- This topic has 28 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated Mar 27-8:54 pm by Brian Masinick.
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Brian Masinick
There are many similarities in these stories. The names and dates and model numbers differ, but it says there is quite a need out there amongst the general populace for systems that just work, for the user, not MS.
Right you are! I fixed my mom’s system and the neighbor across the street, back when I lived in Michigan.
Prior to that, I helped a person who went to my local church in New Hampshire. In that case, I didn’t replace her system with antiX (but I SURE would have PREFERRED doing that! I cleaned up a lot of the junkware that gets on the system, cleaned out the cache, removed anything they didn’t use, and it actually helped.Sometime before I retired, I had another elderly friend who also attended a church I went to in Michigan; similar scenario: too many desktop icons, too many copies of junkware, cache entries needing to be cleaned up, etc. Fixed that one too.
Just about a year ago, maybe just a few months ago, now in a senior citizen community where I live, one person had an older computer, same scenario; her late husband had a bunch of stuff that wasn’t being used; that was a “tip-off” to me that those things, plus cache and more careful organization of files was needed; cleaned out old cache and old files; a frequent thing that doesn’t get done that can bring at least “some” life back to older systems running Windows software.
Now, in my current community, there are people who OVERSPEND and purchase Apple iPhone, iMac, etc. 75% or more of the time, they have no more inclination how to properly use this stuff than the common Windows user, so these over-priced beasts run poorly. I don’t get daily access to Apple equipment, so it often takes me longer to “figure it out”, but the Apple Word processor known as “Pages” is one of the most awful word processors I’ve seen. I’d rather deal with Microsoft Office than Pages and it’s cousins, but a simpler approach for such people, since they use expensive proprietary stuff anyway is to show them how much faster and simpler Google Docs is than Apple Pages; that is usually a HUGE win.
But for most of us, if we are stuck with proprietary systems, look for browser and process “cache” directories, and GET RID of any cache files that are more than a few days old; they can waste hundreds of megabytes of space, sometimes several GB! If cache is dated, it is RARELY actually needed or used; it represents a potential, easy tune-up!
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Brian Masinickezno
She told me it only happens when she tries to get recipes for Swedish Meatballs!
I think the son might be a bit suspect. Sounds like a good way to get invited over every time Swedish meatballs are in the works!
ModdIt
Hi Brian,
Libreoffice is available for mac, both apple and ms chipsets.word processor, its generaly like a food processor, it blends words
in to mush.PPC
word processor, its generaly like a food processor, it blends words
in to mush.Completely off topic – anyone here remembers, when, in the Stone Age, MS Windows used to come with WordPad? I do!
The ordinary, “non geeky” user may consider that Linux has problems because it can’t run all the applications they are used to (Like Word and Excel,
Edge,I mean Chrome)… But, it you really think about it, most Linuxes (including antiX Full) are, in fact the OSes that come, out of the box, with almost every single category of application a regular user can need – Web Browsers, Document and Image viewers, a complete Office Suite ( and some Linuxes even throw in Gimp and Audacity for good measure for Pro level Image and Audio manipulation).
I’m betting you can’t buy Windows or MacOS devices with all that, already licensed software (well, without the need for a license because, you see, you don’t get a license to use Open Source Software, you OWN, Open Source Software- it’s your’s), already included out of the box…If Bob’s Wife, or any other non geeky user wants to use MS software, they still can… MS Edge (for some random reason, is available for Linux – and, to be fair, it’s quite good looking and fast – sadly that sums up every nice thing I’m able to say about it)… MS Teams is available for Linux (it’s even in the Package Installer)… Skype too… And Ms Office 365 on-line runs as well in Linux as it does in Windows (in practice, probably the most important difference between the installed and the on-line differences of this Office Suite is that the on-line version can’t use macros- lots of business use macros on Excel in their workflow, so they are stuck with the fact that they need the installed MS Office).
People are used to Chrome? They have all their favourites, history, extensions, etc synched to their accounts? Sure, install and use Chrome in Linux, if you fancy that.
