So I acquired an older dell lap top running windows XP.
I've got it showing it has internet connection on wired or wireless, both with good connectivity however I cannot access the internet (browser or to update programs)
Any ideas? It's default browser is IE which will be the first thing I change and I need to update the antivirus.
Firewall is off and for whatever reason even system restore won't work because of the issue.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I second that. Strongly.Ubuntu
I do quite a lot more than browse the internet but haven't seriously used anything but Linux in almost a decade. For most users and 95%+ of all the tasks they do (especially when trying to resurrect an XP-era laptop) Linux is usually the easy, convenient, reliable way to get stuff done.As long as all you do is browse the internet I will agree with the linux brigade =)
I do quite a lot more than browse the internet but haven't seriously used anything but Linux in almost a decade. For most users and 95%+ of all the tasks they do (especially when trying to resurrect an XP-era laptop) Linux is usually the easy, convenient, reliable way to get stuff done.
For folks in that last couple of percent who need a particular bit of software to do some non-mainstream task, well, they already know what they need and won't be trying to do it on "an old Dell laptop" that they just "acquired".
Excellent points....prosumers absolutely have to use Windows until Linux steps up their support game. ... I don't have time to go into the console these days and write drivers for my whacky hardware configurations. ...
Excellent points.
As a Linux fanboi, I choose my hardware only after confirming that it works with my OS. I've failed to do that in the past and had to write more crap in a terminal than I ever care to repeat. With that experience, I can certainly agree that if you want to pick "whacky", out-of-the-mainstream hardware and expect your software to work, Windows is better. Personally, I rely on way-back-from-the-bleeding-edge hardware, confirm that my Linux can talk to it, and then buy it.
Picking the right tools for the job may mean you use Linux, Windows, BSD, SCO OSR (the old sysadmin in me misses those days), or even (shudder!) something from Apple.
But for general use in some old hardware someone has managed to acquire, I say throw in an Ubuntu LiveCD and see if it will make everything work. If it tests out just go ahead and install it.
You are a man among men.Say what you will, but I love my Macs. And I spend a *lot* of time in Terminal.