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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #70759 > unrolled thread

Older Hardware Still Works

Started byc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
First post2025-08-10 23:05 -0400
Last post2025-08-21 22:50 +0500
Articles 20 on this page of 99 — 20 participants

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Contents

  Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-10 23:05 -0400
    Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-11 04:15 +0000
      Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-11 00:42 -0400
        Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-11 06:17 +0000
          Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-11 03:11 -0400
            Re: Older Hardware Still Works Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-11 11:21 +0200
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-11 11:59 +0100
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-11 17:16 +0200
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-11 13:12 -0400
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-11 22:22 +0200
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-11 20:34 -0400
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-12 06:36 +0200
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-12 01:25 -0400
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-12 08:31 +0100
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-11 19:35 +0000
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-08-11 22:23 +0200
            Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-11 19:30 +0000
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-08-11 22:20 +0000
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-12 02:00 +0000
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-11 23:25 -0400
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-12 10:18 +0200
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-08-13 09:32 +1000
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-13 03:55 +0000
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-13 01:39 -0400
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart@personalprojects.net> - 2025-08-12 09:25 -0400
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-13 01:37 -0400
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-13 11:18 +0100
                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-13 23:27 -0400
                            Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-14 04:04 +0000
                              Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-14 02:06 -0400
                                Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-14 10:59 +0200
                                Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-14 12:56 +0100
                                Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-14 19:12 +0000
                                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-15 01:25 -0400
                                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-15 14:49 +0100
                                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-15 14:47 +0100
                              Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-14 12:54 +0100
                                Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-14 19:19 +0000
                                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-15 01:37 -0400
                                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-15 07:22 +0000
                                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-15 03:46 -0400
                                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-08-15 08:50 +0100
                                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-15 08:43 +0000
                                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-15 14:57 +0100
                                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-08-15 13:07 -0700
                                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-16 08:02 +0000
                                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-15 14:48 +0100
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-13 19:42 +0000
                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-14 12:37 +0100
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-08-12 18:47 +0000
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-08-13 08:05 +0100
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-13 22:22 -0400
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-14 04:14 +0000
                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-14 02:41 -0400
                            Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-14 18:57 +0000
                              Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-15 00:35 -0400
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-14 12:45 +0100
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-08-12 18:47 +0000
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-13 03:58 +0000
        Re: Older Hardware Still Works John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-08-11 09:20 -0700
    Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-11 11:47 +0200
      Re: Older Hardware Still Works The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-11 12:00 +0100
        Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-17 01:10 +0000
    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-08-19 17:21 +1000
      Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-19 18:17 +0000
        Re: Older Hardware Still Works Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-08-19 19:26 +0100
      Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-20 03:56 +0000
        Re: Older Hardware Still Works Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-08-26 19:02 +1000
          Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-27 00:39 +0000
            Re: Older Hardware Still Works Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-08-27 10:33 +0100
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-08-27 12:04 +0200
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-08-27 14:36 -0700
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-28 03:38 +0000
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-27 21:55 +0000
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-09-04 15:18 +1000
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-27 22:51 -0400
            Re: Older Hardware Still Works Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-08-28 18:37 +1000
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-28 19:09 +0000
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-29 01:27 -0400
              Re: Older Hardware Still Works Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-29 00:55 +0000
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-08-29 04:04 +0000
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-08-28 23:20 -0700
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-29 04:42 -0400
                Re: Older Hardware Still Works Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-09-04 15:34 +1000
                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-04 18:20 +0000
                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-09-05 03:52 -0400
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-05 12:46 +0200
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-09-05 07:08 -0400
                        Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-05 19:36 +0000
                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-05 21:52 +0200
                            Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-06 04:27 +0000
                              Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-06 14:25 +0200
                                Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-06 16:53 +0000
                                  Re: Older Hardware Still Works "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-07 00:03 +0200
                                    Re: Older Hardware Still Works c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-09-07 01:49 -0400
                          Re: Older Hardware Still Works Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> - 2025-09-06 06:58 +0100
                      Re: Older Hardware Still Works rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-05 19:31 +0000
      Re: Older Hardware Still Works Anthk NM <anthk@openbsd.home> - 2025-09-12 05:40 +0000
    Re: Older Hardware Still Works Ivan Zelenyi <iz264279@gmail.com> - 2025-08-21 22:50 +0500

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#70771

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2025-08-11 11:47 +0200
Message-ID<dqqomlxlpn.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#70759
On 2025-08-11 05:05, c186282 wrote:
> In any case, don't be in TOO much of a hurry to
> toss those old laptops with XP/Vista - just DUMP
> the Win and install a Linux. The old boxes can be
> backup units, servers of various kinds if you're
> into more complex things.

