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Author Topic: Wonder USB stick or Useless?  (Read 5479 times)

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Lizzie Zoom

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Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« on: 12 August 2019, 15:43:26 »

Whilst clicking on a link in a thread on this Forum about Brexit, I noted this advertising:

https://thiswentviral.net/make-your-computer-like-new/?ad=374281616568&sites=www.westmonster.com&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm4qEtsf94wIVWBAbCh3O0AoREAEYASAAEgI5nPD_BwE

Can it really be that good? Could I update my PC that easily ??? ???


IT experts on here, like TB, I await your comments ;D ;D ;)
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Shackeng

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #1 on: 12 August 2019, 15:49:46 »

Spooky, a friend has just loaded a version of Linux on a USB for me to try. Must go and pick it up. :y
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Lizzie Zoom

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #2 on: 12 August 2019, 17:22:10 »

Spooky, a friend has just loaded a version of Linux on a USB for me to try. Must go and pick it up. :y

I am glad you know what that is Shackeng! :D ;)

I have just been reading up about it, and although it seems very worthwhile as an operating system, I am so scarred of mucking up my PC that I will await your comments, and others, on how good it really is before I do anything! ::) ::) ;D ;D :)
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aaronjb

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #3 on: 12 August 2019, 17:33:37 »

It's just a (free) operating system on a USB stick that will run as a "Live" OS (that is, without installing anything to your hard disk)

Do you want to learn an entirely new Operating System that is entirely incompatible (in terms of software etc) with Windows? If yes, knock yourself out, but you might as well go and download a Live image of Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, etc etc and play with that, for free, instead.

It's not some "magic" fix, it's just a lighter-weight OS that will run faster on aged hardware.
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Shackeng

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #4 on: 12 August 2019, 19:58:12 »

It's just a (free) operating system on a USB stick that will run as a "Live" OS (that is, without installing anything to your hard disk)

Do you want to learn an entirely new Operating System that is entirely incompatible (in terms of software etc) with Windows? If yes, knock yourself out, but you might as well go and download a Live image of Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, etc etc and play with that, for free, instead.

It's not some "magic" fix, it's just a lighter-weight OS that will run faster on aged hardware.

Hmmm, not what I was told. :-\ :-\ :-\
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STEMO

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #5 on: 12 August 2019, 20:04:07 »

Kevin is your Linux expert.
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Rods2

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #6 on: 12 August 2019, 20:35:26 »

I use Linux as a web server for my local LAMPS development. Documentation is really aimed at administrators, so IMO you need a reasonably good knowledge of computers to feel comfortable working with it. My local systems just have a CLI interface but the live cloud servers & I do most of the day-to-day administration on, using mainly Cpanel.

If there is some affordable software only available on Linux or you want to setup a local intranet & storage server or play around creating your own smart devices using programmable microcontrollers, Raspberry PIs or one of the alternatives then it is probably for you otherwise I would suggest just sticking to your Windows PC.
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aaronjb

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #7 on: 13 August 2019, 08:33:24 »

Hmmm, not what I was told. :-\ :-\ :-\

Well, if someone told you "Don't worry, you can just run all your old software on this new Linux OS!" then they were misguided; you can get most of it to work if you are very persistent (Wine, the Windows Emulator, has come on a long way in the last 20 years).

If they meant "You can open all your old files [in new software]" then they were right - Linux will read all Windows drive formats and there is software out there to open most files created under Windows; e.g. LibreOffice for Microsoft Office docs, Gimp if you're used to Photoshop, etc. (That's the GNU Image Manipulation Program, not the masks..)

This is only what I've done for a job since the mid 90s ;)


Linux on the desktop has come on immensely even in the last 10 years - Linux Mint or Ubuntu are great easy-to-use out-of-the-box distributions and support almost all modern hardware (and the hardware they don't support, the users of this forum are unlikely to have, IMHO, with the exception of maybe TB, Rods, Kevin etc), but it means learning a new way to do everything. I wouldn't recommend it for my (75 year old) mum, my (71 year old) dad would probably figure it out and my (30-something) girlfriend gets on fine with Mint on her laptop.. YMMV.

