Picture Development on a Vintage Dell Studio 1749

I always have a number of articles in the starting phase, partially or completely finished, in my WordPress drafts drawer.
This is one that’s been ready for a while, but I haven’t got around to publish it.
The essence of this writing has to do with how we are too easily persuaded to buy new things, it always has to be faster, better…
and this is how it can be done differently.

Today I’m going to talk about my digital darkroom,
and although the laptop on which I develop my photos is gradually becoming a museum piece, and although I have been on the verge of replacing the laptop a few times, I can’t say goodbye to it.
Not that I can’t afford a new one,
it is simply not necessary and a waste of materials.

It is a 2009/2010 Dell Studio 1749 i5-420m, with originaly 4gb Ram and 2 Toshiba disks (yes two !) of 500gb 5400rpm.
Originaly it ran Windows 7 home.
Although I have been a Network Administrator on Windows Servers for years, around 2014 I got really tired of Windows and decided to switch to Linux, after testing different distros I finally started with Lubuntu 14.04 LTS.
In 2016 I upgraded the Dell for the first time by replacing the original disks with one Crucial 240gb SSD and one HGST 1tb hard disk 7200rpm.
Around 2018 I installed Kubuntu 18.04 LTS which was a big improvement, only it didn’t work as fast on the aging PC.
In 2020 I upgraded the laptop again, one Samsung 1tb SSD and one Seagate 2tb 5400rpm, and also the Ram to 8gb – the Dell’s maximum Ram.
At the beginning of this year, the original batteries I was still using died on me as well as the power supply, after which I replaced them as well.
Today everything runs like a (Belgian) train, slow, but eventually he’ll get there 🙂

A while ago I wrote an article “downgrade your camera gear”, is this story again intended to convince you to buy an old Dell ? or to downgrade your laptop ?
No, don’t worry 🙂
What i’m trying to say is that old or aging equipment should not be written off immediately.
With some adjustments or a different use, it can probably last for a longer time.
I’m also not saying that you should start editing your photos on your old laptop now, however, if your existing Windows laptop has become excruciatingly slow over time, switching to Kubuntu would certainly make your existing portable a lot faster ! If you have an old computer/laptop and no use for it, it might be useful for your children, grandchildren – serve as a surf and e-mail laptop, Hi Fi music player or DJ station, games console, etc…
A Linux installation like Kubuntu for example, can breathe new life into that old laptop of yours, it doesn’t make much difference in use compared to Windows, you really don’t have to be a computer nerd to be able to work with Linux, especially not for Kubuntu that is very similar to Windows 7 – 11 .

If you have an old laptop at home gathering dust somewhere, consider putting Linux on it.
I highly recommend Kubuntu, on one hand because it is very Windows-like, on the other hand it uses few resources.. Are you not such a computer specialist yourself, or do you not dare to do it yourself, you probably know someone, a friend, family member who can get away with it and wants to help you.

Have fun and good luck !

Always wanted to be a DJ at your own home parties ? well, this is one such example of software to breathe new life into your old computer

https://mixxx.org/

La Gallerie

The photo gallery of Open Source Photography, Olympus micro 4/3 system, Vintage Lens Photograpy, Film Simulation, PictureFX, HDR – Photographer : Marc R.