Another Escape Route Test
Jun. 1st, 2025 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerNot that long ago I got to thinking about just one of the old portable computers I have lying around. My old MacBook Air, bought not that long before a trip from a store selling used computers as well as new machines, had been a thoroughly portable machine. However, it only had four gigabytes of RAM with no way to increase that. This made me refrain from upgrading it to the final operating system versions it could support, even if the absolute final version among them has passed over the “no security updates” horizon. At last, the thought of installing a version of Linux on it occurred to me, and perhaps just before the latest burst of general lugubriousness over perceptions of rotten software from Apple. (Many years ago, during a previous burst, I set up an even older black-plastic MacBook to dual-boot into Linux, so I suppose that setting up just-in-case escape routes has been something I’ve been proving I can do for a while.)
The thought of dual-booting this old computer stuck with an old operating system wasn’t quite on my mind. On the other hand, having tried to set up my old iMac to dual-boot only to end up wiping the Macintosh operating system off it (and then finding certain quibbles including that it never quite seems to power down all the way without pulling the plug) raised the thought of replacing the internal solid-state drive, which could at least still be managed. The kit I ordered included special screwdrivers to get the special screws out and a mini-case for the old drive, and it wasn’t that much trouble to install. I’d already decided to step away from Linux Mint, which I’d tried on my iMac, and try Ubuntu MATE, because I’d “virtualized” it on yet another old portable on seeing comments it didn’t make big demands on hardware and then discovered it could be set to move the menus for some programs into a familiar-to-me top-of-the-screen menu bar.
What I found after installing the operating system, though, was that “clicks” on the trackpad translated into actual results only part of the time. It took me a little while just to install a first set of small updates, and that didn’t altogether solve the program. After that, I left the computer lying around for a while before deciding to try an external mouse. It then took me several tries to remember just what I’d set as my login password, but now clicking seemed to produce regular results. The question is how quickly that’ll turn into resolve to try the operating system more. I suppose “the majority option” has crossed my mind as well, but the computer I use at work seems to have become just a little more peculiar since Windows 11 was rolled out onto it; the old MacBook Air I’d been working on won’t run that either.
The thought of dual-booting this old computer stuck with an old operating system wasn’t quite on my mind. On the other hand, having tried to set up my old iMac to dual-boot only to end up wiping the Macintosh operating system off it (and then finding certain quibbles including that it never quite seems to power down all the way without pulling the plug) raised the thought of replacing the internal solid-state drive, which could at least still be managed. The kit I ordered included special screwdrivers to get the special screws out and a mini-case for the old drive, and it wasn’t that much trouble to install. I’d already decided to step away from Linux Mint, which I’d tried on my iMac, and try Ubuntu MATE, because I’d “virtualized” it on yet another old portable on seeing comments it didn’t make big demands on hardware and then discovered it could be set to move the menus for some programs into a familiar-to-me top-of-the-screen menu bar.
What I found after installing the operating system, though, was that “clicks” on the trackpad translated into actual results only part of the time. It took me a little while just to install a first set of small updates, and that didn’t altogether solve the program. After that, I left the computer lying around for a while before deciding to try an external mouse. It then took me several tries to remember just what I’d set as my login password, but now clicking seemed to produce regular results. The question is how quickly that’ll turn into resolve to try the operating system more. I suppose “the majority option” has crossed my mind as well, but the computer I use at work seems to have become just a little more peculiar since Windows 11 was rolled out onto it; the old MacBook Air I’d been working on won’t run that either.