True, but often they waste electricity. For some people, this is a concern.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#70775

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2025-08-11 12:00 +0100
Message-ID<107cign$2g8mr$8@dont-email.me>
In reply to#70771
On 11/08/2025 10:47, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2025-08-11 05:05, c186282 wrote:
>> In any case, don't be in TOO much of a hurry to
>> toss those old laptops with XP/Vista - just DUMP
>> the Win and install a Linux. The old boxes can be
>> backup units, servers of various kinds if you're
>> into more complex things.
> 
> True, but often they waste electricity. For some people, this is a concern.
> 
The loss of heat moving off old pentiums is massive...
I wouldnt touch one again.

-- 
“Ideas are inherently conservative. They yield not to the attack of 
other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstance"

    -  John K Galbraith

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#71428

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2025-08-17 01:10 +0000
Message-ID<107ra6v$20k71$13@dont-email.me>
In reply to#70775
On Mon, 11 Aug 2025 12:00:39 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> The loss of heat moving off old pentiums is massive...
> I wouldnt touch one again.

Not sure you could, with your bare hands ...

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#71666

FromPeter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au>
Date2025-08-19 17:21 +1000
Message-ID<08ldnl-8p5.ln1@otis.foo>
In reply to#70759
Groovy hepcat c186282 was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on Mon, 11 Aug
2025 01:05 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> Wish I still had my EEEPC, but I dropped it off
> a roof alas trying to align a security cam. As
> best I recall, MX was the only distro with a
> smart enough version of Grub to recognize
> the M.2 "ssd".

  My first laptop was a EEEPC701, the smallest of the EEEPC family, with
4GB ssd. I read a review of this machine in Linux Format, then looked
for a vendor advertising this machine. I rushed straight to the one
with the best advertised price, told the salesman exactly what I
wanted, and away I went with my new toy. :)
  I didn't like the Xandros-based OS that was installed, for a few
reasons:

1) the overlay file system meant that the available storage space was
divided in two,
2) I didn't like the UI, and
3) it was based on Xandros, which I just didn't care for.

  After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked! An
early version of Unity, in a later version of UNR, was unusable. And my
internet connection was slow and unable to download a new UI (I prefer
KDE3/Trinity), so I installed KDE3 from a Debian disk. I had to be
careful what to install, because the wrong thing could make part of UNR
uninstall, borking the whole system!
  Some years later the little fella developed a problem. The fan
controller chip went into melt-down, causing the whole machine to
overheat. This is apparently a common problem with the EEEPC. It was
almost dead in the water. I quickly bought a second hand replacement.
There was just enough life left in the dying machine to boot from a USB
stick and copy the entire contents of the ssd to a file, then copy this
to the new one, saving the day just before the old machine gave up the
ghost. It never booted again.
  When, a few weeks later the new EEEPC also puked-up its fan
controller, I was more careful with it. At first I got a laptop cooler
table thingie, and operated the machine with its bottom access panel
open. Then later I found a workaround online. If you remove a wire
(actually I removed two) from the fan cable, it runs continuously at
full speed, taking the broken controller out of the equation.
  Anyhow, some time later, I found and bought another second hand
EEEPC701. This one is a later version of the machine. It had more
storage (8GB I think), but to my utter chagrin had a different
touchpad. This one didn't support edge scrolling and corner tapping,
which I had been using for years, since that first EEEPC. It had
multi-touch instead - absolutely inappropriate for such a tiny
touchpad! Just one of my huge flingers trook up enough splace on that
thing, let alone the two, three or four needed to middle-click,
right-click or scroll! So I took the touchpad out of the old, dead
EEEPC and put it in this new one; and lo and behold, it worked
perfectly, just the way the gods intended! And with the OS copied from
the other one, it works the way I want it to.
  Somewhere along the line I also got a larger EEEPC, the 9 inch version
I think, but seldom use it these days. I still occasionally take it out
and do stuff with it.
  Anyhow, the point is that EEEPCs are still perfectly good Linux
laptops, even if their screens, keyboards and touchpads are quite
teensy. Mine (apart from the dead first one, of course) are still
working, and I still use one of them every day. I keep it beside my
bed, and use it for several purposes, even connecting to the bigger PC
on the other side of the room. As long as its fan controller doesn't go
kablooey on ya, the 701 is a veritable boon. And even if it does, you
can work around that.

