[ale] Linux on 6GB Dell notebook?

[Jim Kinney]

It's pretty amazing the hardware ability $300 buys in a desktop device. Even a 3-4 year old  cheap desktop is faster than a 5-7 laptop of the same price. Portable horsepower is expensive.



On November 15, 2021 2:32:22 PM EST, Steve Litt via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>Neal Rhodes via Ale said on Mon, 15 Nov 2021 08:22:40 -0600
>
>>So, Thanks for the advice on helping friend with virus scan on their
>>6gb Dell notebook.
>>
>>I think that got it to the point of occasionally running ok, but also 
>>often needing more than 6GB for Win 10, and starting to thrash.
>
>I love Linux as much as the next guy, but did you try cleaning up
>extraneous applications, getting rid of registry deadwood, and
>defragging?
>
>>
>>It's one of those Dells without a RAM door on the bottom.
>
>There's a special place in the devil's playground for those who design
>and manufacture DIY hostile equipment and software.
>
>>
>>The recommendation from HL computer was to swap the drive with a 500GB
>
>>SSD, and virus scan the new drive.  They wanted $260 for that.
>
>You could buy that same drive from Newegg for $60.00 and install it
>yourself, except for no door. Special place...
>
>>
>>I'm seeing Walmart is peddling an HP I3 with 8GB RAM, 220GB SSD for
>>$270 this week.
>>
>>Which is actually a better proposition.  Friend's finances are
>limited.
>
>If finances are limited, my suggestion is install a *low resource use*
>Linux. And my further suggestion is that your friend put the $270
>toward a new computer, and save money every month just so his next
>computer can handle today's browsers and browser apps. It's not that
>Linux is getting more bloated, at least if you use the right software
>with Linux. The problem is that browsers are turning into RAM and MIP
>sinks.
>
>>I'm debating telling him I'll give him $100 for the old notebook and 
>>reformat it for linux.   Likely Ubuntu.
>>
>>Guessing Ubuntu will run fine in 6GB.
>
>Not with the Ubuntu standard setup. I'd suggest:
>
>WM/DE: Openbox or LXDE. Both are very light. Openbox is
>       significantly lighter.
>
>Daemons: CUPS and SSHD. Nothing else.
>
>Browser: For picky sites, use Chromium. For the rest, use something
>         like Dillo or Midori. With Chromium, keep only one or at the
>         most two tabs open.
>
>Workflow: Don't have a lot of programs running at once.
>
>>It's been a couple of years since I did that.  Are there new hurdles 
>>with doing a fresh install?  EUFI?  
>
>UEFI shouldn't be a problem because an old computer like that is
>probably either MBR or UEFI with Legacy Mode. Your hard disk is much
>smaller than 2GB, which is the cutoff (as I remember) at which you lose
>space not formatting GPT.
>
>> What about audio?  
>
>More and more software requires Pulseaudio. I dislike Pulseaudio
>because it's the land of a thousand hidden mutes, but I've never
>thought of it as consuming resources. If you choose Unbuntu, they
>handle
>Pulseaudio pretty well.
>
>> Audacity? 
>
>If you're going to be editing sound files, I'd imagine that's pretty
>resource intensive. I'd sure turn off all the browsers before using
>Audacity.
>
>>TeamViewer?
>
>I don't know, but why would an individual like him need TeamViewer? If
>it's so you can fix him remotely, why not use ssh -Y for a few minutes,
>then set his sshd back to no-video?
>
>>  Ultimaker Cura?   
>
>I don't know. Depends on how they designed the software. Do they
>malloc() hundreds of megabytes at a time, or do they work within a
>megabyte or so of RAM?
>
>> Zoom?
>
>Zoom, Jitsi, BigBlueButton and especially GoToMeeting are extremely
>taxing on the system, and prone to sound dropouts on anemic systems.
>Also, my Daily Driver Desktop (DDD) uses Void Linux, which clicks and
>drops out on all remote meeting software. My finding is that Ubuntu
>sounds much better with such software.
>
>By the way, you need Pulseaudio for Zoom, and my findings are that
>apulse did not enable Zoom.
>
>I've operated Jitsi on 16GB RAM and it worked as well as it could work
>on Void, and perfectly on Ubuntu. I don't know about 6GB. Even more
>unknown, does the Dell have enough CPU for the job? On my older 2
>core, 1 thread per core 16GB DDD and Jitsi ran up CPU usage past 50%,
>and Zoom and GoToMeeting pegged the 100% meter quite often. My new DDD
>has 64GB RAM, but more important for meeting software, its 6core 2 core
>per thread CPU never pegs, and is usually below 20% over all for Jitsi.
>
>When operating meeting software, I use Chromium set to a Nice value of
>-18, to minimize dropouts as much as possible. The shellscript follows:
>
>===================================================
>#!/bin/sh
>nice -n 18 chromium --disable-gpu
>===================================================
>
>I couldn't understand parts of your post, so I'm going to assume this
>is for your friend. If your friend isn't married to Windows, I think a
>low resource consumption Linux install would work to a pretty good
>degree, always assuming he doesn't abuse his browsers.
>
>By the way, you could set up a 6GB virtual machine with his CPU, his
>hard disk, and test it on the various tasks you described. That should
>give you some further information.
>
>SteveT
>
>Steve Litt 
>Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
>Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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-- 
Computers amplify human error
Super computers are really cool
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