On 02/11/13 08:31, Oliver Stieber wrote:
Hi,
I'm a new member on the LUG mailing list, well I joined a few months
ago, but have been tied down so not been able to attend any meetups
etc... (also not the biggest fan of pubs!)
Hi Oliver and welcome to Liverpool LUG
Anyhow,
As you all may know, Windows XP is going to be out of support sometime
mid 2014, and it seems like an ideal opportunity to get Linux out to all
those people with older computers that will run like a dog on later
versions of windows but may well run something like ubuntu (which I
suggest due to lt's versions) etc.... quite well.
I'm currently in saffron Walden for the next few weeks at least and
planning to do at least a few 'moist' runs of distributing ubuntu to
people, along maybe with some advise on memory upgrades and also I have
a load of cross-over office licenses as I worked for about 2 years on
the wine/crossover project writing the DirectX 9 3D layer,
It would nice to know of peoples thoughts on this idea as it seems a
great opportunity of Linux adoption and really a boat that should not be
missed!
In theory, yes - Linux would be a nice replacement for Windows XP. In
practice, as far as I've seen, things are a bit more nuanced:
1. Those Windows XP machines are already old by now. Windows XP was
released in 2002. Many machines are approaching 10 years of age. Unless
their owner's budget is beyond limited, most people in that situation
are more than ready for a full replacement.
2. Installing and supporting a new system on such old hardware is rarely
worth it in practice. To put in a number of hours into the installation,
drivers troubleshooting, user training, transferring settings and
documents - for the machine to conk out in a few months time because the
motherboard or the hard-drive has given up is not a worth while experience.
3. If it is done as hobby, that might be fine. But if it is done
commercially (and properly), very few people will be persuaded to pay
for the number of hours required to install, configure and train users
onto a new operating system on hardware which is completely worthless by
now.
I have installed a small number of Linux desktops for users on ancient
hardware - but it was mainly the case of people strongly committed to
recycling and/or free software - not average users.
Strangely enough. the best experience I've had with recycling old
computers has been converting them to servers for small businesses. I've
found that if the hard-disks come out OK from hdd diagnostic software,
and the power supply is replaced (the capacitors in them age at a
predictable rate) - machines will last easily another 5-10 years as a
server which is not powered up/down regularly. Specially if it has a UPS
and power surge to protect them from large power fluctuations/spikes.
At least that's what I've noted in my experience so far. Other's might
see things differently.
Sebastian
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