Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
A while back I wrote a post explaining how to give an old PC new life by replacing Windows with Linux as a means of extending the useful life of older PCs.
After that post was published I received a number of emails asking for a list of Linux programs that can replace the Windows programs they’d leaving behind if they made the switch.
I decided that it might be a good idea to publish that list in its own blog post, and here it is: [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Marla: I have an older HP laptop with Windows 7 that’s got really slow over the years.
I read your post about replacing Windows with Linux and since Windows 7 is no longer safe to use I’d really like to do that.
I don’t use this laptop for anything but Facebook so I believe it’ll work out just fine.
The thing is this laptop only has a 320GB hard drive in it. Is that enough space to hold Linux or will I need to replace the hard drive with a bigger one? [Read more…]
Question from Liam: My wife and I recently went to a flea market to look for some things for our house.
I ended up buying a used Lenovo ThinkPad T400 with Windows 7 on it.
It’s obvious that it’s a pretty old laptop but it seems to work well.
I didn’t notice it when it was running at the flea market but there’s a message in the corner of the screen saying “This copy of Windows is not genuine”.
What does that mean? Is it a problem? [Read more…]
Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
Question from Carlos: I have an older laptop that’s still running Windows XP and I have question about it.
I read your post about replacing Windows with Linux, and since XP has been orphaned by Microsoft I’d like to do that so I can keep using this machine.
My laptop is a Dell Latitude D620 that has been upgraded to 4GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive. I’m not sure about the video card if that matters.
Can you recommend the best version of Linux to install on this computer? There are so many Linux versions to choose from and I have no idea which one to pick.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Brad: I recently replaced Windows Vista on my old Dell desktop computer with Linux Mint based on your recommendation in this post.
I’m happy with the upgrade (and it really is an upgrade), but I need your help with something.
On my Windows systems I have the DNS server settings all pointing to Open DNS because it seems to work so much better.
I’d like to change the DNS settings on this machine too but I’m afraid I might mess something up if I just go in there changing things without knowing what I’m doing.
Can you give me step-by-step instructions for changing the DNS server to Open DNS in Linux Mint?
Thanks in advance for your help. PS. Love your blog!!!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]