[ale] Linux on 6GB Dell notebook?

Tue Nov 16 15:23:42 EST 2021

I hate to say it but for browsing nothing performs better than Chrome book.
I have one ARM based from several years ago and still ticking.

I can't do the Jitsi meeting on it using browser. CPU too underpowered.

But if you install the Android framework 8x8 app works just fine.

On Tue, Nov 16, 2021, 15:19 Scott Plante via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Have you all seen the new Framework laptop? It's designed to be Linux
> friendly and easy to self-repair and upgrade. Very modular with QR coded
> parts that lead to replacement instructions. I'm not ready for a new device
> at the moment but it's definitely at the top of my list to look at if I do
> anytime soon.
>
> https://frame.work/
>
> On the other hand, I'm kind of leaning toward keeping the high powered dev
> box at work (desktop) and just keeping a small, thin, light browsing laptop
> that I can read the news on at lunch, take notes on at conferences and
> offsite meetings, and watch movies on at airports and during flights.
>
> Scott
>
> On Mon, Nov 15, 2021 at 9:56 PM Jim Kinney via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>> I've spent $$ on laptops with good results.
>>
>> BUT I was buying some top of the line gear from Dell or IBM. My 16GB
>> XPS15 has 1TB NVME and dual GPU with quad-core Intel cpu and on cpu
>> graphics AND a discreet Nvidia GPU with dedicated ram. But it was $1600 and
>> the touch screen (disabled in bios) shipped with the 4K screen.
>>
>> Spend that money on a desktop for a state of the art Ryzen with 32 GB ram
>> and 1TB NVME and 12TB rust drives plus a decent monitor and graphics.
>>
>> Yeah. Big box is cheaper.
>>
>>
>> On November 15, 2021 7:02:09 PM EST, Steve Litt via Ale <ale at ale.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> True Jim!
>>>
>>> Laptops break my heart in so many ways. Relatively low clock speeds.
>>> 5400 RPM. No way to have both an SSD and a multi-terrabyte spinning
>>> rust. Wifi that doesn't work with Linux. Graphics that doesn't work
>>> with Linux. Fragile, dust-prone, overheats easily. A few drops of a
>>> drink in the keyboard or a hit to the screen renders the whole machine
>>> useless. Selling me the touchscreen I don't need and skimping on the RAM
>>> I do.
>>>
>>> And the Big Kahuna: DIY hostile.
>>>
>>> I'm typing this on my self-built AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core (12 thread)
>>> Processor, 64GB RAM, ventilated six ways from Tuesday tower format
>>> desktop. I don't get into trouble opening 20 Chromium tabs. It has an
>>> internal CD/DVD/Blu-ray reader/writer because dangit, I want it, even
>>> if the Mac folks have declared optical to be dead. Root mounted on 1TB
>>> NVme, all data partitions (like /home) mounted on a 14TB 7200 RPM
>>> Western Digital spinning rust, so no worries about files for years to
>>> come. And if I need more disk space, there are a couple more bays in
>>> the case. Plenty of resources for a couple heavy duty VM guests,
>>> including an Ubuntu/Jitsi appliance (which I haven't yet perfected).
>>>
>>> Now it's true, I spent just short of $2000.00 on this monstrosity, but
>>> a similar laptop with only 512GB NVMe is $2700, with no place to put
>>> the spinning rust other than consuming a precious USB3 slot.
>>>
>>> You're right Jim. Desktop's the way to go. If you need to take it on
>>> the road, a simple low level laptop can be synced with your high power
>>> desktop.
>>>
>>> I've had countless laptops, and they've all broken my heart.
>>>
>>> SteveT
>>>
>>>
>>> Jim Kinney said on Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:19:12 -0500
>>>
>>> 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
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>> Ale mailing list
>>>>> Ale at ale.org
>>>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Computers amplify human error
>>>> Super computers are really cool
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> SteveT
>>>
>>> Steve Litt
>>> Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
>>> Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
>>> ------------------------------
>>> Ale mailing list
>>> Ale at ale.org
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>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Computers amplify human error
>> Super computers are really cool
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