I have written before about the freedom that comes from Linux operating systems. These peer-tested, open-sourced software packages that help to provide alternatives to the virtual monopoly Microsoft has had on the PC industry.
Well, I still have two older PCs that still have Window’s OS on them, Windows 10 1903 version actually. Once a month I get them out of the cabinet and let them do their 1-2 hour “security” updates that MS provides on a monthly basis. I am still indecisive on which one I will convert to a Linux OS this fall.
This morning I had a situation that literally popped up that I have been meaning to address for some time on my Lenovo PC. At one time I was desperate enough to think that Lenovo Solutions Center would give me the tools to help diagnose whether I had a hard drive issue on this laptop. Unfortunately, once installed it has a mind of its own, and the only real clue is that the CPU fan is a blazing away. You see, there are no controls on this bloatware to control when it might emerge, and the only solution seems to be using Task Manager to kill it when it is taking most of your PC’s resources.
After a quick internet search I found this link to a MS Software Install/De-install Troubleshooter for when the typical MS application page restricts what you can remove.
I ran the troubleshooter and identified the program I wanted to remove and then was greeted with this good news:
Mission accomplished.
My next update will hopefully be when I prepare to transition one of my laptops (either a Lenovo Model G510 vintage 2011 or H/P Model 15-p030nr vintage 2014) to have the Linux Mint OS that has proven so very successful on my oldest laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1545 vintage 2010.
There comes a point when old dogs have to decide the right timing to learn new tricks. Since I am #60, that can make the transition a little more formidable. For me this is offset by my personality that actually likes fresh starts, a different wind and having to adjust the sails:
Any reader of my blog is well aware of some of the personal computer / operating systems adventures I have been through. My latest experiences have indeed cause me to adjust those sails and be prepared to evaluate what is gained and what might be lost.
The Windows OS to Linux OS transition is interesting, but since I am pretty familiar with Linux OS and its predecessor UNIX, I have a head start on most people. My own work history allowed me to attend Silicon Graphics System Administrator (IRIX) training in Mountain View, CA back in the early 1990s. I must have already had experience with UNIX before this because I vividly remember DURING lab, remote logging on to the other workstations in the lab and causing sounds or icons to pop-up and then disappear. It took the instructor only 30 minutes to discover the source of these pranks.
My introduction to Linux (RedHat RHEL 4.0) took place in the mid 2000s as I was responsible to roll out over two dozen Linux PCs in a laboratory environment. It was an awesome challenge and one where good documentation was essential should I ever have to replicate that feat. I had a detailed 16 page document that articulated the step-by-step process.
While that fleet of Linux PCs is now down to the last two, there have been times in the past 5+ years where I used Linux Mint OS to extend the life of a Windows laptop. My first experiment with this was with a 2004 Dell laptop that had Windows XP on it. I used a USB stick to place the well documented Linux kernel and files on it so the laptop could be tested on how it ran Linux before installing the Linux Mint OS on the HDD (from scratch). This worked well and I continued to use that old laptop for years after I could have IF I had stuck it out with Windows.
This fall/winter, this “old dog” is going to transfer my personal use of laptops completely over to Linux Mint 19.0. I believe that this OS had matured and is ready for “prime-time”. The default build comes with LibreOffice which allows one to work with Microsoft office formats and easily allows an external drive to connect to bring over all the files from the old Windows PC. Firefox is also standard which makes web surfing pretty seamless. The PC also picked up right away my wireless HP OfficeJet printer/scanner all-in-one device.
I also use Thunderbird e-mail client (on both the Win10 and Linux laptops) for my various e-mail accounts, and the only thing not yet ready seems to be the ProtonMail bridge for encrypted e-mail communications using a Linux PC for my ProtonMail e-mail account. It seems this is in the beta stage and can be had if I contact ProtonMail via an e-mail link for directions. I can still use Firefox (and my Smartphone) to access my ProtonMail account.
I guess this ended up being more Geek-speak than I anticipated, but I thought I would let y’all in to the path I am walking as far as technology goes and will update you along the way in case other find this path intriguing.
