h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's this laptop computer on my desk, that I just hate to switch on. It takes for ever to boot up, then, once it's booted, it goes off and plays with itself for 40 minutes or so before it'll do anything useful. It's an Acer and has all sorts of Acer cr*p that has its own agenda - and Vista is a nightmare in its own right. I'm sick of the thing, but I've had it a couple of years, so it's got a few things on it that I'd rather not lose. I wonder if I could change it into a decent computer by replacing all the Acer and Microsoft rubbish with Linux. What do you think? Could I just obliterate Vista by piling Linux on top of it... or is it more complicated than that? How complicated would it be? Would a simpleton like me be able to manage it without messing up the files I'd like to keep? Can anyone here advise me?

Thank you for your kind attention.

You got options.

You can ever install Linux over your existing Vista, or you can 'Dual Boot' - this means when you start up you can go into either Linux or Vista.

I use Ubuntu Linux. I'm sure various people will arrive to tell you about the pros and cons of other vistros - but keep it simple: unless you want to get deep and techy, that will do you. You can try it out by downloading a copy, burning it to DVD and running from DVD.

Ubuntu is generally reckoned to be 'human friendly'. When I started using it it wasn't as good as they claimed and I had to do lots of painful tweaking to get it to read my Windows drive, to play mp3s, etc. But I *believe* all that's a lot smoother now. And it starts up nice and quick.

There's also a good support community - although not everyone remembers that we don't all speak )

I'm not a techy, btw.

Good luck!

If you've not done so already, before you do, try or attempt anything else, back up all the files you want to preserve from it on to some kind of external media...

I've been running Linux/Ubuntu for about four years now, and it is indeed easier to use today than ever before. I think you should burn a copy on DVD and use that for now until you become accustomed. Once you see how fast the DVD loads compared to your current nightmare, you may be a convert for life.

Since Ubuntu takes up very little room on your hard drive, you will find that life is very different for a computer running it. However, should you decide to do a dual-boot system and save Windows in there, be sure to read and re-read the procedure instructions. There is a question in the process that asks if you Ubuntu to reformat and partition the ENTIRE hard drive, and you must tell it "NO" or else it will wipe Windows and everything else off of there. It will then give you the option to format its' own partition, and you can tell it yes. Be extra careful with this!

As above, very supportive technical assistance and pretty much complete transparency on the Internet. You will have to download Flash, but there's a lot of information about how it's done.

Good luck. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

What do you actually want to do with the computer? Are you using it to run Internet Explorer, or Microsoft Office, or games?

I believe that Unix comes with its own versions of a web browser and an "office suite" - word processor, spreadsheet etc. But the games won´t work on Unix, as far as I know.

I think the WINE (windows emulators) are pretty good for running games these days. Parallels (£40ish if you want to pay for it) specialises in running PC games inside MacOSX or Linux for example.

Gmomon:
>>I believe that Unix comes with its own versions of a web browser and an "office suite" - word processor, spreadsheet etc.

And you can add to that Photoshop equivalent, iTunes equivalent...whatever.

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software

Oh, excellent response! Thank you very much, Not the monkey, 2legs, KWDave, Gnomon and Orcus!

Ubuntu sounds like the one. I like the idea of running it from a DVD to start with... does it have to be a DVD? Only I've had a rifle through my stuff and found a blank CD-RW. Would that do? Or would it run from a memory stick, perhaps? Excuse my ignorance, but I'm not at all techy.

It does seem like wisdom to try it before committing - but the chances that I'd like it less than I like Vista, are slim, to say the least.

I have backed up 2legs, but you know what it's like (or maybe you don't)... paranoia

And I don't play computer games, apart from (very occasionally) an ancient DOS version of flipflop and an old Windows version of mahjongg... and not on that computer in any case.

Could you point me to the best place to download a copy of Ubuntu, please

You can use a CD or a stick.

