New to Ubuntu mate

Support & Help Requests
,
#1

I took 40 hrs to review the BEST district for me…

Got a Dell Inspiron (newest machine in the house) for $5. Put HD from son’s overheating compaq presario. Lee asks, “ how’s my new computer?” “YOUR new laptop? What about the HP?” “Oh no, this one is smaller and I like the touch screen.”

“Let’s try the best darn Linux I found… cinnamon.” Couldn’t figure out usb loading. Successfully created the bootable Ubuntu Mate usb (because I though cinnamon was jinxed) and we loved it! Only no internet. I even contacted AT&T to ask how to get on internet bc one youtuber said surprisingly they responded.

Gave up. Installed Windows 7 (even though 8 is made for touch screens) and THEN discovered a bad WLAN. Ordered at eBay for $6 and temporarily installed an external antenna.

But I still wanted something with Linux. Soooo took the old 2007 plastic iMac G5 150GB core 2 duo which has been OS-ically abandoned by Apple and ran thru 10 different attempted boots. Switched to DVDs bc maybe old iMacs are blind to usb. Configured bios, tried macpup and Ubuntu only land on Linux Lite 32 bit. 3 attempts at 64 bit and I learned to read minimum requirements more closely.

But I still wanted mate. Got discarded Sony vaio from behind Yummy Yummy Chinese restaurant and cannibalized the 320GB HD. Fixed son’s abandoned compaq presario 56, and after a few tries settled on mate 64 usb.

Wow does it work great. And the community is ENTIRELY different than Lite. Going to be testing as many DLs as possible—after I take the fan apart to clean out teen dander.

1 Like
#2

Welcome :slight_smile:

1 Like
#3

LOL. Gotta love those cheap, perfectly good discards from others. I got my 4yo Dell laptop in a similar manner. A neighbor decided to completely disassemble it after the hard drive failed (it was still under warranty). I got it running again for them, but they had lost most of the screws, covers, brackets, etc, so they just told me to keep it. $70 dollars later (most of which was for a battery and charger), I have a perfectly good toy.

Oh, and my 15yo son tries to claim every new machine in the house, too.

Have fun and enjoy your new toys.

2 Likes
#4

Hi @coffeebot,

nothing like bringing an old computer back to life with Linux, I spent €30 on an old midi tower PC and now have Ubuntu Mate 18.04 (dev version) running on it with 80 GB HDD and 3GB RAM!. :smiley:

2 Likes
#5

Hi,

same here. I got a fully working HP Presario CQ57 (spend 50€). Tried Ubuntu first, but the CPU was too weak for GNOME 3. Then I changed to Xubuntu, which I dont like because of appearence.
Im so glad I found Ubuntu MATE. It feels like 2010 again when I first discovered Ubuntu. :slight_smile:

2 Likes