I’ve done this in the past a couple of times. I get a whim and decide I’m gonna reduce my data hemmorage.
I have an older Dell Vostro laptop (big screen, full keyboard, intel I5 CPU) that I’m thinking of dropping Linux on and playing with for a bit. Might even try to make it my “main” computer.
It really only needs to do five things:
1. Surf the ‘net
2. Let me organize my email
3. Run my remote control software
4. Print to my nearly 10 year old Dell printer
5. Scan from above printer

Surfing the ‘net should be pretty easy. I like Firefox and I’ve played with the Linux version of it. Doesn’t seem too different from the other OS versions of that browser. But I’m open to suggestions there.

I know there are several email clients out there. My email provider recently swapped to an Office 365 server. The MS Outlook in my old copy of MS office 2007 won’t connect to it so I’m left with Office 365’s web interface. So far I’m not a fan.

I finally got my issues with TeamViewer sorted out. They have a Linux version so I’m hoping that won’t be an issue. If anyone has experience, please let me know.

The printing and scanning could be an issue. I use the scanner pretty regularly (invoices, bills, medical stuff, etc.). IIRC, printing and especially scanning were always major hang ups with Linux. Printer drivers could be a nightmare, and TWAIN software was almost non existent the last time I tried this.

I have an Ubuntu distro that I’ve been playing with on an old Lenovo micro PC. It seems pretty stable, but I haven’t done anything other than surf the ‘net with it so far.

I’ve taken a precautionary week off of work since I have some risk factors with this COVID-19 thing everyone seems to be talking about.
So, during the day I have about 100 acres worth of fencerow to be cleaning up, and I need something to occupy my nights other than binge watching YouTube.

Wow. That post got long. All I really wanted to ask was “anyone playing with Linux right now.”

hudr,

You might find this thread interesting where I took my "ancient" Dell Vostro 1000 (AMD Athlon 64 X2), resurrecting it with an installation of Linux Mint, and inexpensive hardware upgrades consisting of a 120Gb SSD and expanded memory. This as a complete Linux newbie (with of course help from forum members)!

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/5390022154/p/1

The free Mint installation package comes with a ton of software available for painless simple installation. Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client work great for me. LibreOffice is a great suite compatible with Microsoft Office.

You'll see in that thread that connecting the laptop with my Brother laser printer was flawless and basically automatic. Same too with WiFi. Again much in Linux Mint to recommend it.

Go for it, regardless of which Distro you choose!

Indeed, do it.

There is enough knowledge on the Forum to help and advise.

--chris

hudr.
Mate , I can recommend Linux Lite and MX Linux - both easy peasy - fast - light - and pretty much foolproof . I have an old mate who wanted Skype and email and Youtube and music and has run them both with no problems - and he is 93 years old . Download them , burn to a dvd . chuck the dvd in your burner - do the updates and good as .
best .

Most 'windows replacement' distros will have a live-image that you can put on a USB stick (or burn to DVD, but that's soooo 2002). You can play around with it without touching your windows install (but be careful, because you CAN access all the windows files & delete them).
A utility like YUMI can put multiple images on a USB stick so you don't even have to swap.

I´m right there with you.

Have a HP Pavilion dv7.
Instaled Mint without a glitch.
The drivers update/setup detects no propietary drivers are in use.
But so far I´ve discovered the built-in camera is not detected and I´m wondering if the machine has built-in BT or not. Finger print reader also not detected. So, I suggest you check first what are the specs for your machine in detail and look for the specific drivers yourself beforehand.
Methinks the scanner function might be the single obstacle. The rest looks simple.

Most important thing is to be patient until you get things sorted out. It´s not going to be the hardware or the software, it´s likely to be you running out of patience too soon.

Plenty of Linux wizards here to help you out.
Good luck

0-0

Like you said in the original post, it's the scanning that will be the stumbling block. I would search for youtubes of people getting it to work with that exact scanner before I jumped whole hog.

Skip TeamViewer and go to NoMachine. I use it to connect to computers so equipped from anywhere (I connected to my home Mac from Austria last year!).

I play with Linux all the time. I have a server at work running CentOS that has been bulletproof (I remote into it during this home imprisonment time). I also stand up virtual machines and install different distros to see what I like and don't like. Currently, I have an older MacBook running MX-Linux in a dual-boot partition, and it's stable and does everything you've mentioned. Except for the "run remote control software," because I'm not sure what it is you're referring to, unless that's the TeamViewer thing.

I gave up Windows years ago, but I still have to use it in the course of my work. As a geek, I have some 23 devices connected to my router, and not a single one of them runs a Microsoft OS.

I've pretty much run Linux since 2005 with the exception of a brief foray into Mac. It requires much less work to get everything up and running now than it did back then. My more recent distros have been Mint and Ubuntu, with Ubuntu being my current one.

Both can be run live from a DVD or USB media without installing it permanently, and you should be able to verify everything works that way

first off, thanks for all the replies so far.

Secondly, this is not my first foray into the world of Linux. I built a Redhat machine back in the 4.2 days. Since then, I've tried Ubuntu a couple of times, and maybe SUSE Linux. It all kind of blurs together after a while.

Anyway.... this will be done on separate hardware from my main "money making" laptop so no dual boot situations.

As far as Teamviewer, I guess I'm not married to it, but I did purchase a license years ago and it is what my clients are used to when they call for a remote session. We will see how that works out. Its not like I haven't made that money back several times over in the last near decade.

I am installing Mint right now on a spare laptop I lucked into. I'll get it up and going and fully updated then see where I stand.

