Migrating a Business to Linux — 4
The second laptop to convert in our migration effort was a Toshiba Satellite-C55D-B. A system with Windows 7 32-bit and 2 GB of RAM. Fortunately, the system has an SSD. Not fancy or powerful but works just fine for bench testing and configuring embedded devices. We call the laptop the Bench PC.
A system with 2 GB of RAM (two 1 GB sticks) often dictates using a 32-bit distro. Initially I was inclined to install 32-bit Ubuntu MATE.
Using a 32-bit distro meant certain restrictions. Google Chrome is not supported on 32-bit Linux systems. Not a show stopper because Firefox is the preferred browser in the company. A 32-bit version of Google Earth could be installed but the last supported version was from August 2017. Again not a show stopper because the laptop is used primarily for bench testing.
The easy solution is find two 2 GB sticks. Doable. Yet on a hunch I tested the 64-bit Live ISO with only 2 GB of RAM.
RAM usage was well below the 2 GB ceiling. Considering the laptop is used in a targeted manner, which means usually using little more than using a web browser and PuTTY, I proceeded to install the 64-bit version from our image partitions.
The system is working well as is. The owner is willing to buy the RAM but for now we are hovering as is with no complaints. Unlike the Panasonic Toughbook CF-52, there are no ACPI issues.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General, Migrate, Ubuntu
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