[dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere

[Jim Lawrence]

Arthur, I am the king of rebuilding computers but sometimes these old boxes have to be retired...technology has moved on so far in twenty years that most modern software wouldn't work...regardless of the OS. 

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 8:59:47 AM
Subject: [dba-Tech] R.I.P. Guinevere

My ancient HP Millennium computer appears finally to have bitten the dust.
She has performed superbly for -- I can't even remember, now, something
like 20 years. Since I bought her, I've done a couple of upgrades (replaced
the motherboard, added a hard disk, and of course the usual OS upgrades.)
Now she powers on and I can hear the fan running, and the hard-disk light
blinking, but nothing else happens.

I'm going to try a couple of things over the weekend. First is to see if I
can boot from an Ubuntu disk, and if that works, then I'm totally prepared
to make her a Linux woman, Since I no longer write code for a living, but
just as a hobby, most of the Linux stuff I do is just simple email and
browsing.

The ethical dilemma I'm facing is that to repair her might cost more than a
refurbished desktop from my favourite store. I just recently purchased a
refurbished Lenovo for my best friend Audra's birthday, and her boyfriend
kicked in 50%, so net, net, net it cost us each about $60.

I'm torn between emotion and economics. It might ultimately be cheaper to
replace Guinevere, but that sounds more like a Trumpism than I'm
comfortable with. Until recently, she has performed admirably. Even despite
her mere 4 GB of RAM and about 500 GB of disk storage, she has performed
very well and I don't want to pull the plug.

The computer I work on every day is called Avalon. And I also have a tablet
called Lancelot. You may be able to guess from whence these names derive.

What should I do about Guinevere? Emotions or economics?

-- 
Arthur
_______________________________________________
dba-Tech mailing list
dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com