Subj : Lacros To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Sat Aug 19 2023 08:01:00 Hi Ky! > KM> Good only if it's a vertical ecosystem and you don't need > KM> anything external. This is the Apple model. Bad if you want > KM> flexibility. This is everyone else. :) > Pretty much agree. Back when I was selling computers we had the IBMs > and the Apples - at the time mainly MacIntoshes -- the G3's with the > brightly-coloured cases (orange, blue, lime green). The Rep would come > in every so often, I ask him stuff to learn. Ends up he's has a > computer repair shop so is quite familiar with the inner workings -- > hardware and software, > The Macs were great computers but the only way to upgrade was > externally: no free slots inside. IIRC the power supply was encased in > epoxy as a heat sink but also couldn't swap it out. Right now not > recalling about the hard drive but seems pretty much everything inside > was not changeable. KM> I had a couple of beige-box G3 systems come through the slushpile KM> when I was the local user grope's hardware dude. I have never KM> seen so much awful packed into such a small space. Two nominally KM> identical systems were every which different inside, like Packard KM> Smell run amok and then through a crusher to make it small. These were the 'pretty' ones -- the ones that came in blue, orange, green, etc. I don't recall the vendor (owned a computer repair shop and did the stores' stuff as a side) menioning that variable insides, but then possibly not come up just because I was asking for improving my sales and potentially buying one. Your 'different inside' comment reminded me of why I never bought a Dell computer when I was buying refurbished computers: I never could get a detailed answer on what was inside. I don't recall if down to the amount of RAM but do recall seemed I could never find if there were available expansion slots. Is the video integrated or a daughtercard? This was around 30 years ago so things probably have changed, but at the time turned me off to Dells for personal use: I'm not going to buy something if I don't know if I can do the usual eventual upgrade. KM> Not worth the trouble to get running... junked both of them. (Back the the iMac G3's). Yup. KM> First Mac I was ever called to repair... fan gave out in the KM> power supply. Should be an easy replacement, right? Nope... the KM> PSU was riveted together AND riveted into the case such that you KM> couldn't get at the rivet heads to pop them loose. Owner ended up KM> leaving the case propped open instead (probably better KM> ventilation than the fan provided anyway). Could sort of see the inaccessible rivets: stuff's assembled by robots and people, so if the power supply is inserted first nothing is in the way until start adding the rest of the computer around it. You'd probably have to disassemble the whole computer to get to those rivets. Sort of reminds me of a UPS I have. Decent one still. To replace the two batteries take the insides out -- and greeted by a cage securely holding the batteries inside and the UPS motherboard on top. Essentially there is no way to get to the batteries without taking the motherboard apart, which sounds like a simple step but is anything but. I remember checking on-line and just one person had managed to disassemble and reassemble without damage to the motherboard. I ended up leaving the dead batteries inside, routing the battery cables though a hole and on to two external batteries. ...I'll admit that UPS now has the fastst battery swap: seconds! KM> I have a G4 of the silver tower era -- it's much less awful, tho KM> was highly amused to discover that everything inside, except for KM> the mainboard and CPU, is an off the shelf PC part. At some point KM> I borrowed the vidcard and have no idea if it got its original KM> back, but it works. Also gave it RAM from the PC drawer, and an KM> IDE SSD. Performance is now much better. Someone paid $3,999.99 KM> for it in 2000... at the time it was performance-equivalent to a KM> P2-500 from 1998 that sold for $600. Paying for the name are we?! I've upgraded several old computers with SSDs and it's amazing how fast they boot and react! I have one with a BIOS displaying a copyright of 2009, 6 GB RAM, and it boots in probably 15 seconds; Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) and runs MythTV v31 quite fine. > > KM> I don't know if a Chromebook does a live boot from USB, but if > > KM> so, that's the way to test out various distros and see which > > KM> work. > > It may but might also need a secret keyboard combination to do so. > KM> One of the links that comes up in the DDG search is Google's on > KM> how to load linux onto a Chromebook. I suppose such secrets are > KM> there revealed. :) > > Google, Bing, etc. are your friends! KM> Not me! Here it's DuckDuckGo, or less often StartPage or Yandex. Some of it is what one is familiar with, some may be how technical the looks-ups are..... > And it pretty much took me longer to start typing in the question than > to get an answer. First hit: > https://www.wikihow.com/Enable-USB-Booting-on-Chromebook KM> See? That was easy! Sometimes it's knowing how to phrase the inquiry to the search engine. > > KM> than from the HD. When I had it on an ancient laptop it was > > KM> perfectly fine on 340mb RAM. It is odd, doesn't feel like linux > > KM> at all, and I never did get wifi to work. It's easy to use and > > KM> runs well even on a 20 year old PC. However... there's not just > > KM> one Puppy, there are literally hundreds. Just a few: > > As for the WiFi, possibly needs a driver installed. My HP laptop only > > has 2.4 GHz capabilities so I added a dual-band dongle. For the dongle > > to work it needed to have a driver manually installed. Semi-oddly my > KM> To be more accurate, Wifi worked ONCE. Then never worked again. > KM> It would go through the motions but nothing happened. > KM> If there's no driver, the usual linux thing is the device simply > KM> isn't available. It won't show up at all. This thought it was > KM> there. > More or less right: the WiFi device will show up in lsusb but not in > Settings > Network and other areas. As for your critter, maybe the > wrong driver was being used so it was detected but not useable (right > chip, wrong instructions). KM> Picky, picky!! Well, the driver didn't change so why it worked KM> ONCE but then never again is a total mystery. Mind you this was KM> ONCE and then never again on the SAME DAY with nothing between KM> but a restart. Power down did not fix. Booting killed it! Your WiFi dongle needed the generic driver which you covered up with the new one! (semi-joking) > > Lenovo laptop which pre-dated the HP one by probably ten years accepts > > both bands. ...Was going to update the WiFi module in the HP so I idn't > > need to use the dongle (sticks out, potential for damage, loss); found > KM> You can get little teeny Wifi dongles. I have some that are the > KM> same size as a wireless mouse dongle. I have a bunch and have > KM> found generally the smaller it is the better it works. Larger and > KM> more expensive usually means older tech. So the $3 tiny one works > KM> great. :) > Hmm: started reading that and thinging my response would be along the > lines of "the stick-out part of mine is about the size of a thumb nail KM> That's about right :) Ah! Maybe the WiFi dongle I have is as small as it goes. I was thinking the dongle for the wireless keyboard and mouse which sticks out about ¬". ....Well, they do have 'nano size' WiFi adapters which are the ¬" size -- 2.4 GHz only so doing the same as what's built-in. I'll take a better look later. Quick look at Newegg (just because I haven't bothered them in a while doing parts look-up) pretty much showed the same size I have now (the thumb nail size). > and I really don't use it all that often to warrent the price of a new > one just to be smaller". Then reading the end and thinking a new-and- > improved smaller one for a few dollars is something to keep in mind to > go with those Amazon orders where I need another dollar or two to get to > the free shipping level. KM> I keep the things on hand because they're quick and easy and the KM> RealTek chips are recognized by just about anything. So something KM> that lacks a NIC or is out of convenient range of the network KM> kudzu -- no problem! Spare parts on hand is a good thing! > .. You Matter. Until multiply self x speed of light ý, then you Energy. KM> What happened to my 'squared' character?! ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® .... 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