Mastodawn

I've been physically destroying several old hard drives and prepping a pile of old electronics for recycling. The HDD in this old acer palmtop was too hard to get out. I couldn't even figure it out. So I found this very old software to supposedly wipe it. It's fine, I only ever used this thing to tinker with Arduino anyway.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 5

It has (had) Win XP on it 😆
Note the tiny piece of sticky note covering up the camera, yeah I do that. Too many years in the IC

Nonya Bidniss Mar 7

Follow-up: Now that I've wiped this palmtop I'm tempted to try putting #Linux on it. Anybody know what might work well on it? It's over 10 years old and by today's standards pretty limited. Acer Aspire One ZG5, specs: Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD. I would want a user friendly OS that doesn't need me to do much command line if at all.

@Nonya_Bidniss Huh. I had one of those. Akshully, I have NO IDEA what happened to it..

Anyways. I ended up putting Ubuntu, slim and trimmed, on it. Turned the thing into a internet terminal, basically.

Worked... ok. Manage your expectations.

Elementary OS, maybe?

...dare I say... BSD?

It might feel a little sluggish with just 1GB RAM, but my first instinct would probably be Ubuntu.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 7

@DaveMWilburn It looks like Ubuntu MATE might work with this hardware. The requirements for other versions are beyond this computer. Can't lose anything trying it from a USB drive at least.

If that fails, there's always Puppy Linux.

You could also probably do something with TinyCore but it would probably require a lot of fiddling to get a GUI and apps loaded.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 7

@DaveMWilburn Thank you, it looks like Puppy Linux requirements are well within what this computer has. Best one yet that I've looked at.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 7

@DaveMWilburn Well I'm seeing a lot of "do not use Puppy if you are a beginner" and I saw a Reddit comment from someone with the same hardware specs as mine who said Mint ran fine so I may try that.

A more mainstream distro like Mint would almost certainly be a better user experience if it'll run.

Corey Snipes 🌱Mar 7

@Nonya_Bidniss You have some good suggestions here already. Based on your constraints I'd probably try Linux Mint with MATE or XFCE (both combos are available as pre-packaged ISOs).

Nonya Bidniss Mar 7

@coreysnipes That failed. I didn't realize it wouldn't support 32-bit.

I'll probably try a 32-bit antiX.

Corey Snipes 🌱Mar 7

@Nonya_Bidniss Ah, too bad. I was able to install Mint on a 32-bit Thinkpad X1 but it's been a while since I tried that.

@Nonya_Bidniss Based on my own experience with limited hardware, I'd say maybe antiX, Void Linux, or Bodhi Linux.

antiX has the least RAM usage and it has its own package installer. Bodhi Linux is slightly outdated.

@Nonya_Bidniss Try #antiX linux or #Artix linux. #antiX is highly recommended.

If you can spare some cash then #Zorin OS Lite.

I would suggest #AlpineLinux.

Minimal Hardware Requirements, for a graphical desktop: 512 MB of RAM, 700 MB space on a writable storage device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux

Alpine Linux - Wikipedia

Corey Snipes 🌱Mar 5

@Nonya_Bidniss What comes around... I just ordered an HP palmtop off ebay this afternoon.

@Nonya_Bidniss I had one of those, it's a nightmare to get the drive out. Keeb has 3 clips that need basically thin guitar picks before it will pop out, then ~10 screws under that, and all the screws on the bottom of the clamshell, plus the four under the rubber feet, and the top part of the clamshell is also held in by clips (guitar pick around the outside). At least an hour of work.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 5

@ghostsarespooky "under" the rubber feet? Jesus that must have been it. I did all the other stuff.

@Nonya_Bidniss Yep. Turns out I still have this thing, and I've swapped memory and disk on this thing so much the feet no longer stick. Just the rear two, not the four like I had initially mentioned.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 6

@ghostsarespooky dammit

@Nonya_Bidniss yup

@Nonya_Bidniss DBAN 🫡

@Nonya_Bidniss Awwwww. I had an Aspire 1 ... I miss that machine.

@Nonya_Bidniss It was like the bestest travel machine ever. Under RAMed at 4GB and had a Celeron Proc but worked GREAT as far as SSH/MOSH and that's all I really need in a hurry.

I upgraded the RAM in a bar with a nail file (screwdriver) having an IPA as I recall.

I had a 15" Sony VAIO (punk fuckers running Linux, VAIO bastards) as my primary carry and my mother bought me the Aspire because she thought it was "cute". That boxen became my primary walking around Los Angeles. It was perfect.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 6

@elfin It was nice. I had the big Vaio too back then.

@Nonya_Bidniss Fucking VAIOs (ThinkPad guy, for, reasons) I had to recompile my effing audio drivers ever kernel update.

SONY is Specifically antagonistic to xnix. Sexy little beasts, but more trouble than worth. [Looked great in meetings, but I can beat a marketing guy with a ThinkPad and still use it later that day, VAIO not so much).

@Nonya_Bidniss old HDDs are actually securely erasable, unlike SSDs where it's rather a "Trust me Bro!" kinda thing.

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines Mar 6

@kkarhan @Nonya_Bidniss

Old HDDs are not be securely erased unless you do it like US navy erased them.
Dip them in acid 🍵
Some drive tracks can be read on the "outside".
By state actors mainly.

However, both HDD and SSDs can be permanently erased in a microwave 😁