Patten: Treat your formerly undead computer
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You’ve done it!
You’ve injected new life into the PC you had left in your closet for dead.
If you’ve been following the previous installments in Undead Computer Month, you’ve upgraded your hardware and installed a Linux operating system, and now your device has risen out of its premature grave to start part 2 of its existence. Time to make it useful.
Undead Computer Month
For October, Creative Tech is about raising your seemingly lifeless computers.
Give your undead computer new life – Why restore an old computer anyway?
It’s alive! Awaken your ancient computer with new parts
Exorcise Windows from your old computer – Chances are, your outdated version of Windows won’t cut it, but there are free options out there.
The temptation here is to download all the programs you can, like kids running from door to door on Halloween, trying to bag all the candy in the neighborhood. But you have to remember your computer is upgraded, not new.
It may not be able to handle all the applications you want, whether that’s because of limited processing power, storage space, operating system incompatibility or lack of vendor support. You can make an old computer useful, but sometimes it’s better to cough up the cash for a modern PC.
That warning aside … you can make your old computer do regular computer stuff. Just don’t let “different” spook you!
Software repository or direct download
The first thing you want to do is check out your OS’s software repository. Think of it as an App Store loaded with free stuff.
If you installed a Ubuntu-based system (as I recommended previously), you’ll have a huge selection of software to choose from, organized into categories.
You can also download software directly from websites, as you can on a Mac or Windows machine. Your OS probably comes with a package manager that can install .deb files.
Where’s Photoshop?
Here’s the bad news. You may not be able to use your favorite software under Linux.
You won’t find Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop there, for instance. But you have a few options.
First, if you’re really attached to your old applications, you can get Wine, which lets you run Windows programs on Linux or Mac. Using Wine is hit and miss when it comes to stability for certain applications, but it’s worth a look, especially if you want to play games.
(But you don’t need Wine to play all games. The catalog of Linux-compatible games is growing — see GOG and Steam.)
Another option is using free and open source alternatives. Check out LibreOffice and GIMP for Word and Photoshop, for example. (Also, EastIdahoNews.com featured GIMP in a previous tech column — check it out.)
(I’ve found alternativeto.net is a good resource for finding alternatives to Windows and Mac software.)
But these are alternatives, not clones!
It’s especially evident with an application like GIMP, which can do many of the same things Photoshop can, but has a different design philosophy and uses different shortcut keys. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it, though.
(And incidentally, LibreOffice and GIMP are also available for Windows and Mac. Still free.)
Another option that’s getting better all the time is using web apps. Going back to Microsoft Office again — you can use it online regardless of your OS. Or you can use Google Docs.
Browsing
If you want to just use your browser for, well, browsing, one choice is pretty much as good as any. Your operating system probably came with a browser, and it’s probably Firefox.
However, if you want to use your browser as an entertainment center, the answer is more complicated.
Until a few months ago, I would have recommended you use Chrome as your browser on Linux. Unfortunately, Google decided not to support its browser for 32-bit Linux anymore. (We’re talking about old computers, so I’m assuming you are dealing with a 32-bit machine. Go knock yourself out with Chrome if you are blessed with 64 bits.)
This presents a problem. Why? Chrome supports Netflix and Amazon Prime videos out of the box, without you having to download stuff like Silverlight and plugins for digital rights management.
But if you do want to install Silverlight — well, Microsoft does not offer a Linux version of its plugin. The alternative is Pipelight, but it can be a beast to set up, and it will require you to go to the terminal (aka the command line — think DOS), fool Netflix into thinking you’re using a different browser, and cross your fingers a lot. I haven’t gotten it to work on my old machine, but others have.
The situation won’t always be this way. Firefox is playing catchup in the vacuum that Google left 32-bit Linux users. Until then, hopefully you have a different device you can watch “Stranger Things” on. If you’re really desperate, you can download an older version of Chrome, but it’s not going to get any updates, which presents a security issue.
I’ll update this section in the future when this problem is resolved or I have an easier workaround.
This is your computer
If things sound more complicated on your Linux machine … that’s because they are. Linux operating systems won’t hold your hand as much as Mac or Windows, and it can be painful at first.
The bright side to this is the fact that you actually own your machine and can customize it as much as you want. The only wizard behind the curtain is you, and you have a reborn computer to explore and use. And that’s a pretty awesome treat.