[sclug] Cheap'n'nasty Tesco Linux machines

[Phillip Chandler]

Just been to their web site
( http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.1999034/No.10/Nr.99.aspx ) and it actually
looks quite good considering its only ?139.93. And theres plenty of room
for adding extra cd/dvd and hdd. So you could quite easily add a
secondary hard disc, but how would you set the 2nd hdd as the /home
partitions ? But seeing as its only supplied with Ubuntu 6.06 Id be
inclined to do a fresh install of 7.04.

I was a bit miffed with the 2nd machine being ?50 more for a 1.9ghz
speed and 512mb ram where as the ?139.93 is 2.66ghz speed and only 256mb
ram ? Is this a typo on their part ?

On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 17:56 +0000, Phillip Chandler wrote:
> Would anyone know if its a mini tower case or a small desktop. I ask
> purely from the point that if its a mini tower, then you can upgrade
> sourcing from internet shop very easily, because of having two cd/dvd
> slots and two hdd slots minimum.
> 
> Whereas with a branded desktop like a NEC POWERMATE VL260 you probably
> only have room for one of each. Im assuming that Tesco have opted for
> the cheapest they can get, so the price still makes them a nice tidy
> profit. Especially if they get them assembled in the Asia area. The only
> option then for a Powermate is to upgrade the hdd and buy an external
> case for the 89gig hdd you replaced.
> 
> On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 18:28 +0100, Ottavio Caruso wrote:
> > On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:01:20 +0000 (GMT), "Alex Butcher
> > lug-at-assursys.co.uk |mailing list/linux mailing lists|"
> > <sohmjtjzd70t at sneakemail.com> said:
> > > On Tue, 11 Mar 2008, Pete wrote:
> > > 
> > > > --- Phillip Chandler <phillip.chandler at ntlworld.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >> And who cares if their low spec. 2.66 ghz is
> > > >> actually  a good speed for
> > > >> a standard box for the average joe home user,
> > > >> especially for linux.
> > > >
> > > > Anyone else remember when a Pentium 100 was good
> > > > enough for email, web surfing and writing some
> > > > letters?
> > > 
> > > It still is, but you'll have to accept that you'll have to use the
> > > applications that were around when the Pentium 100 was around, rather
> > > than
> > > today's applications. 
> > 
> > You can still use Slackware 11.0 and X and fluxbox and opera and you
> > have a minimal but decent system.
> > 
> > I haven't tried Slack 12.0 but I presume that kernel 2.6.x.x won't
> > compile on that processor but I could be wrong.
> > 
>