> Windows 8.1 could not handle this, it did a fallback to the previous working config and all of the packages she had installed after buying the PC were gone
A) This is why you don't run Win 8
B) This is why full BARE METAL BACKUPS before installing/updating software is a Good Idea (Aomei and Veeam are good places to start.)
> I have backup software that only works with SMB1.
--Past time to change backup software. If you need it to work with XP, current AOMEI and Acronis circa 9.1 should do the job. If you have more specific requirements, you owe it to your own personal security to look around for something else to replace software that is obviously outdated and insecure.
--The "smart" phone / iPhone has only been around for about ten years. Seriously, you can't revert back to pre-smartphone habits? Carry around an iPod or similar (even an Android tablet with SD card and Doubletwist) that's full of your favorite music, carry around a cheap laptop with a builtin DVD drive, MakeMKV and a few of your fave ripped DVDs that you loaded onto it before leaving?
--Srsly? Not everything has to be streamed on demand, especially if it's costing extra $$$ every month. Buying even refurbished equipment and doing the above, instead of downloading everything ad hoc, would be LESS expensive. In fact, when you have *no* Internet connection you'll be thankful that you have local copies of everything!
--Analogy: Removing 'paint' from a default Windows install is almost on the same level as $DISTRO removing 'vi' from a *nix default install. Srsly. Bad idea.
> old laptop with 2 GB of RAM and a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo
--As long as it has a 64-bit CPU, you could use it for ZFS experiments or maybe throw Squid on there and use it for a proxy cache... One of my articles deals with moving Linux/home to ZFS.
--Feel free to email me privately (use gmail for destination address) and I can provide you with more info/config advice. I'd recommend either using an inexpensive SSD in the laptop or buying a decent USB3 thumbdrive though.
( You can search freedompenguin for 'zfs' if you want to see my other articles )
--I switched out the sloow original laptop spinning-platter 160GB SATA drive with an SSD, BTW - boots Antix nice and fast. If I put a USB3 Gig Ethernet adapter on a USB2 port along with an external USB3 1 Terabyte spinning hard drive and FTP-copy files over the (gig) network from my server, I get maybe 15-18MB/sec sustained sequential write speed (using Linux - Antix/MX to ext4 target filesystem) because they're sharing the interface.
--If I put both the Gig USB3 ethernet and the USB3 external terabyte drive on the USB3 card (or even just the Gig Ether adapter alone) and copy files over the network to the internal SSD, I get *wildly better* speed because it's not bottlenecked by sharing the USB2 bus. Remember, every device you add to USB2 will drop your sustained bandwidth if they're in use at the same time.
--If I put (1) Gig Ethernet adapter on USB2 and nothing else, I usually get ~30MB/sec sustained write speed to the SSD.
--Right now the laptop is using a dual-port eSATA card instead of the USB3 because it's being used for occasional ZFS zRAID10 (8x1TB drive mirrors, and with only 2GB RAM, at that) - but you should absolutely do your own speed experiments and find out what works best for you between budget ($$) and convenience (speed.) Last time I checked, the USB3 Gig Ethernet adapter was under $16.
> I might be able to get by with an old laptop as long as it had two USB 2.0 ports. I could plug USB gigabit ethernet devices into those. The bandwidth would be capped at what USB 2.0 can handle
--No. Just NO. If you're going to use an old laptop, at least get one that can handle a USB3 expansion card, like the Startech 2-port Expresscard. (ECUSB3S22, ~$30 on Amazon.)
--Using 2xUSB2 ports for Gig Ethernet will limit your bandwidth to ~15MB/sec maximum if they're both in simultaneous use. (Real world, probably less.) Use GIG Ethernet with *USB3*, you might get 50MB/sec throughput or better. Don't settle for USB2 when doing networking.
--As a fellow NDOS/4DOS appreciator -- If you're not already aware, check out jpsoft.com - TCC/LE is the successor to 4DOS, is free and also has a 64-bit version of CMD for "modern" Windows (I believe XP and up.)
--I've read the Unix-Haters handbook - more than once. Systemd is arguably as bad as, or worse, than what they had to deal with back then. (Most of the stuff in that book from waybackwhen has been fixed, at least in Linux and some of the BSDs.)
--Pulseaudio is not bad these days, in fact it helps with HDMI output. But the horror stories surrounding systemd are so godawful that I go out of my way to avoid it wherever possible, at least on systems that I control directly.
--Ubuntu 16.04 in particular was such a non-starter for my needs (and the frequent Ubuntu support-forum bug reports from other users will bear me out on this) that I switched to Antix/MX for daily use/testing - and stuck with Ubuntu 14.04 as a fallback on my main PC - rather than having to deal with the bugs and random system-no-longer-boots issues.
Slashdot Mirror
> I taught myself WordStar on that
--FYI, the 'joe' (Joe's Own Editor) package in Linux has 'jstar', which is a text editor that is mostly Wordstar key-compatible. Good times.
> Windows 8.1 could not handle this, it did a fallback to the previous working config and all of the packages she had installed after buying the PC were gone
A) This is why you don't run Win 8
B) This is why full BARE METAL BACKUPS before installing/updating software is a Good Idea (Aomei and Veeam are good places to start.)
--Try checking out Veeam Endpoint backup, they just released Version: 2.0.0.700 on May 11:
https://www.veeam.com/windows-...
> I have backup software that only works with SMB1.
--Past time to change backup software. If you need it to work with XP, current AOMEI and Acronis circa 9.1 should do the job. If you have more specific requirements, you owe it to your own personal security to look around for something else to replace software that is obviously outdated and insecure.
