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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Resurrecting and Old Laptop (Jolicloud)

As technology turns over making something you purchased last week obsolete you start looking for ways to get some more life out of the stuff you have. Here's a great way to resurrect an old laptop.

The Spects: HP Compaq nc6000, Intel 400Mhz Processor with 30GB hard drive and 512ram.
1) Download Jolicloud (http://www.jolicloud.com/download) and burn to disk. Jolicloud runs a modified version of Ubuntu which is great for nerds AND laypersons because not only does it work out of the box but you can open up terminal and start adding all sorts of fun features.

2) Stick the disk in and follow the instructions, you can leave a copy of windows but starting fresh and deleting everything is probably a better way to go here.

3) Make sure you go and setup an account at Jolicloud.com from your main computer. This will sync Jolicloud with all your computers and even the Jolicloud app on Chrome (have not found a use for it yet but seems like a nice feature). It's also how you log into the computer.

My experience: At first I thought Jolicloud would end up being way to limited for the tech work I usually do. The system started bogging down when I had more than one tab open. I was a little discouraged and I stuck the computer back on the shelf.

Then in a fit of genius I poked around online for some extra ram. I offered a guy $5 and said I'd pick it up. We met at Safeway and I slipped him the cash for the goods. Two screws, a metal plate and a click of the ram later I had 1GB of ram on the laptop and SHAZAM!! I have a fully functioning Linux computer that is easy to use for all my web work.

After about 4-5 days of regular use it's obvious anything more than a few tabs will bog the system down. As long as I stick to checking emails, writing lists or reading google reader, it runs quite well. So, get on with it, see what computers you can pull out of that closet! (And if you don't want it anymore, let me know.)

~Jim

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