Last year I was looking for a new small, lightweight laptop that I could use for coding when I was traveling around & didn’t want to carry a big powerful workhorse.
After looking at the new Netbooks that were around for a couple of hundred pounds I decided they might be a bit under powered for what I wanted to use it for. Despite having the small form factor that I needed.
In the end I settled for a IBM Thinkpad X40. I was already given one of these for work and liked the size of the keyboard & screen.
Specs for the X40 are:
- 1.2 GHz Intel Centrino processor
- 256 MB RAM (1 x Expansion Slot, so I have 1.25 GB)
- 12.1″ Screen
- 40 GB HDD
OK so the processor is slower than the Intel Atom you get in Netbooks, but this takes the edge with much more RAM. When you have a browser, IDE, etc all running a a low RAM system will begin to grind to a halt.
I found one of these on eBay for £150, BARGAIN!! It came pre-installed with Windows XP Pro. However even XP starts to lag when running on a 1.2gig processor & 512mb RAM (this was how i bought it). I had been reading more & more about this magic Linux distribution called Ubuntu which runs fast even if your computer is powered by a hamster in a wheel, and that requires little to no setting up once installed.
I went over to the Ubuntu site here and downloaded the CD ISO, popped it into my drive and fired up my laptop.
Then I just followed the on screen instructions of the installer until it was completed and Ubuntu was ready to use!
You may have noticed that at no time did I say that I formated my hard drive. This is because I didn’t & if you want to use your existing operating system as well Ubuntu then the installer will help you partition your hard drive for each OS without any loss of data. Installing Ubuntu is easier & faster than installing Windows XP.
A lot of applications come pre-installed with Ubuntu, more than enough to do all your normal tasks. I will write some more blogs on other applications that are useful for Ubuntu that aren’t defaultly installed.