Does a new user want to watch video on Linux – hey, there’s even that “road repair cone” thingie that plays everything also for Linux…
Even adobe is beginning the try out offering web apps to users (and those work in Linux) (https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/editor )
For gamers, a considerable percentage of Steam and Epic Store games do run in Linux (the Steam store list of Linux compatible games increases about 20 games per day, so in about 5 years, if they keep this up, it will be about 100%). And all of Stadia and Xbox streaming service run on Linux…P.
Brian Masinick
I’m well aware of what kinds of software is available for various platforms. The unfortunate thing is that the majority of people are either technically unable or otherwise unwilling to examine and choose other alternatives.
The few that actually look to alternatives, especially our fine software, are rewarded with a great variety of choices, and though some software doesn’t work well on older equipment, our antiX software provides numerous examples of software that DOES work very well, even on very old software!
The original thread post indicated how valuable the FT10 software has been already, and many of us are very thankful for fine efforts like the FT10 contribution (and many others as well). Thank you!
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Brian MasinickBobC
I did switch it over to a 500 mb homefs set for automatic update. The flashdrive I used was 16 gb, so there should be plenty of space.
My only worry is that if any attempts at saving or editing videos are made, the likelihood of an out of space condition gets pretty high. When migrating the files from MS I found that the largest file was a 500 mb video of a meeting of some kind, where for the first few seconds you see people, and then it continues for 5 minutes where you are looking at the ceiling because the camera was set down on the table pointed at the ceiling while still recording, resulting in a huge but not very useful video.
That kind of situation might also cause trouble for the trash recycle system if it was deleted or edited. Maybe I should spend time testing it to verify that it can recover gracefully from the error conditions that kind of situation might cause.
Things like these make produce trying times for people that support end user systems.
Maybe I should reconfigure this into a frugal setup where the OS is on the drive, as well as a homefs area, and that way I can have it automatically boot in with the right timezone, and not need to work under demo. It would be nicer if it had her name and a password she chooses.
She doesn’t much notice that she isn’t running windows, and just goes about doing the things she wants to do, no different than if it was Win/10, so I would call that a complete success, as far as meeting requirements, but as always, there are things that could be improved.
PS: It was very nice that she noticed that its much faster now, especially since its running from a flashdrive currently.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by BobC.
christophe
Frugal will definitely expand the Live-usb-storage directory to be the size of the hdd. So that’s the way to go, so long as Windows is never going to be used again.
ADDED: Perhaps even whiping out hdd & making the hdd a “live-usb,” from a custom installation snapshot — which has her name as user. š
- This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by christophe.
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
Hi BobC,
For our local usage 16GB USB sticks were found less than optimal.
Having been called to a couple of locked up/ no login possible due no free space systems, I am
now recommending and using 64 GB devices.
Even the best USB sticks are pretty cheap. Sandisk extreme series comes with a very long warranty
so present favorite.- This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.
Brian Masinick
@BobC: it sounds like you had good success with your first venture into this.
Your experience matches the experiences I have had (even before we added the great software we have available now).
I’ve had really good experiences running from a flash drive; one thing I want to “revisit” when I get a chance is to compare how my antiX installations that I’ve put on HDD compare to running similar software directly from USB on those same older devices. When I was using two of my oldest systems the other day, I noticed that I put antiX 19.5 on one of them and antiX 21 runit on the other one; both of them were working flawlessly on the two oldest computers I have.
A week or two ago I noticed that I must have mis-configured something on my 5-6 year old Dell Inspiron 5558 laptop on my antiX 19.5 installation because it wasn’t going to my selected window manager or connecting to the Internet properly; antiX 21 on another partition on that same computer worked fine; when time permits I’ll go back and see what was happening because I didn’t have any issues at all with antiX 19.5 when I first installed it; so I suspect an update accidentally broke something; I don’t have a defect to report; (I’m suspecting unintentional “operator error!” š
More to come one of these days; I’ll try to run some further unofficial, seat of the pants impressions of frugal flash drive runs versus hard drive installations; unofficially both of them have run well for me.
