[wellylug] Could someone help with setting up a computer with linux

[mike and viv lee]

Hi Hugh

I run puppy linux and ubuntu mint on a gigabyte desktop, picture attached.
Runs everything perfectly. It has a 120Gb solid state drive with 2Gb ram.
Boots in around 14 secs. Bluetooth and wireless work. It was around $400 
from PBTech. It has a quadcore celron chipset running at 1.6GHz.

Cheers Mike Lee


Hugh Davenport wrote:
> May 12 2016 5:39 PM, "Michelle" <michelle400 at orcon.net.nz> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> My name's Michelle. I've been using Linux on and off for the last few years.
>>
>> If this has not been sent to your LUG mailing list (if you have one) could you please send it to
>> that or to all the people in your LUG please?
>> I'm looking for someone who would help me set up a computer with linux on it.
>>
>> I had a Dell on which I set up Puppy with no problem whatsoever. The computer died and so then I
>> took the puppy distro and the other disto I'd bought (can't remember what) and tried to install
>> them on 2 older computers I had but it didn't work. I don't know why, maybe it was because one of
>> the distros was on a stick and not compatible or maybe both computer hard drives were stuffed?
>>
>> After that I bought a mini-pc (I think it was supposed to run linux) but it didn't work at all.
>> Then I bought a tablet but after a month or two it stopped working or pretty much? Stopped working.
>> So I just used a phone for about a year and last year bought a brand new Toshiba laptop.
>>
>> The problem with this was two fold:
>>
>> 1. It was a laptop.
>> 2. It was a Toshiba (oh how I hate Toshiba)
>>
>> I had known that not all computers were readily compatible with linux but after my easy experience
>> with the Dell I wasn't too concerned. I bought two linux distros on different media and
>> hoped/assumed? that something would work – it didn't. I bought another say 2 or 3 distros and
>> managed to get the Mint to install on this Toshiba.
>>
>> It wasn't until after this annoying endeavor that I found out online that:
>> - laptops are less compatible than desktops with linux and that
>> - Toshiba out of the maybe top 6 or 8 computer manufacturers is consistantly about the least
>> compatible with linux ( I HATE TOSHIBA)
>>
>> I don't happen to have a few spear thousand dollars sitting around to enable me to buy a computer
>> and try and set it up with the distros I want, find it dosen't work, buy another computer, find it
>> doesn't work, buy another and finally find one that works with the distros I want.
>>
>> So I am sending this message to basically all the Linux users groups in NZ and hoping someone can
>> help me set up a computer with the two linux distros I want. I don't know how that would work.
>> Maybe someone is about to buy a new computer and can try these distros before they put theirs on,
>> maybe someone has a partition on their computer that is spare and can try it there, maybe they own
>> a computer shop or work in a computer shop or at a university or polytech with computers or
>> computer parts around.
>>
>> So for anyone who may be willing to help me here is what I would like:
>>
>> - a desktop (not the modern ones that are a computer plus other thing/s but just a computer
>>
>> - not a toshiba
>>
>> - Whonix to run on top of Qubes.
>> Whonix is great for anonimity and Qubes is designed for security/safety.
>>
>> - I have a DrayTek vigor 120 modem. I connect it via DSL. When looking into whonix I read that it
>> is complex to configure and setup, so I was hoping that you might have such a modem or access to
>> one and set it up with whonix and then tell me how you did it.
>>
>> - I don't want the computer to come with wifi or bluetooth or any similar thing. I don't want it
>> just not running, I don't want it there at all.
>>
>> - I'm wanting to install 3 old encyclopedias. I was reading about the new versions online and
>> people were recommending old ones. I've bought Encarta 2004, 2001 and Encyclopaedia Britannica '98.
>> To run them on I've bought Windows 98 second edition and Windows NT (first edition?). If you have
>> or could borrow these windows OS could you see if you could get them running in whonix or qubes?
>>
>> - One or both of the encyclopedias need 2 DVD players so I'd like at least 2 DVD players with one
>> being a recorder.
>>
>> - I'm not looking for a high end computer. As long as it will play youtube, that's fast enough. BUT
>> I would appreciate hearing any recommendation about if I just add such and such for $100 or $150 it
>> would go much faster.
>> I'd like 500GB hard drive at least and I've been recommended to get 8GB RAM at least.
>>
>> I wouldn't buy the computer off you but rather if you could tell me what computer/computer parts
>> worked, I'd pay up to $150 for the info. If 10 different people told me what worked of course I
>> couldn't pay 10 different people $150.
>>
>> I am sending this to: the wlug, Glen Ogilvie at nelg at linuxsolutions.co.nz in Auckland, the Welly
>> LUG through hugh at davenport.net.nz, nzlug at lists.nzoss.org.nz and Wellington LUG through
>> jethro.carr at jethrocarr.com. If you know of any active LUG that I have missed or anyone else that
>> might be willing to assist me could you please pass this onto them? My email is
>> michelle400 at orcon.net.nz. If this is posted to a mailing list (I've never used one before) and I
>> don't reply in a week could you get back to me on my email?
>>
>> Thank you to anyone willing to help
>> Michelle Gorringe.
>

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: gigabyte.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 732935 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.wellylug.org.nz/pipermail/wellylug/attachments/20160512/d022762e/attachment-0001.jpg>