Opinions on how to run LL 3.8 (or 4.0) on Dell Latitude E5530 (long)

[JanetBiggar]

Let me give some back ground and also clarify my question(s):

I typically struggle to collect older laptops to take with me to South Africa for academic use with youth in my study groups.  These older laptops vary from 512 mb - 2 GB RAM and HDs from 16 GB to 300 GB.  They are usually 2005 - 2012 era 

This year the accounting firm that we use, having heard about our work in SA, have very kindly and eagerly offered to provide me with laptops they are rotating out.  This occurs on an annual basis and thus should hopefully continue in future.

I do not yet have any of these computers thus don't know the exact specs however they could be either Core i3, i5 or i7; 4 GB RAM; HD 320 - 500 GB.
Once wiped I don't know if they will come with an OS on them or not.  If they have NO OS on them then these questions are a moot point as I will simply load LL 3.8 or 4.0, however if they come with Windows 7 pro or up here is my dilema:

I WANT to run Linux Lite on the computers the high school youth use as:
(a) it as been problem free so far with regards to any viruses or even other issues I have had in the past running Windows XP.
(b) it is not easy for the youth to download programs thus decreasing possible problem issues.
© can't play windows games (call me boring  )

I don't think I want to dual boot - as I don't know the implication regarding viruses if also running windows (I DON"T want any unwanted problems/issues) AND I also don't want the youth deciding to boot into Windows. HOWEVER, youth that continue on to university with these laptops may ideally wish to run a Windows OS.

So IF these laptops come with a Windows OS on them my questions are:

1) Does it make sense to create a recovery ISO right from day 1 for each of the laptops and locate/document the Product Key, THEN load Linux Lite knowing that I/they can revert to Windows in future from the Recovery ISO?

2) Does a Windows Recovery ISO mean that it includes everything (OS AND Drivers) if made from and used on the same computer or even model?  I am really not interested in locating and installing drivers...

3) As long as all these computers are the same, can the same Windows ISO be used on all the laptops or will the Recovery ISO from each of the laptops be slightly different and therefore it be best to have one from and for each laptop?

4) Is there something obvious I am missing or not understanding about dual booting that would permit me to leave a Windows OS on the laptops YET would
(a) ONLY permit the user using the Linux OS?
(b) and protect from any viruses affecting the Windows OS when using LL?

I have googled about making Recovery disks, but I believe perhaps it is not as straight forward as it might appear in terms of drivers, etc. So my apologies up front for what may be very basic questions  ;D

[Searchernow]

Hi Vera,

if there are still Windows os present then what about password protecting the Win Admin a/cs without letting the students know it, then load LL as a dual boot?

Maybe a separate password for each laptop, in case you need to "release" the Windows os for a graduate, so they can't usefully give the password back to others?

[JanetBiggar]

Good thought, I did wonder about this as prior to using LL I was using Win XP and had it set up with an admin user and student user.

So would that mean that if only using the LL partition that it would still be very unlikely to have the laptop become virus infected with something that COULD affect a Windows OS..?

[Searchernow]

PS: I have a similar spec Latitude (5430 I think) 64bit with LL 3.8 running dual with Win7.  I have just (first time in a year!) re-booted to Win7 and couldn't get in without my password!

The only problem I had running LL (3.6 & 3.8) was occasional desktop crashes (simply resolved by re-starting), probably related to using an external monitor, also to logging out then in again, but it seems ok most of the time now. If you have any similar problem (hopefully unlikely) let me know.

[Searchernow]

Hi again,

I sent my PS before seeing your reply!

Let's wait for confirmation of this, but my understanding is that (at least when I heard about it in the past) a linux comp could "carry" a Windows-targetted virus, but whether it could migrate accross partitions I don't know. I'd say it could get onto a usb drive then from there to an opened Win partition.

If that's the only way, ie it can't swim from LL partition to Win partition, then before releasing the Win pasword instruct user to avoid using old usb drives etc.

I'll be interested in more info re partitions being "quarantined" or not.

[Searchernow]

how did that smiley get there? I meant 3.8 ....

[newtusmaximus]

Freudian slip  8)
Janet,  My worry on having W7, or whatever, on there dual booted, is that if the user ever switched over to it, there would be such a large number of updates to download a) it would take hours before it could be used and b) by the time it was booted to W , there may no longer be support for it anyway i.e totally vulnerable.  This does not take into account the large amount of disc space wasted with W and the legion of updates etc.
My 2ps worth is not to bother dual booting.  FWIW

[Searchernow]

I doubt there is an ideal solution, but if as Janet says students go on to university they may need to use industry standard CAD such as Rhino, Solidworks, Adobe CS etc., and these don't run on Linux.

My own dual boot is for the purposes of having a spare Win7 os.  I do cad work on an entirely separate laptop running Win7 which is almost never online. I do bring email attachments from this LL laptop over to the Win7 laptop, from known correspondents (not any guarantee that they haven't been infected with malware of course), and so far no problems. But as I say I'm keeping the "spare" Win7 partition as a backup just in case!

It is a shortcoming in Linux that these industry CADs don't run thereon. A discussion I saw somewhere suggested the problem is that there isn't yet a critical mass of users to fund the work needed to re-code these complex progs. Anyway, that is another topic!

[JanetBiggar]

So given the replies I did a bit more searching and found this reference on how to create a windows 7 recovery disk WITH drivers. It is method two in this wiki article:

https://m.wikihow.com/Create-a-Recovery-...-Windows-7

I can’t afford LL crashing if dual booting with windows as there are some critical months of school during which time I am not there to sort things out should something happen.  My preference would be to have the ability to reload Win 7 pro if necessary.

I haven’t given the above a go yet, however when the opportunity arises when I receive these computers I will try this before erasing and installing LL.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

[trinidad]

If these are donated computers I doubt that the MS product keys will still be active. That would be a security issue for the company who donates them. They could attach an MS refurbisher key but I doubt they would do that at their own expense. Expect them to be completely wiped, and/or to have an OS stub that asks for keys to update and/or install which will require a purchase. Windows 7 is not really worth any maintanance efforts anyway. Windows 8 or 10 would be, if you want the headache, but would be foolish to opreate on a network without KIS or Norton (which also have a $ per system). If you want to keep one of the better ones for yourself and dual boot with LL expect to spend around $250 (MS keys & KIS) to make Windows 8 or 10 reasonably safe and usable.

TC