-- 


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
              Ain't I'm a dawg!!

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#71677

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2025-08-19 18:17 +0000
Message-ID<mgjtddFpqp1U3@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#71666
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:

>   Anyhow, the point is that EEEPCs are still perfectly good Linux
> laptops, even if their screens, keyboards and touchpads are quite
> teensy.

That was my major problem. I have XXXL paws so the keyboard was a 
challenge. I dislike touchpads in general. If I plan to use a laptop more 
than briefly I plug in a mouse.

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#71679

FromAndy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
Date2025-08-19 19:26 +0100
Message-ID<mgjttsFpo75U2@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#71677
rbowman wrote:

> Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
> 
>>    Anyhow, the point is that EEEPCs are still perfectly good Linux
>> laptops, even if their screens, keyboards and touchpads are quite
>> teensy.
> 
> That was my major problem. 

I had a Dell Mini10, it worked well enough, until apps started using 
dialog boxes larger than the entire screen ...

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#71702

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2025-08-20 03:56 +0000
Message-ID<1083h1b$402c$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#71666
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:

> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!

    sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop

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#72303

FromPeter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au>
Date2025-08-26 19:02 +1000
Message-ID<5q90ol-l52.ln1@otis.foo>
In reply to#71702
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
> 
>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
> 
>     sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop

  Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
was not really an option then.

-- 


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
              Ain't I'm a dawg!!

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#72366

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2025-08-27 00:39 +0000
Message-ID<108lk3i$br9n$9@dont-email.me>
In reply to#72303
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:

> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
> 
>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>> 
>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>> 
>>     sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
> 
>   Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
> not really an option then.

Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth-
hungry.

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#72379

FromNuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid>
Date2025-08-27 10:33 +0100
Message-ID<108mje1$iqm7$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#72366
On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>
>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>> 
>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>> 
>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>> 
>>>     sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>> 
>>   Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
>> not really an option then.
>
> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth-
> hungry.

In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
might have been a thing, as well as books.

(*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a
different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.

At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
for at least some of these Ubuntus.

But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
not only download the files required for the linux installs without
network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
resuming partial downloads).

This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I
overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
work out of the box).

-- 
Nuno Silva

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#72387

From"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Date2025-08-27 12:04 +0200
Message-ID<kp13olx0e1.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>
In reply to#72379
On 2025-08-27 11:33, Nuno Silva wrote:
> On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>
>>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>>>
>>>>      sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>>>
>>>    Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
>>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
>>> not really an option then.
>>
>> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth-
>> hungry.
> 
> In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
> might have been a thing, as well as books.
> 
> (*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
> doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a
> different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
> 
> At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
> the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
> for at least some of these Ubuntus.
> 
> But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
> MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
> not only download the files required for the linux installs without
> network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
> taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
> resuming partial downloads).
> 
> This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I
> overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
> with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
> that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
> file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
> seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
> work out of the box).

Around 1998 computer magazines in Spain did indeed include CDs with some 
Linux distribution. There was no way I could download a distro on my 
modem. Even if I paid the phone charges, my room mates would roast me alive.

So I think I got a CD of Red Had and installed that. I finally booted 
and got a shell prompt, but I had no idea what to do with that.

So another magazine posted a comparison of several distros, and said 
that SuSE was the easiest. Weeks later that or another magazine included 
a double CD of S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3 (I still have it) and I installed that 
one. Yes, it worked and I could do things with it. It contained help 
like "susehelp", a database of known problems. Eventually, I bough maybe 
6.2 or 6.3. It came with books in the box. That was fantastic!

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.

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#72429

FromBobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com>
Date2025-08-27 14:36 -0700
Message-ID<108ntp9$uit4$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#72387

On 8/27/25 03:04, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2025-08-27 11:33, Nuno Silva wrote:
>> On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>
>>>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>>>>
>>>>>      sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>>>>
>>>>    Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, 
>>>> and
>>>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>>>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that 
>>>> was
>>>> not really an option then.
>>>
>>> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more 
>>> bandwidth-
>>> hungry.
>>
>> In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
>> might have been a thing, as well as books.

	I used to buy Linux Pro for the distros on their Disk of the Month. I 
stopped
doing that during Covid-19 restrictions when the shop I was buying at 
closed.
I started getting digital copies of the Linux Pro now simply the Linux 
Magaxine.

