XP refugee

[Scott D]

Just did the RAM upgrade & I'm wondering why I didn't do this years ago. I can feel a huge difference already. Someone needs to kick me in the ass!

I've got 1.99GB of RAM now. I had 512.
I had a little trouble installing. I have 4 slots & I have learned that I have to have matching memory cards. I left the 2 factory cards in place & put the 2 new cards in the open slots. I powered it on & nothing hit the monitor, then smelt burning. Pulled the power plug quick. Then I pulled the 2 factory ones & replaced with the 2 new (in same slots). It worked perfect.

Anyone know why this happened? Can I put the 2 factory cards back in the open slots now? Do computers not like 2 & 1/2 GB's?

I will be trying some Linux out soon. No time now ,but I will have questions later I'm sure.

Thank you for your time.

 

[unixfish]

I just switched from Ubuntu to Linux Mint Cinnamon. The menus on Mint Cinnamon are nice and work well for me - if you are looking for flash and sizzle, go elsewhere. If you want something that is clean and works well, this is worth considering.

I never bonded with Unity under Ubuntu. This has more to do with me than Unity.

I think the hardest part is finding a distro, and using it enough to get a feel before making a decision.

However - Ubunutu and it's offshoots (Mint is one) has good support, great updating capabilities, and will support most software out there. Keeping with a "bigger / more common / more popular" distribution for a beginner is probably a good idea.

 

[pane-free]

4 X 1GB PC3200 RAM, as a suggestion.
Dual-channel

 

[Texbrew]

lol I just bought a Windows 98 Desktop from a garage sale and seeing what I can do with it. Unfortunately, I think the RAM was harvested by somebody and I only have 64mb. However, right now it's installing FreeBSD. I'm interested in trying Slackware on this machine as well.

Also, I do have some old RAM chips so maybe they'll fit.

My old HP machine w/ Windows 98SE came with only 64 mb RAM. I spent under $15 +free shipping (last year) for two 256mb RAM cards, bumping it up to 512mb total.

Search memorygiant.

This helped to run a larger distro (Debian 7.6 "Wheezy"), but with its Celeron 533 MHz CPU, it runs slower than most people would want.

Puppy Linux runs very well on it, and is fun to use. Have not tried FreeBSD or Slackware...

tex

 

[lophophora]

My old HP machine . . . up to 512mb total. . . . This helped to run a larger distro (Debian 7.6 "Wheezy"), but with its Celeron 533 MHz CPU, it runs slower than most people would want. Puppy Linux runs very well on it, and is fun to use. Have not tried FreeBSD or Slackware...
tex

Since Debian was your choice, I suggest giving either antiX or CrunchBang (see Distrowatch) a try and using the award-winning script by H2O called smxi post-install to change default repos of either to Testing or Wheezy. There are many more useful things this script allows one to do, as long as a true Debian-based distro is being used. It saves much time over tweaking by hand.

In addition, either of the two distros will perform well (and, most likely, livelier than a full Debian install) with your older hardware.