--GMTA :) Although I was thinking "houses"... ;-)
--The "smart" phone / iPhone has only been around for about ten years. Seriously, you can't revert back to pre-smartphone habits? Carry around an iPod or similar (even an Android tablet with SD card and Doubletwist) that's full of your favorite music, carry around a cheap laptop with a builtin DVD drive, MakeMKV and a few of your fave ripped DVDs that you loaded onto it before leaving?
--Srsly? Not everything has to be streamed on demand, especially if it's costing extra $$$ every month. Buying even refurbished equipment and doing the above, instead of downloading everything ad hoc, would be LESS expensive. In fact, when you have *no* Internet connection you'll be thankful that you have local copies of everything!
--You can still download Qbasic and use it in Win7 32-bit. Not sure of any Win versions after that, tho.
+1 Insightful, +1 Funny
// jstar / nano / mcedit user
--Have you tried portableapps or ninite?
--Analogy: Removing 'paint' from a default Windows install is almost on the same level as $DISTRO removing 'vi' from a *nix default install. Srsly. Bad idea.
> old laptop with 2 GB of RAM and a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo
--As long as it has a 64-bit CPU, you could use it for ZFS experiments or maybe throw Squid on there and use it for a proxy cache... One of my articles deals with moving Linux /home to ZFS.
--Feel free to email me privately (use gmail for destination address) and I can provide you with more info/config advice. I'd recommend either using an inexpensive SSD in the laptop or buying a decent USB3 thumbdrive though.
--Real-world measurements/experience. I have an older laptop that has a single-core, 64-bit CPU, USB2 native ports and 100MBit native Ethernet port.
More info here:
https://freedompenguin.com/art...
( You can search freedompenguin for 'zfs' if you want to see my other articles )
--I switched out the sloow original laptop spinning-platter 160GB SATA drive with an SSD, BTW - boots Antix nice and fast. If I put a USB3 Gig Ethernet adapter on a USB2 port along with an external USB3 1 Terabyte spinning hard drive and FTP-copy files over the (gig) network from my server, I get maybe 15-18MB/sec sustained sequential write speed (using Linux - Antix/MX to ext4 target filesystem) because they're sharing the interface.
--If I put both the Gig USB3 ethernet and the USB3 external terabyte drive on the USB3 card (or even just the Gig Ether adapter alone) and copy files over the network to the internal SSD, I get *wildly better* speed because it's not bottlenecked by sharing the USB2 bus. Remember, every device you add to USB2 will drop your sustained bandwidth if they're in use at the same time.
--If I put (1) Gig Ethernet adapter on USB2 and nothing else, I usually get ~30MB/sec sustained write speed to the SSD.
--Right now the laptop is using a dual-port eSATA card instead of the USB3 because it's being used for occasional ZFS zRAID10 (8x1TB drive mirrors, and with only 2GB RAM, at that) - but you should absolutely do your own speed experiments and find out what works best for you between budget ($$) and convenience (speed.) Last time I checked, the USB3 Gig Ethernet adapter was under $16.
> I might be able to get by with an old laptop as long as it had two USB 2.0 ports. I could plug USB gigabit ethernet devices into those. The bandwidth would be capped at what USB 2.0 can handle
--No. Just NO. If you're going to use an old laptop, at least get one that can handle a USB3 expansion card, like the Startech 2-port Expresscard. (ECUSB3S22, ~$30 on Amazon.)
--Using 2xUSB2 ports for Gig Ethernet will limit your bandwidth to ~15MB/sec maximum if they're both in simultaneous use. (Real world, probably less.) Use GIG Ethernet with *USB3*, you might get 50MB/sec throughput or better. Don't settle for USB2 when doing networking.
--There are numerous movies and sci-fi stories reiterating the notion that making killbots is a BAD IDEA.
> symantecs
--Semantics, in context. FYI
--ROFL, I brought this up and nobody got the reference... +1!
--Landau was memorable in Rounders.
--If I had mod points, it would be a split between modding you +1 Funny or +1 Insightful...
" ...It... Could... Work!!! " --Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein
--FYI, the Cubietruck has GigE, 2GB of RAM and a SATA port. Works pretty well for squid proxy cache.
> And that's putting aside the reset issues if you put it under any sort of load for over a few minutes
--That's probably a cooling issue. My Cubietruck came with a heatsink back in the day (Amazon kit) and I have uptimes on it of over 200 days...
--Further along this line, how does this affect UEFI/Secure Boot, if at all?
--As a fellow NDOS/4DOS appreciator -- If you're not already aware, check out jpsoft.com - TCC/LE is the successor to 4DOS, is free and also has a 64-bit version of CMD for "modern" Windows (I believe XP and up.)
> greybeard
> six digit uid
--We told you so!!
/ had a bird named Greybeard once
// kinda miss him
--I've read the Unix-Haters handbook - more than once. Systemd is arguably as bad as, or worse, than what they had to deal with back then. (Most of the stuff in that book from waybackwhen has been fixed, at least in Linux and some of the BSDs.)
--Pulseaudio is not bad these days, in fact it helps with HDMI output. But the horror stories surrounding systemd are so godawful that I go out of my way to avoid it wherever possible, at least on systems that I control directly.
--Ubuntu 16.04 in particular was such a non-starter for my needs (and the frequent Ubuntu support-forum bug reports from other users will bear me out on this) that I switched to Antix/MX for daily use/testing - and stuck with Ubuntu 14.04 as a fallback on my main PC - rather than having to deal with the bugs and random system-no-longer-boots issues.
See:
http://without-systemd.org/wik...
--Of course, if the hardware requires custom drivers that aren't in the Linus tree, I'd look elsewhere...