So when I started out I moved to DSL line from my old POTS when I was
downloading Amiga programs from AmiNet and local BBSes.
But now I was downloading much larger items and iso files from various
repositories
	I bought a a paperback copy of Dummies Guide to Knoppix which
had a CD of Knoppix 3.7 I believe.  I learned that the Guide had as many
errors as my Commodore 64 Users manual but at least they spelled
"kernel" correctly.
	

>>
>> (*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
>> doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a
>> different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
>>
>> At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
>> the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
>> for at least some of these Ubuntus.
>>
>> But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
>> MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
>> not only download the files required for the linux installs without
>> network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
>> taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
>> resuming partial downloads).
>>
>> This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I
>> overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
>> with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
>> that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
>> file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
>> seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
>> work out of the box).
> 
> Around 1998 computer magazines in Spain did indeed include CDs with some 
> Linux distribution. There was no way I could download a distro on my 
> modem. Even if I paid the phone charges, my room mates would roast me 
> alive.
> 
> So I think I got a CD of Red Had and installed that. I finally booted 
> and got a shell prompt, but I had no idea what to do with that.
> 
> So another magazine posted a comparison of several distros, and said 
> that SuSE was the easiest. Weeks later that or another magazine included 
> a double CD of S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3 (I still have it) and I installed that 
> one. Yes, it worked and I could do things with it. It contained help 
> like "susehelp", a database of known problems. Eventually, I bough maybe 
> 6.2 or 6.3. It came with books in the box. That was fantastic!
> 
`   A friend of mine at the time recommended Mandriva and another friend 
with
a more rsponsible attitude sent me a DVD with all 6 ot hte 2006 Mandriva 
iso
files from Norway and i sent him something good a few years later.

	When Mandriva went ouf of business after producing a 2011 version that
would not run on the hardward I had then I tried Mageia at 3.1 from a Linux
Pro Magazine but no luck on my hardware used PCLinuxOS and then changed
to Mageia 4+ for a while but in 2016 back to PCLinuxOS.
	It is a very reliable for a rolling release and very seldom gives me
problems.

	But if you are living in a place with slow download speeds, join a
Linux Users group and they should have at least one member who will
download what you are interested in using or trying out. I used to do
that but it was waste of time because most Linux users are not
distro jumpers. They are happy with what they have and are not
terribly interested in newer flashier distributions.

	Might want to buy 4-8 GB flash drives these days as that is the
favored medium for installation so that the downloader can be given
a clean Flash drive for an installed Live Flash drive.
	
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.08- Linux 6.12.43-pclos1- KDE 
Plasma 6.4.4

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#72460

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2025-08-28 03:38 +0000
Message-ID<mha198Fh69eU7@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#72429
On Wed, 27 Aug 2025 14:36:39 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:

> `   A friend of mine at the time recommended Mandriva and another friend
> with a more rsponsible attitude sent me a DVD with all 6 ot hte 2006
> Mandriva iso files from Norway and i sent him something good a few years
> later.

I ran Mandrake for a while. I've got an old box in the shed I should try 
to fire up and see what's on it. I've got a PS2 keyboard and there must be 
a PS2 mouse around here somewhere. If I really want a blast from the past 
I've got a CRT VGA terminal that may work. Or explode if it's become a 
mouse condo. 

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#72432

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2025-08-27 21:55 +0000
Message-ID<mh9d73FekqpU1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#72379
On Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:33:52 +0100, Nuno Silva wrote:

> In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
> might have been a thing, as well as books.

The CD is long gone but my copy of 'Red Hat Linux Unleashed' from 1998 had 
one. The magazines had them too. I also have a SuSE distro that came 
shrink wrapped with the media and manuals. 

https://archive.org/details/su-82-dvd-1_202107

Canonical did send free CDs for a while. There was also a company that 
would send CDs of any distro for $7 iirc. I can't remember the company 
name but it sounded like burning CDs was more of a sideline hobby than 
their real business. 

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#73370

FromPeter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au>
Date2025-09-04 15:18 +1000
Message-ID<p1knol-une.ln1@otis.foo>
In reply to#72432
Groovy hepcat rbowman was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on Thu, 28 Aug
2025 07:55 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> Canonical did send free CDs for a while. There was also a company that
> would send CDs of any distro for $7 iirc. I can't remember the company
> name but it sounded like burning CDs was more of a sideline hobby than
> their real business.

  There were quite a few companies that did that. Not so many now, but
there are still some. Most were/are probably one-man operations. One
bloke shut up shop right after I ordered a disk set from him, because
he broke up with his missus.
  If anyone's interested in buying a set of disks or even a distro repos
on a USB stick, you might try linuxcollections.com. (And no, I don't
work for them. Nor am I being paid for this. It's just the most recent
company I've bought a distro on a stick from.)