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Brian Masinick
anticapitalista
Options, options LOL
I love reading stories like this, especially “PS: It was very nice that she noticed that its much faster now, especially since its running from a flashdrive currently”.
I prefer running frugal from hard drive (ssd) since I only have usb2 ports.
You notice the difference.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
blur13
The unfortunate thing is that the majority of people are either technically unable or otherwise unwilling to examine and choose other alternatives.
This! antiX with transformation pack is far superior to windows and will make old hardware usable again. However, most people dont even know its an option. And installing a new OS, disabling “secure” boot etc, is not easy for a novice.
Brian Masinick
@BobC: it sounds like you had good success with your first venture into this.
Your experience matches the experiences I have had (even before we added the great software we have available now).
Iāve had really good experiences running from a flash drive; one thing I want to ārevisitā when I get a chance is to compare how my antiX installations that Iāve put on HDD compare to running similar software directly from USB on those same older devices. When I was using two of my oldest systems the other day, I noticed that I put antiX 19.5 on one of them and antiX 21 runit on the other one; both of them were working flawlessly on the two oldest computers I have.
A week or two ago I noticed that I must have mis-configured something on my 5-6 year old Dell Inspiron 5558 laptop on my antiX 19.5 installation because it wasnāt going to my selected window manager or connecting to the Internet properly; antiX 21 on another partition on that same computer worked fine; when time permits Iāll go back and see what was happening because I didnāt have any issues at all with antiX 19.5 when I first installed it; so I suspect an update accidentally broke something; I donāt have a defect to report; (Iām suspecting unintentional āoperator error!ā š
More to come one of these days; Iāll try to run some further unofficial, seat of the pants impressions of frugal flash drive runs versus hard drive installations; unofficially both of them have run well for me.
Regarding antiX 19.5 on my Dell Inspiron 5558 laptop, I grabbed the USB I used, and booted into it on this system. I do have to use a safe video boot mode, but then I got in. I saved it in a persistent root on the USB, logged out and in and it works. I’ll try rebooting but this does indeed indicate that some kind of change after I initially installed this version on THIS particular laptop caused the issue, because I also have this installed on a much older laptop and it works fine. Anyway, I confirmed that I can indeed boot it and run antiX here; working fine now, so yup, some packaging change or other user error caused the problem!
No defect to report, as I suspected!--
Brian MasinickBrian Masinick
yeah, rebooting works, so I’ll use the static root persistence mode when booting from USB on antiX 19.5 on this Dell Inspiron 5558, especially since I also have a nicely configured HDD implementation of antiX 21 “runit” edition on this hardware. Two approaches, two different versions, both nicely working now!
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Brian MasinickBrian Masinick
As far as the transformation pack goes, I agree!
What bothers me a bit is that unsuspecting, unknowing users *think* that some pre-packaged version of Windows – or the even more expensive Apple products, which actually use a LOT of “freely available” core software, then put their PROPRIETARY stuff OVER it, and charge a LOT of money for it, using marketing to convince people that it is somehow *better* – I dispute those claims.
Just this afternoon my next door neighbor was sitting in a common area at the end of our floor with an iPod in her hands that had some HUGE fonts consuming the entire screen, and she had NO IDEA how to change it! She asked me if I knew how. Well, I didn’t, not off the top of my head. I could have researched what the Cmd, Ctrl and other keys on the bottom left side of her keyboard could do to help me get to some “commands” or I could have researched something here, but why bother researching and learning something expensive that I never (especially as a retiree) want to use myself?
She and another person were planning on getting together; apparently they both use Apple products; she was hoping the other person knew something about this; otherwise they’d go to “the Apple Store” and get help.
So much for hardware and software that is allegedly *better*, easier to use, blah, blah, blah! They’ve been sold a bill of goods, that’s for sure.
I’m on an old laptop that works as good or better than the stuff they are using, thanks to efficient, clean, and freely available software. It may not be 100% perfect, but it’s pretty darn good, it keeps my older systems running well and it’s affordable on my limited retirement budget!--
Brian Masinick
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