| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Which distro for old computer and VM with Windows XP? Thread poster: Samuel Murray
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Oliver Walter 
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
German to English
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| Further note about CD / DVD drives | Jun 5, 2014 |
(This posting should be in a forum covering Windows, Apple and Linux but, as there isn't one in Proz, I'm writing it here because it has at least some relevance to this thread of discussion.)
The following article, that I have just seen on askleo will be of interest to users of optical ... See more (This posting should be in a forum covering Windows, Apple and Linux but, as there isn't one in Proz, I'm writing it here because it has at least some relevance to this thread of discussion.)
The following article, that I have just seen on askleo will be of interest to users of optical drives (i.e. CDs and DVDs).
http://askleo.com/my-machine-has-no-optical-drive-what-if-i-need-one/
The most significant words in that article are: "It’s probably safe to say that the days of the optical drive are coming to a close. Not this week, not this year, perhaps even this decade but I think the writing is on the wall."
For those not yet familiar with the askleo website (it's run by a real person, called Leo Notenboom), he has a lot of answers to computer-related questions, here:
http://askleo.com/all-entries-by-date/
Oliver ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Have you tried a registry hack on XP to keep it updated until 2019? | Jun 23, 2014 |
Hi Samuel,
Your old PC is really on a dead end, without a DVD drive or unable to boot from USB.
My old PC didn't seem to boot from USB, but if I plug the USB thumb drive in, turn the laptop on and go to the BIOS, it is identified as an hard drive and I can select it to boot. Give this a try, you never know...
I don't know how old is our PC and if some minor upgrades (1 GB of RAM + DVD, CPU from eBay?) would be useful of if it would be like feeding a ... See more Hi Samuel,
Your old PC is really on a dead end, without a DVD drive or unable to boot from USB.
My old PC didn't seem to boot from USB, but if I plug the USB thumb drive in, turn the laptop on and go to the BIOS, it is identified as an hard drive and I can select it to boot. Give this a try, you never know...
I don't know how old is our PC and if some minor upgrades (1 GB of RAM + DVD, CPU from eBay?) would be useful of if it would be like feeding a terminal cancer... That's up to you to judge...
But if you are about to trash your machine, why not try to hack the Windows XP's registry to cheat the OS thinking it is a Win XP for POS? It is supported until 2019!
The procedure is here and it is quite simple. Will it break something? I don't know, haven't tried it...
http://www.sebijk.com/community/board15-other/board73-tutorials/2985-getting-xp-updates/
Good luck!
PS - Also trying an Ubuntu CD would be a good choice. Once installed, you can chose some very lightweight desktops (like XFCE, LXDE or MATE) and your old brick will be brought back to life!
Hope to have been able to help something.. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | About the VM | Jun 23, 2014 |
If you decide to go Linux, you must make it as light as possible, including a lightweight desktop (like LXDE, XFCE or MATE) in order to save as much RAM as possible for the VM.
VirtualBox is already available for most Linux distros, all you need to do is install it. Usually this does it on a console:
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
Then you must pay attention to how much RAM you give the VM.
It's an old machine, so just ... See more If you decide to go Linux, you must make it as light as possible, including a lightweight desktop (like LXDE, XFCE or MATE) in order to save as much RAM as possible for the VM.
VirtualBox is already available for most Linux distros, all you need to do is install it. Usually this does it on a console:
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
Then you must pay attention to how much RAM you give the VM.
It's an old machine, so just do things... one... at... a... time...
Good luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lehti
Italy
Local time: 22:07
English to Italian
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| puppy (either slackware or or ubuntu-based) + Wine | Jul 2, 2014 |
Your specs, as others have already pointed out, are quite weak, so maybe virtualizing a OS might not be the best idea.
Your best bet is to try a so called "lightweight distro". I'd suggest Puppy Linux, which comes in two versions: Slacko (Slackware-based) and Lucid (Ubuntu-based). It's really lightweight and it can boot from a computer with a CD drive (the ISO is just 130 MB) and 128 MB of RAM. It comes with XFCE as a standard Desktop Environment, which can be tweaked to replicate the look... See more Your specs, as others have already pointed out, are quite weak, so maybe virtualizing a OS might not be the best idea.
Your best bet is to try a so called "lightweight distro". I'd suggest Puppy Linux, which comes in two versions: Slacko (Slackware-based) and Lucid (Ubuntu-based). It's really lightweight and it can boot from a computer with a CD drive (the ISO is just 130 MB) and 128 MB of RAM. It comes with XFCE as a standard Desktop Environment, which can be tweaked to replicate the look-and-feel of Windows (kind of).
Have you considered trying to run the programs you need with Wine?
It's a software that converts Windows API calls into POSIX calls, so basically is like running a Windows program as a standard Linux one at (almost) the same speed.
The problem is, if you're thinking about running Trados on it, you're out of luck. Not every single Windows program is compatible with Wine and, alas, Trados is one of those infamous programs. However, Microsoft Office works just fine, and so should Wordfast Classic.
You'd need to add the Wine repository manually. If you intend to give it a try, feel free to ask.
EDIT: I read now that you actually can boot from USB, but you've probably made the mistake everyone makes the first time they do that: you extracted the content of the ISO into your flash drive, or copied the ISO directly. In order for your PC to boot from USB you need to use an external program like Universal USB Installer.
[Edited at 2014-07-02 04:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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