-- 


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
              Ain't I'm a dawg!!

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#72450

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2025-08-27 22:51 -0400
Message-ID<RDydnfszhpOpWTL1nZ2dnZfqnPGdnZ2d@giganews.com>
In reply to#72379
On 8/27/25 5:33 AM, Nuno Silva wrote:
> On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>
>>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>>>
>>>>      sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>>>
>>>    Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
>>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
>>> not really an option then.
>>
>> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth-
>> hungry.
> 
> In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
> might have been a thing, as well as books.

   There were a lot of those in the USA. I remember a "Turbo Linux"
   in a magazine. Apparently still exists, but the site is in all
   Japanese script. You could buy intro-to-linux books which often
   had CDs, later DVDs, in them.

> (*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
> doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a
> different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
> 
> At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
> the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
> for at least some of these Ubuntus.
> 
> But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
> MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
> not only download the files required for the linux installs without
> network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
> taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
> resuming partial downloads).
> 
> This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I
> overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
> with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
> that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
> file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
> seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
> work out of the box).

   Bought Slack/RH/SUSE from store shelves, WalMart, as
   soon as they came out. Sorry, no high-speed downloads
   back then. Nice boxes. I think original RH came on a
   large stack of floppies. "X" could take a LONG time to
   get the mouse/kb set up. SUSE was the easiest. Even
   found a version of Oracle in WalMart for cheap ... but
   never had a reason to install it.

   Back then, my office had reached the point where it
   needed some specialized servers - and the Win solutions
   were expensive, restrictive and kinda crappy. So, I
   started using Linux for that stuff. Alas the other
   office people stuck like glue to Win, NO convincing
   them otherwise. So, Linux did its stuff invisibly
   in the background. Only one with a Linux desktop in
   the building was me. One protege' came along, but
   management pissed him off and drove him away. Retired
   not long after, nobody to carry the torch. New "IT"
   guy is all WinCloud, can't even program three lines
   of Python. It's what the bosses wanted - UNTIL Vlad's
   boyz evaporate the 'cloud' stuff .......

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#72526

FromPeter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au>
Date2025-08-28 18:37 +1000
Message-ID<d3h5ol-nu9.ln1@otis.foo>
In reply to#72366
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:39 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.

> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
> 
>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>> 
>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>> 
>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also
>>>> sucked!
>>> 
>>>     sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>> 
>>   Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
>>   and
>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
>> was not really an option then.
> 
> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
> bandwidth- hungry.

  True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.

-- 


----- Dig the NEW and IMPROVED news sig!! -----


-------------- Shaggy was here! ---------------
              Ain't I'm a dawg!!

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#72542

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2025-08-28 19:09 +0000
Message-ID<mhbnr4Fqfq4U2@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#72526
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:

> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
> Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:39 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
> 
>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>> 
>>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>> 
>>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>>> 
>>>>     sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>>> 
>>>   Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
>>>   and
>>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
>>> was not really an option then.
>> 
>> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
>> bandwidth- hungry.
> 
>   True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
> ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.

Generally you also had a complete, working system. Today most isos seem to 
have just enough to allow the installation to phone home for the rest of 
the stuff. 

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#72573

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2025-08-29 01:27 -0400
Message-ID<TuydnahJHJvCpyz1nZ2dnZfqn_ednZ2d@giganews.com>
In reply to#72542
On 8/28/25 3:09 PM, rbowman wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
> 
>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>> Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:39 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>
>>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>
>>>> Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
>>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
>>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
>>>>>
>>>>>      sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
>>>>
>>>>    Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
>>>>    and
>>>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
>>>> difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
>>>> was not really an option then.
>>>
>>> Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
>>> bandwidth- hungry.
>>
>>    True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
>> ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
> 
> Generally you also had a complete, working system. Today most isos seem to
> have just enough to allow the installation to phone home for the rest of
> the stuff.


   Umm ... many distros offer both ways - a relatively
   large all-in-one distro or a "netinst" distro.

   In the end they probably use up the same number of
   bytes to install or update - but with the full distro
   you can choose WHEN and HOW to do the updates.

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#72565

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2025-08-29 00:55 +0000
Message-ID<108qtpn$1n18s$4@dont-email.me>
In reply to#72526
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:

> True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
> ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.

Ah, fair enough. There was even a period when the Ubuntu project would 
happily send out CDs for free to anyone in the world who asked.

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