[NTLUG:Discuss] Fwd: A Voice From Garland (Tx)

[David Eddleman]

Agreed on older stuff, particularly if you stick to a window manager that's
not as resource-heavy as KDE or Gnome have become in later years. Stuff
like XFCE, Mate, etc. are much easier on older hardware. My current laptop
is a Lenovo Thinkpad T480 (one of the last laptops made that has a high
degree of user serviceability!) and it runs the latest version of Debian on
it like a you-know-what ape. And that is a 6 year old machine.

Point here: NUCs I believe have largely gone to obsolescence, but the good
news is that their introduction has opened a whole new market of mini PCs.
Loads of examples you can find on Amazon and even cheaper on Aliexpress and
the like if you don't mind the shipping wait. Since you're going to be
loading Linux onto it it doesn't matter what it comes with, or if it even
has a HD or not. I've seen lots of them now have VESA brackets so they can
be installed behind a monitor, turning the machine into an effective
all-in-one.

On Fri, Jan 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM Cornelius Keck <dfwuug at keck.us> wrote:

> Mini.... in general, anything ever so slightly older tends to be
> supported well by current Linux distributions. I've installed Linux, BSD
> and Solaris on both Dell and HP gear of the trailing-edge-of-technology
> conviction. No issues so far. My current toy at home (it's a bit chunky
> for travel, though it gets to go to https://thelab.ms/ tomorrow for the
> DFWRPI usergroup meeting is a Dell Precision M6500 "mobile" workstation.
> Taking it places qualifies as a work-out. They sure built them sturdy in
> 2011. Runs Ubuntu LTS just fine. Sounds, camera, mike, disks .... all
> that works well. Upgrading disks, RAM, fairly easy, because Dell has all
> the service manuals online. As far as HP goes, somebody there decided to
> delete older doumentation, like for Compaq and similar vintage stuff.
>
> Personally I really like Dell's business gear, like the Latitude laptop
> lineup. Rock-solid. Had a few of these starting in 2002(?), and they
> sure lasted a long time each, including international travel. Not the
> lightest devices, just well made. Same appears to go for HP's EliteBook
> line. What I don't like about HP is that they've started to lock down
> consumables, such as printer cartridges and laptop batteries. To the
> point that, should you decide to no longer subscribe to their printer
> ink cartridge replacement offering, your printer stops working. Our
> daughters had nice HP laptops, then the batteries died, and with the
> generic replacement in there the laptops refuse to boot, because the
> battery ain't HP's -- and they have the audacity to state that right
> there on the startup screen. So newer HP gear is quite likely to do that
> across the board.
>
> Lenovo appears to have a decent reputation as far as Linux goes. No
> personal experience with their line-up.
>
> BTW, mini-PC... what's that in case-cubic-inches? Mini-tower,
> desktop-shuttle, credit-card sized like a Pi?
>
> On 2025-01-03 13:13, stuart yarus wrote:
> > Subject: A Voice From Garland (Tx)
> >
> > Tuesday Afternoon - New Year's Eve
> > 31 Dec 2024
> >
> > Hello;
> >
> > I've got the idea that it's about time that I moved off Windows to LINUX
> > but all that I've done is to play around with some distributions ...
> never
> > long enough to become even slightly comfortable.
> >
> > One of the things I've learned is that when messing around on a computer
> > it should be on a separate machine and not the one depended on for day
> > -to-day operations (e-mail, Web surfing, etc).
> >
> > I've got it in my head that I'd like to see how practical a mini-PC is
> but
> > have gotten confused over the numerous discussion seen about things
> > to watch out for.
> >
> > Is there a 'safe' mini PC with a good reputation for being
> > well built and 'friendly' to having LINUX installed ?
> >
> > - Paul, WB5AGF
> > Garland, Tx
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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