[conspire] (forw) Re: Need to Install Ubuntu Linux

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 00:34:08 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: [e-mail address redacted]
Subject: Re: Need to Install Ubuntu Linux

Hi, Kristina!  Please give my best regards -- and this e-mail -- to
Robert.  Thank you!

Quoting Robert Johnstone:

> On 23 Jan 17, I went to Weird Stuff and found (and bought) a fairly
> heavy-duty computer with a serial port:
> 
> Hewlett-Packard EliteDesk 800
> 800GB RAM
> 1.5TB hard drive
> Intel CPU

You're right!  It really is a fairly heavy-duty computer.  My
complements on the careful shopping and purchase of a quality computer.
This unit was aimed at the business market, and well-made in addition to
being relatively small.  I am guessing your unit is as show in column
three of this page, the 'Tower'-format version of the EliteDesk 800:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2013/HPDiscover2013/HPEliteDesk800_datasheet.pdf

I am guessing that this was a new model around 2014.  Also, if you'll
pardon a correction, '800GB RAM' is not correct, and I'm guessing you
meant to say 8 GB.  That is a reasonable albeit not bountiful amount of 
RAM for a current desktop computer, and will suffice.  Again, assuming
that your unit is the one listed in column three, your tower's
motherboard (inside the case) has four sockets for sticks of RAM, which
is best added in identical pairs (but not required to be).  It is
extremely likely that your PC currently has two sticks, each 4 GB of RAM
to create the total of 8 GB.

Any PC shop could add a second pair of sticks in the other two RAM
sockets, to expand your machine's total RAM.  I would recommend a pair
of 8GB sticks, which would then increase your total RAM to 24GB, which
would make this 2014 machine seem quite fast.  Having sufficient RAM 
is, in general, by far the most cost-effective improvement you can make
to most PCs.

If you wish to have a shop do that work, ask for qty 2 of 8GB PC3-12800
DDR3 SDRAM.  Cost would be about $150, example
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3SD3ZA0424 .

You could also buy that item mail-order and install it yourself, which
may sound scary but is not.  (Newegg has a 30-day, no-questions return
policy.)  See this young punk's video guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vt_VYt6vY


About your concern about not installing once again your old Ubuntu
release:  You are right to be concerned, and once again I commend you on
a wise decision.  Well done again!  To clarify, what you have in hand, 
Ubuntu v. 9.10, is the release from October 2009:  Ubuntu's release
numbers are transformed versions of the release date, so the '9'
represents the year 2009, and the 10 represents the month of October.

As you suspect, that is very, very out of date, and not only would you
get better, more-recent software from a current Ubuntu release but also
you would thereby avoid worrisome security problems.  CABAL will be 
happy to fetch, and help you install/configure, the cuurent release,
'Ubuntu 16.04 LTS' (long-term support), which as you now can figure out,
was released in April 2016.

Please bring any USB flash drive of capacity 2GB or greater.  We will
copy Ubuntu 16.04 LTS onto your drive, which will then serve as your
master (installable) copy of Ubuntu, and also we will guide you through
installation and configuration of the OS, installing it from the USB
drive.  USB flash drives can now be bought in any drug store in addition
to PC shops.  Walgreen's currently sells a 8GB USB flash drive for about
$10.

For clarification:  People now use DVD and CD drives less often than
they used to, and mostly use USB flash drives for the same purposes,
though the USB flash drives are rewriteable many, many times and can be
used as detachable live storage for files, which is mostly a good
thing.  So, while ten year ago, you would most certainly have burned a
DVD of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to serve as your master copy, and still can do
so, most people these days would just use a USB flash drive, instead.
They're physically tiny like a bundle of keys, fit nicely in your
pocket, and can be reused for lots of purposes.

We look forward to seeing you again.

Best Regards,
Rick Moen


----- End forwarded message -----