So back in the day, you knew it was a bad day when the head of the hammer came flying off after using it for decades hitting nails, or, way back in the day when your favorite axe did the same thing or worse, have the handle break on you, the very axe that helped you clear the “back 40” and now decades later “let you down”.
Well welcome to the 21st century, where a 4 or 5 year old laptop can do the same. Ain’t technology great?
So yesterday was supposed to be a relaxing day off but when the laptop I had been using (Lenovo G510 originally equipped with Windows 8) started making disk read error sounds (yes, nerds have an ear for that) I was like “I better attach my external drive for one last backup”. So I did that and then started tinkering with this PC.
The history on this PC is interesting, it was my wife’s (to replace the laptop she had prior to that, a 2008 Dell Inspiron, that I am using right now but with Linux Mint 19.0 (Tara) Operating Sysytem (OS) on it) until earlier this year when it kept rebooting on her for no reason and she was forever losing documents, etc. By then I had already took her files she had on there when it was a new Windows 8.1 laptop, placed them on an external drive and installed Windows 10 on it from SCRATCH.
So I got her a new Dell laptop with Windows 10 and I took over using it daily and was able to get a more stable Windows OS on it (version 1803) so I could use it as my primary PC for personal use. After yesterday’s experience, I had my doubts as to how long I was going to be able to trust this Win10 (1803) PC. THEN, after checking three times that morning I finally got this:
OK, so maybe THAT was why it was behaving so badly. It was like it would not admit there was an update coming BUT it was doing all kinds of things to the PC that made it practically unusable. I also checked the event log thinking that the CPU or memory was at fault and found some 55 second delays caused by “firmware” as well as some disk related errors, but it was rather hard to tell even for this nerd.
But today took the cake. While crafting a post earlier today I suddenly got this full screen message:
No one wants to see this message. So when it hits 100% and Microsoft has all their details .. then you can hit the power button and reboot. Until then the CPU fan is blazing away .. not sure what all the PC was doing in the background behind this curtain. I trust MS like I trust the government 🙂
So now I am transitioning to Linux OS for all my personal computer work. I have another 7 year old HP laptop that is prime material for becoming yet another Linux PC. Then there is the 4-5 year old Lenovo, and the question remains, can it be a trusted PC with Linux as the OS?
So my final test was to run CHKDSK (a 30 year old program) on the Win10 PC’s hard drive:
Results:
Even before it scanned it, Windows 10 said in effect “you really don’t have to do this”, because it was checking it all along.
So I guess this winter I will be “recycling” PCs, running the Linux version of CHKDSK on the hard drives BEFORE I place the Linux OS on them.
1st world problems I guess, there are days I would almost rather work out in the woods with an axe and build stuff with a hammer and sit by the fire and read books, but then I would not have a chance to share life with y’all!
Thank you for sharing your time with me as I vent about life 🙂
Just a quick post about my own experience with older laptops. So this is not a professional review (disclaimer), but it does point out some possibilities.
In my last post along these lines, I was able to utilize an almost 10-year old laptop that had not booted up in years and convert it to a Linux laptop following some very easy online guidelines. Well I never thought I would be writing again so soon on this topic but just this morning comparing “apples to apples” (not iOS mind you) I found the Linux operating system giving PC hardware performance it had never seen in it’s lifetime.
Above, you will see that using Speedtest site as the standard:
almost 10-year old Linux laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1545, on the right proudly displaying results of > 20Mbps WiFi speed
a 6+ – year old Windows 1o laptop, a HP Beats Special Edition Model 15 P030NR Pavillion on the left struggling to obtain a result of 5Mbps.
Thinking somehow, as a scientific engineer does, that this is only an “n of 1” I decided to compare this Linux laptop to another Windows laptop side by side:
On the left is the 10-year old Linux Mint 19.0 laptop again showing > 20Mbps (this time in the same room as the Xfinity Cable Modem/WiFi)
on the right is the 4-year old Lenovo G510 laptop running Windows 10 struggling to maintain (and it doesn’t really do that) an average of 10Mbps.
[NOTE: This 2nd test is in a different room and so the two Windows 10 laptops probably perform about the same in the WiFi department.]
