This page started as a Xubutu installation log, so it's just notes about installing Xubuntu Linux on a vintage-2008 Window XP laptop that I turned into a web page in case it might be helpful to anyone.
Prepare
The computer is a Fujitsu Lifebook T1010 touchscreen Laptop with
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU @ 2.4GHz
- 2GB RAM
- 120GB Hard Drive
This computer is vintage 2008. It was running OK, but losing its "zip", when Windows XP's life ended earlier this month (April, 2014). Here's hoping Linux can breathe some new life into it.
Xubuntu is a "lighter weight, highly efficient and optimized" build of Ubuntu that uses the minimalist Xfce destop environment instead of Canonical's (unpopular) Unity desktop environment.
14.04 LTS is a long-term support release. It will be supported until 2019.
{Release day for Xubuntu 14.04 LTS is right around... tomorrow(!), so I downloaded the Daily Build of Xubuntu. The image is called trusty-desktop-amd64.iso but i renamed it to xubuntu-trusty-daily-29140416-amd64.iso so it is identifiable.}
Download the current Xubuntu .ISO file (choose your country under Mirror Downloads) and use that. These days the 64-bit version (e.g. xubuntu-14.04-desktop-amd64.iso) is almost always the right choice unless you have extremely limited hardware.
I've all but given up on writing my .ISO images to CD/DVD optical media. Instead I use the Rufus bootable-USB-drive utility and write the image to a USB memory device, which is much easier and more reliable.
Install from .ISO Image
Boot the system from the USB drive. At the "Welcome" screen
Select English and "Install Xubuntu"
At the "Preparing to install Xbuntu" screen
Check everything Computer has everything the install recommends Check to the two optios so everything is checked Download updates while installing Install third-party software Continue
At the "Installation type" screen
Choose "Something else" Continue
Partition the 120GB hard drive
/boot 300MB primary ext3 <swap> 3GB primary <swap> / 10GB logical ext4 /home 40GB logical ext4 /backup 50BG logical ext4 <none> 16.7GB unallocated Install
At the "Where are you" screen
Set the time zone Continue
At the "Keyboard layout" screen
Choose English (US) / English (US) Continue
At the "Who are you" screen
Set the Name, Username, Password, and Computer's name Require password, Don't log in automatically, don't encrypt home folder Continue
At the "Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04" screen
Installation takes a while
At the "Installation Complete" screen
Restart Now
First boot
Xfce lookes nice and clean. In the past Xfce certainly wasn't something you could "show the CEO", but it looks pretty respectable now.
Clean up Desktop a bit
Move Trash icon to lower-right Remove the File System icon Settings -> Desktop -> Icons
Start Firefox and configure it
Tools-Options (Windows)
Edit-Preferences (Linux)
Privacy
Tell sites I do not want to be tracked
Use customs settings for history
Keep cookies until I close Firefox
Clear history when Firefox closes
Security
Uncheck Remember passwords for sites
Advanced
General - Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload
Data Choices - Uncheck Health Report and Crash Reporter
View - Toolbars - Bookmarks Toolbar
Tools - Add-ons - Extensions
AdBlock Plus - Blocks most ads (Adblock Edge also blocks Google ads)
Context Search - Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item
Ghostery - Privacy add-on to display and block web trackers
Block all trackers / Block all cookies
Advanced settings
Dismiss alert bubble after 3 seconds
Block new elements by default
Delete Flash and Silverlight cookies on exit
NoScript - Extra-protective script-blocker (for advanced users only!)
Add SSL Search Bar add-ons from here
To be continued [...]
Partitions Explained
In the past I would create a lot of separate partitions when installing Linux. I did it for very good reasons, some of which probably no longer apply. :-)
Now it seems reasonable to separate only /home, /boot, and a swap partition. Keeping /boot separate ext3 partition adds a small margin of safety. Keeping /home separate allows it to persist if the OS is reinstalled.
I also create a /storage partition. /storage can be used for backups and for shared storage among multiple users on the system ("shared documents"). Files on the /storage partition remain intact if the OS is reinstalled.
I habitually leave some unallocated space, in this case only a small amount (16.7GB). That space can be used for something that might not be anticipated just now.
The partition sizes were carefully considered. Here's a brief summary of why the size of each partition was chosen:
300MB boot partition is very large 3GB swap is huge and probably won't be used. 10GB / (root not /root) partition is also ample 40GB /home is ample local storage 50GB /storage is plenty for to hold e.g. system recovery data