Ubuntu 8.10 installation on 30 December 2008 on a Celeron 633 MHz with 320 MB of RAM

I have recently installed Ubuntu 8.10 on the oldest computer still in my possession, which I bought in September 2000, just before I left home for university. Ubuntu is a mostly welcome update on the Windows 98 that this stalwart PC ran previously. The new operating system certainly runs more slowly than Windows 98 did, but I generally see it as an 'upgrade': that old operating system was over 10 years old! As long as I don't engage in too much multi-tasking, this set-up is fine for basic computing tasks such as word processing or web browsing. Though this computer is old and slow, it still works as well as it ever did, and special mention must be made of its PS2 keyboard, which is beautiful for writing on.

My installation of Ubuntu isn't necessarily optimal, but it has worked for me. Because I like to play with settings and tweak things, I have created this blog as a means of keeping a record of the steps I went through to configure the computer, in case anything breaks and I have to reperform the task again! I thought that such notes may also be of use for someone else looking to do a similar thing with their old computer, hence I share it on the web with all and sundry.

So what specifications does this computer have? Off the top of my head, it has an Intel Celeron processor running at a mighty 633 MHz, 320 MB of RAM (upgraded from the 64 MB it was supplied with, having previously been upgraded to 128 MB). It has two physical hard drives, the primary drive, as originally supplied with the computer, being 20 GB (onto which Ubuntu is installed); and the secondary drive 30 GB. This secondary drive was bought for backup purposes and media (mostly mp3) storage, back in the days when external hard drives were significantly more expensive than internal hard drives. The display is a 15" TFT screen running at a native resolution of 1024 by 768, which I scrounged from my parents' old computer when they bought it a 22" widescreen TFT, to replace the 17" CRT that replaced the original 17" CRT that ended up showing everything with a yellow tint.

OK, I think that's all I need give by way of background information. Let's get on with the installation....

• Install Ubuntu 8.10 from the Live CD. Partitions are approximately as follows: Ubuntu 8GB, swap 640MB, ~11GB /home. Once up and running, install any available updates. This will take a while because the processor power of this computer is punier than a weak baby with the flu, so go for a walk or read the newpaper while waiting for the operation to complete.