Hello hope this has been posted in the right place my friends P.C. is getting on a bit and he would love to be able to change to Linux unfortunately he has no wired internet connection only a T Mobile zte 620 VSB mobile broadband dongle and it seams it is locked only to windows could you help me out is there a Linux driver for it.

Usb "modeswitch" is the facility that will fix this for you. Yes, the zte620 is supported.

Dave

stupid me found it already installed on my 11.10 version but when did it start as I don’t think his computer is good enough to run the latest version of Linux

What are the specs of the computer, in particular, what CPU and how much RAM?

AMD Athlon 2600+ 2.8 ghz 512 mb ram

Don't give him Ubuntu: they recommend 1GB these days. Give him the Xfce version of Mint. It will work beautifully and the interface won't be too much of a change. Not Xubuntu, though: that's where Canonical keep their bugs.

"Not Xubuntu, though: that's where Canonical keep their bugs."

Dang it. No wonder I had such a hard time trying it on an older server. Had to switch to suse 10.

thanks will text him

1. Ubuntu should work with 512 MB RAM. At least versions up to 9.10 worked well. Maybe the new ones have more crap integrated...
2. If you have a USB modem that doesnt work out of the box, you should try the sakis3g script. It works very well even with modems that are not recognized by the kernel as modems.
BTW The USB modems dont have specific drivers. They just use the usbserial driver (some have model-specific quirks), only you have to make sure the kernel knows that the device is a USB modem and what quirks it has if any.

I have run CentOS 5 with as little as 256 MB RAM, but it was noticeably slow.

Mint might be the easiest for your friend to get used to. The menus and interface are not identical to Windows, but are the most Windows-like you will find out-of-the-box in a major Linux distro. And it works like a charm.

If it were me and my friend, I'd suggest at least pricing compatible RAM for an upgrade. It might be cheaper than you'd expect, especially if you could find some at a reputable used computer shop.

I don't get it. Maybe the name "Puppy" is too cutesy? Maybe it is not fashionable and Gucci enough like Ubuntu. Certainly it does not get the same amount of press.
But, if my friend were looking for advice - I would not recommend they "spend money" on an upgrade to their RAM - simply to run a "flavour" that I am familiar with. On that basis - (theoretically) I could suggest that "if my friend have the money - he could upgrade to a Cray 5 and use his old XP machine as a beer mat"

Seriously though - consider Puppy linux.
Minimum ram 100MB
Minimum hard disk 0MB - Yes, that's right - puppy runs from memory - so, if you have little (or not working) disk - you can still run puppy - just boot from usb stick or cd or floppy (remember them?).
WaryPuppy is 130.5MB - designed specifically to support older hardware LONG TERM.

"Mint" is 666MB download with "no multimedia support" The "lightweight" version is 696MB "Standard"

Ubuntu is 695MB.

Dave

1 members found this post helpful.

Maybe it's because too many people have had experiences like this
http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...p/product/1969

My recommendation was based upon my experiences with 4.3 Puppy and Wary Puppy designed specifically for old hardware - with minimal disk (4GB) and ram (512MB) as the original questioner requested. The review you link to (by yourself) is for 5.3 Slacko Puppy released last month on 24th October.

Consequently, I would suggest that it has no proven track record and even though I have not tested it - I would not recommend it either. I believe the questioner would not want something that was too "bleeding edge" - but am happy to be proved wrong.

My question about the "cutesy name" was sincere. I noticed a number of recommendations to the questioner which did not appear (to me) to take account of the size/power of his intended machine. He did not say much about what his "friend" would be using the machine for. If he had different hardware specs - my suggestion would (probably) be different.

I do wish to appear to "carry a torch" for a particular flavour of O/S. I believe that the best O/S is the one that suits you. Even if it is proprietary.

BTW are you the Mr Mcann who was once known as "Mini-Me" when working at Hayes?
Dave

If you know anyone who jibs at the name, never let them see the Puppy Song on Youtube!

Not me.

you a right to question his computer specs it is an older computer with only 512 k mem and the 3200+ athlon but he thinks he would be able to run ubuntu 11.10 or 11.4 same as me but mine is a duel-core with 2 meg. Even though I have told him there is a good chance your computer would freeze within mins perhaps he could use 10.4 but his main concern is the mobile dongle because unlike me he has not got a land line and his t-mobile dongle he thinks will only work in windows but another reply proved this was not the case If so what version of Ubuntu started with the auto switcher for usb dongle