Stelio Kontos
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Karma: 52 |  | Which free OS is best?
« Thread Started on Mar 9, 2012, 4:01pm » | |
I have ordered a second hand laptop, which will come with no OS installed on it.
I have some limited experience with using Ubuntu before on an old Dell Mini 9, although I eventually stuck Windows XP on it, I fancy going back to Linux, or at least giving it another try.
I was just wondering if anyone used any different free OS and if so what they would recommend.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice
Jon
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redbaron
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Karma: 352 | | Re: Which free OS is best?
« Reply #1 on Mar 9, 2012, 4:23pm » | |
Be a man and install MS DOS 6.2 ! 
my old server and an ancient dell laptop have Ubuntu on them- a perfectly usable and stable os as far as i am concerned - especially as its free. The netbook edition is ideal for older hardware .
Mint is popular with some of my friends, haven't spent too much time with it myself.
If you have the bandwidth, download a few LIVE distros which run from the cd/dvd or a usb stick, boot from them and check them out without installing.
even my noob brother in law managed with ubuntu for every day pc use until he saved for windows 7.
Your laptop may come with a windows licence on the bottom, my dell did - though probably for an old out of date and therefore not very safe to use online copy.
if so you could acquire a copy of the correct windows version and use the licence key (my old dell came with a windows 2000 pro key, but I have had no luck finding a copy of the dell windows 2000 to use with it. many manufacturers have licence keys which the "standard" windows disks reject.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/alternative-download
http://linuxmint.com/
info on all the different linux distro's here:
http://distrowatch.com/
a very small version for low spec/older machines:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=damnsmall
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redbaron
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Karma: 352 | | Re: Which free OS is best?
« Reply #2 on Mar 9, 2012, 6:59pm » | |
the new windows 8 consumer preview is free to download and use, and doesn't expire until january 2013 I beleive.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
The metro interface is of course, awful.
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Stelio Kontos
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« Reply #3 on Mar 9, 2012, 9:44pm » | |
I got Ubuntu on a CD and been playing with that running from the disk etc. I installed it on a spare desktop just to have a play etc, I must say its improved massively since I last used it about 5 years ago.
Think i might stick with it on the new laptop when i get it.
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redbaron
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« Reply #4 on Mar 9, 2012, 10:29pm » | |
yes its a far cry from the first distro i installed.
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