'd likely learn it easily enough. The -buntu distros tend to be good for those who aren't too keen on doing much. LinuxMint is a fair distro - get the LXDE version and it will be light weight. It looks to have all the codecs and many apps already there, so it would be simple.

For windows there's nLite, if you reinstall windows this will help you install it without all the useless stuff - even without IE if you wish. For browsers, check out google's chrome or SRWare Iron if you like your privacy.

I'm not sure about glue either - you want it to stay on but not stuck down.

I have a netbook and I've been having issues with how slow it is too- I don't do anything besides browse the internet and use MS office with it but it is still too slow I didn't expect it to be when I bought it. Granted I only use it in class or when I am out somewhere, but still, it takes forever to startup.
It has Windows starter on it, and I want to install linux on it but my boyfriend has been convincing me that linux sucks, and that it is really glitchy, I don't know why he is so much against it. He uses ubuntu linux because he has to for what he's doing, and complains about it logging him off randomly and making him lose his work. I will probably try it anyway and see what happens.

Originally Posted by ut0pia

He uses ubuntu linux because he has to for what he's doing, and complains about it logging him off randomly and making him lose his work. I will probably try it anyway and see what happens.

Click to expand...

That's odd. Things he can try: if using firefox (iceweasel) get the flashblocker ad-on or disable flash. Flash sometimes does some weird things and we've victims to adobe for that. Make sure everything is up-to-date. Could be a compiz issue, disable that. Check to make sure it's not Xorg. And a fun one, make sure it's not any driver issues.

Yes, any OS has it's problems but it's not any worse than trying to fix something on windows.

Another one to check out - PCLinuxOS. LDXE, Xfce, E-17 are all medium weight to light weight desktops. KDE4 isn't too bad, but if you install too much stuff it takes more resources (ram and harddrive space).
E-17 (enlightenment) is somewhat of a os X look a like in some of the way it's designed. Tweak it a little and add a mac like theme and it will look like it.

I prefer debian (sid kernel) to the ubuntu incarnations, myself. There are plenty of distros built on it.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

That's odd. Things he can try: if using firefox (iceweasel) get the flashblocker ad-on or disable flash. Flash sometimes does some weird things and we've victims to adobe for that. Make sure everything is up-to-date. Could be a compiz issue, disable that. Check to make sure it's not Xorg. And a fun one, make sure it's not any driver issues.

Yes, any OS has it's problems but it's not any worse than trying to fix something on windows.

Another one to check out - PCLinuxOS. LDXE, Xfce, E-17 are all medium weight to light weight desktops. KDE4 isn't too bad, but if you install too much stuff it takes more resources (ram and harddrive space).
E-17 (enlightenment) is somewhat of a os X look a like in some of the way it's designed. Tweak it a little and add a mac like theme and it will look like it.

I prefer debian (sid kernel) to the ubuntu incarnations, myself. There are plenty of distros built on it.

Click to expand...

E-17 seems so cool! I might get it on my laptop too if I like it, it never hurts to improve efficiency..
I am looking at these screen shots and they are sooo cool! Hopefully there will be lots of themes to download, I love playing around with stuff like that. I will probably install as soon as I get a chance because looking at the sites made me even more curious and anxious to try it out.

Wished help!... don´t give up!..

Originally Posted by ut0pia

E-17 seems so cool! I might get it on my laptop too if I like it, it never hurts to improve efficiency..
I am looking at these screen shots and they are sooo cool! Hopefully there will be lots of themes to download, I love playing around with stuff like that. I will probably install as soon as I get a chance because looking at the sites made me even more curious and anxious to try it out.

Click to expand...

Save your files off of your netbook, export your bookmarks and store them somewhere handy, etc. You will have to reformat and partition. ext4 (file system) still has some bugs to be hammered out, but ext3 is stable.
As long as your files are backed up, and you have cdrs or a spare flash drive, you can stitch distros or even reinstall windows whenever you want.

Dreamlinux looks pretty, too. lol
I currently use Xfce (without compiz) on debian, and have - pigeon (multi IM client), xchat (irc client), firefox with a lot of tabs open, and audacious with a fairly long playlist all open. Using 288mbs of ram.

Cutesy, useful desktop stuff http://www.gdesklets.de/ http://adesklets.sourceforge.net/

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Save your files off of your netbook, export your bookmarks and store them somewhere handy, etc. You will have to reformat and partition. ext4 (file system) still has some bugs to be hammered out, but ext3 is stable.
As long as your files are backed up, and you have cdrs or a spare flash drive, you can stitch distros or even reinstall windows whenever you want.

Dreamlinux looks pretty, too. lol
I currently use Xfce (with out compiz) on debian, and have - pigeon (multi IM client), xchat (irc client), firefox with a lot of tabs open, and audacious with a fairly long playlist all open. Using 288mbs of ram.

Click to expand...

I was thinking of creating another partition for it and keeping windows, but I dont' know if my poor netbook can handle that According to BF it can and it won't matter.
Dreamlinux does look really pretty! The screenshot shows GIMP too Free stuff rules..

Originally Posted by ut0pia

I was thinking of creating another partition for it and keeping windows, but I dont' know if my poor netbook can handle that

According to BF it can and it won't matter.
Dreamlinux does look really pretty! The screenshot shows GIMP too

Free stuff rules..

Click to expand...

As long as you have the space, it'll work. You can also mount the windows partition in linux to get to the files on it - linux sees ntsf easily. There are free apps and windows should have support for ext2 with this driver, so should be able to see ext3.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

As long as you have the space, it'll work. You can also mount the windows partition in linux to get to the files on it - linux sees ntsf easily. There are free apps and windows should have support for ext2 with this driver, so should be able to see ext3.

Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for all that info! I don't know what ext3 means but I will install the driver.

Originally Posted by ut0pia

Cool, thanks for all that info! I don't know what ext3 means but I will install the driver.

Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3 When you figure out what distro of linux appeals to you, do make sure to read up on the documentation provided. Before installing anything, run it from disc or flash drive for a bit.

I ran dreamlinux through s CD today, but I am having issues creating a partition to install it because Windows is saying I already have 3 partitions and I can't have more...
It looks nice though. I will see what I can do to create a partition for it.

Originally Posted by ut0pia

I ran dreamlinux through s CD today, but I am having issues creating a partition to install it because Windows is saying I already have 3 partitions and I can't have more...
It looks nice though. I will see what I can do to create a partition for it.

Click to expand...

That makes no sense - go figure. You can have 4 primary partitions per disk or you can have umm... more extended and logical partitions (I don't know the exact number and have no intention of seeing how many I can make for fun). Try an extended or give it one of those primaries. Generally you want at least two partitions for linux - one for swap and one for / which is everything else. If you're adventurous and more concerned about security you make them for /usr, /tmp, /var and home. Some people do more than that - all through extended and logical.

Swap is just like your virtual memory in windows. You can make it twice your ram.