Can I save my laptop?

[freebeard]

Starting my own agency is more appealing than ever!

You'll need something more than a laptop to run a business. In case you haven't gotten the drift yet, I'm stoked about the Seeed reTerminal. It has a programmable industrial-grade connector on the back that would let it control an office system, a robot, or anything else, smart home, whatever.

For $200 out-of-pocket.

But you have the laptop, would you consider making a bootable USB thumb drive to boot it into Zorin 16? Their website is here https://zorin.com/os/. It might run faster, then you can partition the drive and make a dual boot system.



IDK about syncing an Android phone. Because I don't have one.

[Isaac Zachary]

If I were to but a new laptop I'd get a Framework. Personally I prefer desktop towers as they're the most economical, durable and reliable, generally speaking.

But I've had so much luck with old computers people have been throwing away. My desktop is 11 years old and I found it in the trash. I've got several computers even older than it running. And they all do Zoom and everything else just fine. As I write this, someone else here in the family is using a Surface 3 with an Atom processor and only 2GB of RAM and 64GB of SSD space for a Zoom meeting and it's working perfectly fine.

If you have an old computer,

1. Take it apart and clean the dust out of it. Don't forget thermal paste and/or pads if you have to remove a heatsink or heatpipe.
2. Stick in an SSD. Name brands only. Try to size it for double the space you'll need (Windows and an app or two can fit on 60GB, so at least 120GB if you can. Or get one with DRAM cache if you're going to fill it. Usually you can keep your hard drive as a second drive. If you have a laptop and don't use the DVD/CD drive you can replace it with a hard disk caddy.
3. Up the RAM. 4GB is ok, but go 8GB if you can. Make sure you get compatible RAM. Don't mix and match brands, use the same in all slots
4. Update, update, update.
5. Keep your Windows clean. Avoid unnecessary apps. Free malware protection, other than from Microsoft (or Apple), is useless.

[freebeard]

• Up the RAM. 4GB is ok, but go 8GB if you can. Make sure you get compatible RAM. Don't mix and match brands, use the same in all slots
• Update, update, update.
• Keep your Windows clean. Avoid unnecessary apps. Free malware protection, other than from Microsoft (or Apple), is useless.

* A four-core 1.5 Ghz SBC with 4 Gigs of RAM starts at $35 new.

* <<sudo apt-get update upgrade>> in the Terminal

* Follow Richard M. Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. Free and Open Source software is the only true path to liberty. I finally broke free of the Apple ecosystem.

[Isaac Zachary]

SBC = unrepairable and un-upgradeable. That might work for some. The nice thing about a tower is that is all easy to fix. For an example, I'm starting to get to where I'm going to need a graphics card with Direct X 12 and certain codices. With the tower it's as easy and unplugging the cards it has and plugging in a new graphics card. No need to replace the whole thing.

I would love to use Linux, BUT the apps and programs i need aren't available on Linux, ChromeOS or MacOS. So it's Windows or Windows for me.

Also, in the world is software nothing is truly free.

[freebeard]

Also, in the world is software nothing is truly free.

Free as in speech or free as in beer?

What general category are the 'apps and programs'? And why the distinction. Anything that people want, someone will roll their own in free and open source software. Like Windows repair utilities.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Free as in speech or free as in beer?

Free as in steak dinner. As with anything, very few are going to devote some serious time, money and effort into something they get no return for. Someone has to pay a subscription, watch the advertising or pay up front even if that's not you currently.

Some projects that are fueled purely by enthusiasts may last a while. But then again, they may not.

Originally Posted by freebeard

What general category are the 'apps and programs'? And why the distinction. Anything that people want, someone will roll their own in free and open source software. Like Windows repair utilities.

As in copyrighted material category (print, audio, video and data conveniently put into an app for easy access). The kind of stuff that would both need permission from the authors as well as a big enough following that uses Linux (or other) to merit such a project, but currently doesn't have either.

That and ports and drivers for odd hardware of different sorts. The kind of projects that have already been done on Windows and there's no real point in redoing the whole project on another operating system just because.

[Xist]

My understanding is that you cannot use Linux unless you are willing to troubleshoot problems you wouldn't have with Windows--and Windows isn't known for being trouble-free.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by Xist

My understanding is that you cannot use Linux unless you are willing to troubleshoot problems you wouldn't have with Windows--and Windows isn't known for being trouble-free.

I always ask people, "where are your apps?" In the end, it doesn't matter if your operating system is Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, KaiOS or MS-DOS as long as your apps are on your operating system and they work well.

It is true that the average computer, tablet and smartphone user can get by with an up-to-date web browser and a generic word processor, if that, simply because most people just browse the web, post in forums and send and read emails. But as soon as you need it for a certain job, and that job requires a certain app, it now has nothing to do with the level of luxury, the reviews or the design, but can it do what you need it to do or not.

I've known several people that bought a device to do a certain task, to run a certain app, only to find out it's not available on that device. Sure, there are usually workarounds. Slap on an emulator and have at it. But by that time your experience will be poor and your money would have been better spent elsewhere.

[freebeard]

But as soon as you need it for a certain job, and that job requires a certain app, it now has nothing to do with the level of luxury, the reviews or the design, but can it do what you need it to do or not.

I'm trying to think what task is married to the OS, rather than the development language; except gaming. Most widely used programs have versions for the major OSes.

I've known several people that bought a device to do a certain task, to run a certain app, only to find out it's not available on that device.

Those several people chose poorly. The better course is to buy the device and see where it takes you, a bicycle for the mind, as it were.

Xist -- They're all the same. Linux, Mac and Windows all have a terminal program (Windows calls it a console).

https://docs.microsoft.com › en-us › windows › terminal
Windows Terminal is a modern terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and the ability to create your own themes and customize ...

You can run Linux programs under Windows, Zorin 16 Linux runs Windows applications [under WINE?]. Mac OSX Terminal is a window into OpenBSD. If you can work in a terminal they all the same.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm trying to think what task is married to the OS, rather than the development language; except gaming. Most widely used programs have versions for the major OSes.

A task could be married to an app. For a few examples,

• Torque Pro app is only available on Android.
• Toyota Tech stream only works on Windows.
• Facetime only works on Apple devices.

As you said, "widely used programs" after the ones you usually find on different operating systems. It's the not-so-widely-used programs that are usually developed for only one OS.