From mainframes, P.C.’s to terminal clients I’ve used various Unix and Linux systems over the last 15 years. I am extremely weary of people who say Linux isn’t ready for mainstream use and question their motivations for saying so. Linux OS’s like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Debian etc have regular updates, great support and a tremendous amount of available software. Deciding whether Linux is right for you is dependent on your requirements and then making sure you have access to the right support.

So this leads me to Xubuntu http://www.xubuntu.org/. A version of Ubuntu that uses Xfce instead of Gnome or KDE for your desktop experience. Xubuntu has been created to use less memory and provide good performance. A good explanation that goes into more detail can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu

I happen to use Ubuntu on my main computer and it caters well for my requirements of development work, virtual machines, graphics, email and office apps. However I wanted to use something a tad bit lighter for an old laptop I had lying around and wanted to use for a journey, I didn’t want to have a slow performing laptop (which would of been the case if using Windows XP or other alternatives). I needed something to do a bit of business and blog work on, but also for entertainment. So I thought I would give Xubuntu a try after considering my requirements.

My requirements for the journey were…

• Simple graphic editing
• Word processing and export to pdf or MS word format
• Spreadsheet work
• Internet access for webmail and surfing via wifi
• Watch some free tech shows such as CommandN, GeekBrief.TV or EpicFu

Now the laptop is a Toshiba Tecra 8200. The 750mhz version, with 512mb ram, a 40gig hd I installed, pcmcia wifi card I use (as inbuilt doesn’t do above WEP). Plus a 2nd battery that fits into the CD bay for extra power when required. I’ve also upgraded the cd rom to a writer for backup when not near a network access, but I didn’t need this for the journey.

Installing Xubuntu was straight forward and just as easy as installing Windows XP is. The first hurdle was the full screen wasn’t being used, but a quick trip to the fantastic Ubuntu forums http://ubuntuforums.org/, a search on my cyberblade graphics adapter brought up three solutions and a few minutes later the full screen was being used. Not bad seeing as the graphics adapter is extremely old.

My second hurdle was my wifi wouldn’t connect properly to a network. However I realised I hadn’t run the update manager. That would be like someone complaining of a XP networking issue, but not installing any XP service packs. On Xubuntu it is very easy to do updates also. I connected the laptop via a ethernet cable to my network, installed 114.6mb of updates and the wifi worked perfectly after a reboot.

For word processing Abiword had been installed by default. I was amazed by how quickly abiword opened and it supports MS word documents as well as export to PDF. So that was my word processing requirements met.

The default media player Totem worked smoothly and had no problem coping with the free tech shows I downloaded before the journey.

As expected Xubuntu came with firefox version 3, but I was amazed at how responsive it was and couldn’t notice a difference in browsing on a high spec machine using firefox.

For graphic editing my requirements were very simple. I needed to do simple edits for images for this blog. So GIMP which was installed by default was perfect. Again very fast and responsive running on the laptop.

Now I never got round to the Spreadsheet work (sorry read a few chapters of a book instead), but Gunermic Spreadsheet was installed by default. I noticed it can export to multiple versions of MS Excel and also CSV, pdf among other formats. So am sure it would of been fine.

Wireless access was also easy to use and worked perfectly fine with the wifi pcmcia adapter I installed. Again not bad for an adapter that is at least four or five years old.

When I got back I simple put the text documents I had created on a removal drive to put on another machine.

There is a good selection of software installed by default on Xubuntu and thousands of additional pieces of software available for Xubuntu, I just happened not to need them for the journey. Anyone who has used an Apple Mac or Windows system can easily use Xubuntu or Ubuntu for that matter also.

Xubuntu breathed new life into the old laptop and I am sure it can do the same for older hardware in many small businesses. Why not install Xubuntu on an old computer you were going to replace and try it out?

I am sure I will write some further updates about Xubuntu on the blog. If you have any questions or feedback don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

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Well in the small business world it is slightly different… okay a lot different.  However you still have people starting up businesses who buy themselves a new laptop from PC World or a consultant who must have the latest laptop to help them work more productively (really). Obviously if you are using system hungry, intensive applications then it might well be worth buying a new laptop, but have a run through the list below to help you decide. Here are some tips on how to breath new live into your old laptop and save some money at the same time!

- Battery

If your battery isn’t holding much of a charge it is time to go buy a new one. Often you can find unused batteries for laptops on ebay or online. It isn’t worth buying a used battery though.

