Return Of The Penguin

It’s an HP G60, possibly the worst laptop I’ve ever used.

G60 laptop

When Stef switched from PCs to Macs a few years ago, I took custody of her old laptop. It’s an HP G60, possibly the worst laptop I’ve ever used.

It’s my fault Stef bought it. I said it would be fine.

It has become my on-the-patio computer. But using it is frustrating.

It came with Windows Vista, but I’ve had Windows 7, 8 and 10 installed. Awful, awful, awful.

Even swapping out the hard drive for an SSD didn’t make much difference.

IMAG2931This weekend I installed Linux Mint. OMG! All of a sudden the thrill is back the lag is gone.

Linux is open source software. Individual modules come from different developers all over-the-world. Linux Mint installs all at once, but you can see it’s not homogenized like Windows or the Mac OS.

tux-penguinHere at the Fox house, Linux is referred to as “the penguin” because of Tux the Linux mascot. When things go wrong Helaine asks, “Is the penguin angry?”

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu Linux which is based on Debian Linux. That makes sense, said no one ever. In the Linux world this is fine.

I chose a MATE install, which uses a less taxing video scheme. It’s made for older machines.

I expected this laptop to suffer driver problems. Current versions of Windows don’t even have drivers for it. Instead, it just worked. The G60’s video, audio and WiFi systems were recognized automatically. I practically fainted.

This terrible, terrible machine now runs fast. I am incredibly pleased. And Mint Linux is totally intuitive.

I really lucked out. Now, if I can only get the printer to work.

5 thoughts on “Return Of The Penguin”

  1. I wound up with one of these (g60). It was my son’s, during high school; ridden hard and put away wet. The battery won’t latch, so you can’t move it. But it runs all of my Ham Radio related software, including the fairly demanding JT65 and JT9 decoders. It’s seen me through a few contests too, doing logging and spotting duty, and running the rig.

    I’ve had some luck with both Debian and Ubuntu as ‘projects’, always installs and runs the hardware, but often won’t do what I need with the Win-dependent tools I’m forced to use.

    Enjoy the Penguin! I’ve used some variant of it since installing it on a PowerPC based machine in 1999.

  2. I just can’t believe that you, as a good and loving parent, could have allowed your daughter to switch from a PC to a MAC. What were you thinking????

  3. Yes, I have. But every time I get that far, my vendor changes the software, and I have to scramble just to keep up.
    I will give it another go; thanks for the reminder!

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