[ale] Linux on 6GB Dell notebook?

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Mon Nov 15 21:56:03 EST 2021


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
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>>>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
>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
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