For download and instructions, http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

I have resurected several apparantly dead PCs by installing Ubuntu. I can work reasonably well with a Single core processor and 512 or ram (maybe less).

And the sooner you get away from Bisto the better worst OS evar!

FB

I like Vista - rock solid.

Well different strokes I suppose.

I hated it from the minute I got it to the minute I dumped it. I think Windows 7 is approximately 8.4 Trillion times better .

FB

I have been using Ubuntu for a few years now and I love it.

I had Vista in work and was then downgraded to XP. I preferred Vista. At home, I have Ubuntu. It's dual boot with Windows 7, but I barely ever touch the Windows side, and may wipe it if I run short on space.

Ubuntu runs well from the CD, but it's faster once it's actually installed. Firefox, OpenOffice, and Evince (a PDF reader) are on it by default, and you can add more stuff through the Software Centre. (Don't browse the Net looking for programs to download: just visit Applications > Ubuntu Software Center, and browse there.)

The easiest way to install Adobe Flash is to visit YouTube, in my experience.

TRiG.

What a palaver! I've been messing about with my most hated computer since about 8pm and now it's almost 2am. I downloaded Ubuntu, "created" a USB drive to boot from and... nothing. I rebooted several times, altered the BIOS setup, changing the Boot Order to force it to look at the USB KEY first - before the hard disk. It just ignores that and goes straight to that blithering @$*£& Vista. Ugh! It's worn me down. I'll have another go at the brute tomorrow (that's later today I suppose). In the meantime, I'm tempted to just replace Vista and be rid of it, but it's a funny old set up... I think there's only one hard disk but in Windows Explorer it reports 2 hard drives: "ACER (C:.)" and "ACERDATA (D:.)". They have about 52GB each and on C about 30 of those are used, whereas, on D only 2 are used. I fear to mess with this seemingly illogical (though what the hell do I know?) division.

As ever, I'm in need of advice




PS Blimey TRiG and Gnomon, there must be something very different about your OS setups to mine. I quite like XP (and I like 7) but Vista feels like the bane of my life... or one of the banes anyway

Can't help but think you're "overqualified" for the Ubuntu crossover. I say this because you shouldn't have to fool with BIOS, or creating faux USB drives unless you intend running it from a RAID array. As long as your system will boot from the CD/DVD drive, just burn a copy on CD or DVD, and run it from that. Take it from there. I think it took me 35 minutes tops to download the program image to CD/DVD and reboot initially. There's an internal selection once Ubuntu is running to download it to your hard drive from the CD or DVD, and it will take you through step-by-step, and even that took maybe 45 minutes, even with the partition formatting. Try "underthinking" it. And 2GB is about the size of my original Ubuntu partition. Compared to Windows, it's miniscule.

If I remember correctly I downloaded the Ubuntu OS onto my desktop then burnt an iso image onto a dvd. After that I rebooted the PC hit the ESC as the BIOS was loading and changed the boot order from hard drive to dvd drive then followed the instructions from there.

Thank you KWDave and Todaymueller. I'll have to get some blank DVDs then. I had a blank CD-RW (just the one), but it's only 650MB. I had a couple of memory sticks but one was only 1GB and the other, 4GB stick, had stuff stored on it that I had to move. (The instructions called for at least 2GB.) I live in this little middle-of-nowhere with only one shop within walking distance and that's a postoffice that doesn't sell DVDs. It was sudden desperation to get cracking and make that computer useable with whatever came to hand that led me to try the memory stick. It looked as though it *should* work... that computer should be bootable from the usb key/memory stick. S'pose it'll just have to wait until I can get hold of a disc I feel quite deflated now... I was *so* going to show that bl**dy Vista who was boss

Revenge best served cold...good luck, and don't get frustrated.

You're right! I should take it slowly and savour it

I've just telephoned my brother, whose house I have to pass on the way home from work - and he's ransacked the kids old room and found a pack of 4GB DVDs. I'll collect one after work