Tips for battery management:

• To help extend the life of your battery don’t forget to set the power management settings to maximize you use of it. E.g. lower cpu usage for when you are just doing word processing and higher cpu usage for graphics and video editing etc.
• Every so often let your battery completely run out of charge and then recharge it completely.

- Clean up and Defragmentation

Yep removing files such as old documents or uninstalling software that you no longer use will help. Plus defragmenting your hard drive is useful also. While you are at it, before you do all that best do a backup and run a hard drive diagnostics also.

- RAM

On many laptops it is easy to upgrade the ram and now is an ideal time with ram being so cheap. Before you buy any though check how many slots you have, whether you need to replace a piece of ram and the highest amount of ram your laptop can take.

- CD rom

A great replacement is to buy a DVD / cd writer if you don’t already have one for your laptop. All of a sudden you can watch dvd’s when on the road write to CD’s if required.

- Clean Install and tweak your system

Do a complete backup and then make sure you have all the drivers, software and operating system installation cd’s with product keys etc and do a clean install.

Tweak tips:

• For older specs remove the desktop background (wallpaper)
• Disable fancy graphics effects.
• Disable sound effects.
• Research what you can disable from startup in msconfig and not expose your system or lose required functionality.

- Be more selective with applications and do upgrades

Some applications are monsters! No not the scary kind, the large memory hungry kind. Consider using smaller lighter applications if they provide the functionality you require…

Suggested apps:

• Abiword instead of Microsoft Word
• Sumatra PDF instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader
• CDBurnerXP instead of Nero (because of the additional files Nero installs)
• Windows Media Player Classic instead of Windows Media Player

Plus consider upgrading existing packages. Often they fix memory leaks, improve performance and of course you might get new features.

- Linux

On many machines that were running WIndows 98, ME or 2000 an install of a Linux operating system might still give good performance, but enable you to use an operating system that is still being updated to protect you against security concerns but also with a wide range of software. E.g. Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse etc. Be weary of issues with device compatiblity though, best to try a liveCD first to try out.

- Other upgrades

• Hard drive technology has improved and often replacing a hard drive to give increased space will also give you increased performance as the newer hard drive might be quicker.
• For some laptops you can also buy drive bay batteries, meaning you can have two batteries in your laptop at the same time.
• New drivers. Sometimes a new driver might give functionality you were missing such as improved graphics driver performance or newer wireless security.
• Bluetooth dongles are very cheap to buy, but will affect the performance of your laptop.
• A laptop stand, external keyboard and mouse if you now use the laptop in just one place primarily. Plus some docking stations for older laptops are extremely cheap.

We want to hear your tips and advice, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

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Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Thunderbird is an excellent email client that many use instead of Microsoft Outlook. It has a great selection of addons that can further expand its functionality and features. Suggested addons: Contacts sidebar, Foxclocks and Ligthning. These give you better management of contacts, world clocks and calendar functionality.

Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/

The mature and very usable Open Office suite of packages is a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Office. Providing functionality and features that go beyond most small business requirements. It can also export to Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF formats among others.

Scribus http://www.scribus.net/

An excellent desktop publishing package ideal for any startup to quickly and cheaply produce leaflets and posters.

Dia http://live.gnome.org/Dia

A nice nifty application to help you draw your diagrams. Ideal for great flow charts etc and exports to various graphics formats. Easy to incorporate into your other work if required.

Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Although I’ve not spent much time with it, I’ve found it ideal to quickly edit graphics. Many obviously perfer Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. However as it doesn’t cost anything and has quite a few features it is more than enough for a lot of small businesses.

Skype http://www.skype.com/

The popular VoIP service. Ideal for business colleagues working in different locations to reduce overheads for instance. Has conference call features and more. I’ve used this for years and always have been impressed by the quality of calls and features you get for free. You can then decide whether you want to pay for extra features such as calling non-skype users, have an answer phone or even a phone number assigned to your skype account. Well worth a look.

Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Firefox for many is a great alternative to Internet Explorer. The tab browsing, impressive amount of regular updates, addons, correctly displaying html code etc has made this a popular browser.

FileZilla http://filezilla-project.org/

For those who require regular ftp access to a server, FileZilla is a great ftp client. It also is regular updated, easy to use with drag and drop features, site manager among other features.

If you know of a free application that is ideal for small businesses to run on both Linux and Windows, please tell us!

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