(It's a very different world in Server-land where, as Rods describes, most configuration is done at the CLI, you don't have a GUI and you'll feel like you've just stepped back in time to the 1980s - because in some ways, you have ;))


BTW, it's happy birthday to the IBM PC today - 37 years since the launch of the IBM 5150, today: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/ibm-for-president/
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Shackeng

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #8 on: 13 August 2019, 08:50:15 »

Hmmm, not what I was told. :-\ :-\ :-\

Well, if someone told you "Don't worry, you can just run all your old software on this new Linux OS!" then they were misguided; you can get most of it to work if you are very persistent (Wine, the Windows Emulator, has come on a long way in the last 20 years).

If they meant "You can open all your old files [in new software]" then they were right - Linux will read all Windows drive formats and there is software out there to open most files created under Windows; e.g. LibreOffice for Microsoft Office docs, Gimp if you're used to Photoshop, etc. (That's the GNU Image Manipulation Program, not the masks..)

This is only what I've done for a job since the mid 90s ;)


Linux on the desktop has come on immensely even in the last 10 years - Linux Mint or Ubuntu are great easy-to-use out-of-the-box distributions and support almost all modern hardware (and the hardware they don't support, the users of this forum are unlikely to have, IMHO, with the exception of maybe TB, Rods, Kevin etc), but it means learning a new way to do everything. I wouldn't recommend it for my (75 year old) mum, my (71 year old) dad would probably figure it out and my (30-something) girlfriend gets on fine with Mint on her laptop.. YMMV.

(It's a very different world in Server-land where, as Rods describes, most configuration is done at the CLI, you don't have a GUI and you'll feel like you've just stepped back in time to the 1980s - because in some ways, you have ;))


BTW, it's happy birthday to the IBM PC today - 37 years since the launch of the IBM 5150, today: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/ibm-for-president/

Probably what I was told. :y
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Viral_Jim

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #9 on: 13 August 2019, 09:47:02 »

BTW, it's happy birthday to the IBM PC today - 37 years since the launch of the IBM 5150, today: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/ibm-for-president/

A 4.77Mhz processor  :o. Even my first computer  was packing a mighty 75Mhz.  ;D
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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #10 on: 13 August 2019, 10:15:29 »

Mine was 90. In the late nineties it cost the thick end of two grand. I never did work out how to use most of its capabilities and still haven't. ;D
It was useful at the time for the kids learning all that kind of thing at school though, so shouldn't grumble.  ::)
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Lizzie Zoom

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #11 on: 13 August 2019, 11:34:20 »

BTW, it's happy birthday to the IBM PC today - 37 years since the launch of the IBM 5150, today: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/ibm-for-president/

A 4.77Mhz processor  :o. Even my first computer  was packing a mighty 75Mhz.  ;D

Yes, that machine was certainly an advancement on their previous room filling, tape and card driven computers like the IBM 360!! ;D ;D ;)
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aaronjb

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #12 on: 13 August 2019, 11:34:42 »

BTW, it's happy birthday to the IBM PC today - 37 years since the launch of the IBM 5150, today: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/ibm-for-president/

A 4.77Mhz processor  :o. Even my first computer  was packing a mighty 75Mhz.  ;D

Younguns.. my first computer had a 3.5Mhz Z80 and a whopping 48Kb of RAM ;D my first PC, though, was a 386SX25 - 25Mhz, 2Mb of RAM IIRC. I'd been through a 128Kb Spectrum +3 (still that 3.5Mhz Z80) and a 1Mb Amiga 500+ (7Mhz Motorola 68000) at that point, though.
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Lizzie Zoom

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #13 on: 13 August 2019, 11:35:45 »

As for the USB stick, I think after all the very useful comment I will pass on that one!! ::) ::) ;D ;D :y
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aaronjb

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Re: Wonder USB stick or Useless?
« Reply #14 on: 13 August 2019, 11:41:54 »

As for the USB stick, I think after all the very useful comment I will pass on that one!! ::) ::) ;D ;D :y

Reality is - yes, you can get useful additional life out of 'slower' hardware.. with a learning curve. But you can get everything you need for the grand total of £0.00 from the Interwebs, so there's no point paying for a USB stick if you want to give it a bash  :y
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