Now all three of these PCs utilize the 2.4Ghz WiFi from Xfinity and are not capable of the 5.0Ghz comms. Newer laptops can connect to the 5.0Ghz WiFi which has shorter range BUT in my experience, but a faster connection (short of a direct Ethernet connection to the cable modem)
My Motorola Z2 Force Smartphone (using the 5.0Ghz as well) performs like this:
Just to compare, same Windows 10 Lenovo on direct Ethernet from cable modem gives this kind of performance:
So there you have it. Linux brings out the best in PC hardware performance, at least in the WiFi department. In the weeks and months to come I may have more experiences that show what Linux can do with old Windows PCs.
That said, I am seriously considering installing Linux Mint as the OS on the 6-year old HP laptop since the battery in that is still in good shape (unlike the 10-year old Dell’s battery which is long gone).
I do hope that this inspires you to re-purpose some of those old computers that could easily have a 2nd life ..
Maybe it is my heritage DNA, but in some areas I tend to be pragmatic (strong beliefs, loosely held) when it comes to PCs, as well as a bit frugal in that I am not fond of throwing away something that has potential value.
Above you will see my wife’s old (vintage 2010) Dell PC that had been running Windows 7 when it finally would not load the OS maybe 2 years ago. We bought a replacement Lenovo PC that had Windows 8 on it in 2016 and earlier this year due to some Windows 10 frustrations we bought yet another PC, this one a Dell with Windows 10 on it “out of the box”.
All this to say that just a few minutes ago, on the Lenovo PC, that since my wife’s frustrations with reboots happening with no warning, CPU fan running hot because some Microsoft process (that does not always show up in Process Manager) is busy, or MS Photos is making an album that NO ONE asked for .. was killing my Hewlett Packard scanning software every 30 minutes. Come to find out, it is an W10 update that MS wants to push to my PC so bad that instead of telling me, it just upsets my PC to the point that I have to look for the root issue:
OK. So this happened on a PC that I had earlier this year placed a FRESH W10 OS on from scratch. What good is an unstable OS that prioritizes its agenda over the user’s?
Back to the pragmatic part, just this week I finally took at look at my wife’s oldest laptop (Dell vintage 2010) and tried to “repair” the OS. After a few days of being able to clean up the hard disk drive (HDD) from bad disk areas (using “chkdsk”) ..
.. I still was not able to repair the Windows 7 operating system enough to have it boot successfully. I was however able to navigate through the hard drive contents with DOS to ensure that there was nothing on this HDD that I did not already have somewhere else.
SO I decided to try and install Linux on this old PC and use Linux tools to identify/repair/ignore the bad spots on this old HDD. Having a background in UNIX from the 1990s and Linux since 2005 helps, but as you will see below, there are Internet resources that make this pretty much plug and play. The decision to go Linux is:
There is NO costs (other than ones time) to try this (Windows requires payment for the OS whether you can use it or not)
There is MUCH more control over WHEN or IF your PC get OS updates!
Following the information at this page, one has all the step necessary to put Linux on any PC that has 2GB RAM, functioning HDD and preferably a good USB port (instead of loading the OS via a DVD drive which is much more prone to errors):
From here I downloaded a few pieces of software to my existing W10 PC so I could created a boot-able USB stick .. one of which was Etcher which does the job like a champ:
Following the instructions it was great to see the old PC come back to life!
While I did have to accomplish some post installation fixes due to my defective HDD using Linux’s “fsck” tool, reloading the Linux Mint 19.1 OS one last time was a great milestone in “redeeming” this old laptop for future value.
After test driving this Linux laptop for a few months, I have another, newer W10 PC laptop that might be in line for this process.
A side-note, for those that might be resistant to break totally from Windows, there is a Linux package called “Wine” that will give you a Windows experience on your Linux PC. How is THAT for open-source marketing?
Again, this all might be part of my Dutch DNA, according to this slideshow about startups and the Dutch culture:
Enjoy the rest of your weekend y’all and back to more normal posting to come in the next few days after a round of some PC distrations.