From what I am reading online, the Dell 1355cn MF (Multi Function, but that may change to mean something else) printer may be a hangup, but there is a rumor that a certain Xerox printer driver works for it.

Scanning is up in the air at this point.

Regardless, the adventure continues.

In one of my recent expeditions into Linuxland, can't remember if it was Mint or another light one bundled with most practical programs bundled in, I trien installing TV.

It wasn't complicated at all. I had it running in no time.
Go for it.

I will try NoMachine, as suggested above. Did install it one a couple of machines at home but never got to try accessing it from outside my home network.

0-0
U

Well, printing is handled. Apparently Foomatic now has support for the Dell 1355CN.

So we can place a check mark beside:
surfing the 'net
Printing to the existing printer

I think I'll look into email next. What do y'all have experience with?
I know Thunderbird has been around forever. Would y'all use that? or is there a new hotness on the block?

hudr, I'd recommend using Linux Mint 19 MATE or XFCE as opposed to Cinnamon.

Which Vostro do you have, a 1520 or 3568?
I use gmail, ore as I'm familiar with the settings and products. Thunderbird is also a good alternative, with a lot of customization possibilities.

0-0, your HP DV7 has good old plain BIOS, no UEFI.
As for the camera and BT, when you look at
Menu > Control Center > Driver Manager
... are there any drivers in there?

Want to try something?
Use Alt+F2.
A small window displays - 'Run Application'

Type in
gtstreamer-properties
and click 'Run'

The Multimedia Systems Selector is displayed
Click on the Video tab.
Test the default inputs.
Does the camera work, or light up?

--chris

cjevans;

I am posting from the linux box right now. This is an older Dell Vostro 3750. No UEFI BIOS here either, that I can tell.
I need to hunt up some more RAM for it, although the OS is pretty snappy as is.

Mint 19.3 Cinnamon 64bit

How would I change to MATE or XFCE? That is just the GUI, correct?
Cinnamon has already crashed a couple of times during driver/update routines

The camera and sound worked in Skype earlier. And I show a BT icon in the system tray

hudr - great to read!
Does your Vostro 3750 have the AMD Radeon Graphics card? And is it with 8GB of RAM?

When you installed Mint, did you install/create a separate /home partition, or selected the entire disk?

To switch the XFCE or MATE, you can install another desktop environment with the Software Manager - search for xfce.
Install xfce4.
Reboot.

Then select XFCE/MATE at login - there is a two letter code at the top right of the login display ... select the drop down and pick the desktop environment.

Or run a fresh install.

For those who are curious, when you install the Linux OS, you can specify the GUI.

XFCE - for older desktop/laptop; looks like WinXP in classic mode.

Cinnamon - looks like Win7/8, with animation. A great choice for daily usage - the Windows aspect.
There can be issues with memory usage, often the video driver, or the type of memory installed.

There are other choices:
MATE - low usage of memory, typically a programmer would use this - more memory for programs and debugging.

KDE - classic for many, well other GNOME. But if the desktop/laptop has a high spec - cpu, memory, disk and video, this is a great choice.
And looks like Win10. But, uses the most memory than the above choices.

--chris

I second Linux Mint Mate. Especially on older hardware. Mate uses less computer resources and I've found Mate to be more stable in general than Cinnamon. I run Mate on my modern desktop and wouldn't consider going to Cinnamon. You can't just switch from one to the other once one is installed. The installation software you downloaded only covers Cinnamon. It you want to try Mate, you'll have to download and install it. DISCLAIMER: There may be some way to switch who knows, but a clean install is always best and it sure doesn't take long to download and install Mint. Linux Mint user for over 10 years now.

When Bald1 installed Mint on his Vostro 1000, he had some burps, glitches and freezes. He can expand on exactly what it was doing, better than I can. But anyway at the time he thought maybe it was display driver related. I suggested to take a lot at Bios on the Vostro 1000. The problem apparently had something to do with ACPI (power) setting. Vostro bios doesn't have anything specific for ACPI ... BUT ... there is a PowerNow Control in Vostro bios and his problems were corrected when he ... Bios > Advanced > PowerNow Control ... Disabled it.

Just this week Firefox was found to have 2 zero-day security flaws. Not sure which version Firefox Mint will install by default ... and then update, but make sure you have Firefox 75.0 installed before doing much browsing. If Firefox doesn't update to 75.0, you can find it in the Mint Software Manager and install updated Firefox from there. With Firefox 75.0, you'll be good. EDIT: Everything running Firefox was affected. Not just Mint.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hobbs,

MATE is loaded up. pretty simple. I prefer no frills on an interface. even with Winslow, I would disable all the little cutsey animations and windows fades, etc..

cjevans:
I did no partitioning. I know that is not a usual practice for Linux, but I wanted simple for now.
This 3750 has the NVidia graphics card GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] 1.5.GB RAM if I'm reading the spec sheet correctly

Hobbs:
Firefox is at v75
I'll check the BIOS for the power control setting

thanks guys

^^^^ ... hudr, you are well underway now.

When you wish to experiment with making it a lean mean machine here is a useful link ...
https://easylinuxtipsproject.b...first-mint-mate.html
Most of the tweaks can be undone if you decide to. On the other hand, I have read and studied each very carefully and don't try to use those that don't apply to my machine, purposes or suitability. That said, I've found many of these tips invaluable.

Oh, and I don't partition either. I used to but found no advantage in my every day real world. Now, I just let Mint install do its thing and use the entire drive.

hudr,

Hobbs was a great help to me when I took my 2009 Vostro 1000 out of storage in December 2018 and went Linux.

His suggestions here are well worth exploring!