Resurrection!

Wow! I'm back! No big deal, you are no doubt saying - you are posting on your blog, so what? Well, the amazing thing is that, for the first time in two years, I'm using my old IBM t43 to access the web and write a post! That's right, I've finally resurrected my favourite laptop, courtesy of a reconditioned hard drive obtained for around £30 from an on line parts supplier. Actually, replacing the hard drive was the easy bit. Installing a new operating system turned out to be more problematic. However, after two attempts, I seem to have managed to install Kubuntu 12.04, (which, for the uninitiated, is a version of the Ubuntu linux distribution running the KDE desktop), from a magazine DVD. So, if you are thinking of installing linux on an older IBM laptop, I can confirm that they will run the most up to date 32-bit versions of distros - and Kubuntu was able to set up the wireless, sound and graphics cards straight 'out of the box', with no irritating manual interventions to get them to work.

The only problem so far, which I was alerted to by the OS in fact, is that after two years on non-use, the battery is knackered, holding only 42% of its charge. This isn't an immediate problem as I'l be running this laptop from the mains for the foreseeable future. That said, in the long term I'll probably try to source a replacement battery from the web. Anyway, it's good to have this laptop up and running again. The build quality on the IBM t-series is fantastic, far better than any other laptop I've used. This one is now destined to be my back-up laptop, so that I don't again find myself in the position of two years ago - when the original hard drive suffered a catastrophic failure - of being unable to access the web or do anything else for a couple of days! Fingers crossed that this hard drive stands up to the rigours of use a bit better than its predecessor.