Now is the Time.
In the past month or so, as you know I switched my Mom over from Windows 7 to Trisquel GNU/Linux. Well, my Uncle sent his laptop down to me, which had Windows XP on it. It is a Dell Vostro 1500 with a Core 2 Duo Intel chip, 2GB of RAM, and a 120 GB 5400 RPM drive.
He was frustrated that Windows XP wasn't working like it used to because of the forced obsolescense due to lack of support from Microsoft. Anyways, he wants to give GNU/Linux a try and since he already used OpenOffice, and Firefox, it won't be a stretch for this to happen.
I pulled out his old 120 GB 5400 RPM and tossed in a 120 GB SDD, beefed his laptop up to the max amount of RAM which is 4 GB, and threw in a Atheros 802.11N wifi card in it and put Trisquel on it. This 10 Year old machine now runs incredibly fast and responsive! The wifi card that was in it was a Broadcom BCM4311, and did work, but intermittently. It was like 1 out of every 3 boots it would work, so I canned it.
After I am done with his, I also have an MSI Wind that I'm re-doing for a friend's wife that also had XP on it, and that also runs Trisquel nicely.
Now is the time to get people switched!
Here's a link to my h-node where I've been putting up the machines I've been refurbishing for people or to sell:
Nice collection! :)
I am a translator!
I repaired a friend's lappy a few days ago and it worked perfectly fine with free software, maybe you can add this one to hnode too. Intel gpu and atheros ar295X wifi adapter -> Packard Bell TK85
I would be very interested to read a diary of how well they do, as (assumedly) end-users, with Trisquel over the long run. And how well Trisquel performs for them.
I tried to consider things and make it as easy of a transition as possible. So I canned the Gnome-Fallback that Trisquel comes with, not because it's not easy, but because certain things are not easy. Like making a link to a program on the desktop. I instead went with an XFCE environment, this is also beneficial for older machines because it is not as resource intensive with all the fading and shadows and transparency like the base Trisquel DE. I set it up with a Windows-esque task-bar and start menu, using Whiskermenu for it. I put all the essential icons on the desktop for programs I think they will use often, and install the gnome printer GUI so printing is easy. This seems to help a bit. They are all usually familiar with ABrowser because of Firefox, and LibreOffice because of OpenOffice, so that also helps the transistion. I also make sure that Iced-Tea is installed for added web-functionality. Maybe I will make a list of the things I do next one I do.
This is great! Liberating those nearest to you. ;-p I liberated a family member to GNU several years ago, and she's never looked back. If all of us had at least one person successfully liberated, imagine how fast we could grow. =)
Any other successful liberations out there?
Free software movement is very strong, now I see why corporations are scared, but I do not know if they understimate that. Few time ago I convinced someone to install Trisquel, he asked me to install Windows 7 but I free his mind. I´ll install Trisquel on his machine, soon