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Xtra-PC - load of old cack


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Old 08-12-2016, 16:16
pfgpowell
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Facebook is inundated with ads for somethingcalled Extra-PC which promises all sorts - take a look here My initial and continuing reaction is that it is a load of bollocks as are pretty much all other such 'solutions' which promise to make your PC run faster. Does anyone have any direct knowledge of this?
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Old 08-12-2016, 16:26
chrisjr
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It appears to be a bootable version of Linux OS. So in that respect it's a bit different to other software that claims to boost your PC performance from within Windows. It basically completely replaces Windows in effect.

Whether that actually makes the computer run significantly faster is another matter.

Mind you no use at all if your computer can't boot off USB...
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Old 08-12-2016, 18:57
emptybox
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Yes, it's just a lightweight Linux distribution on a USB stick.
You could easily make one yourself for free, or for the cost of an 8GB (or bigger) USB stick. But I guess £20 or so isn't too bad for the not too technical computer user?
(somebody has obviously seen a way to make a bit of money out of Linux)

From this video it looks like it's based on the LXDE desktop, which would run easily on any XP based or later machine, that will allow booting from USB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0E70jhTQHQ

Having said that, it won't boost your computer hardware in any way. It's just that it'll run smoother than Windows on low spec hardware.
You'd still find browsing the modern web a frustrating experience on an early XP era machine though, as it would struggle with media rich webpages such as Facebook etc.
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Old 08-12-2016, 20:05
s2k
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At $25 I can't imagine it would be a particularly decent flash drive in terms of read/write speeds. These Live versions can be great for repairs and dabbling in Linux, but as a day-to-day OS I could see it getting frustrating pretty fast.

The other issue would be that the OS state on Live distros is usually frozen so that any changes to files/configs/applications are lost on reboot - not sure if that is the case with this? If not then what happens if/when the user hoses the installation?
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Old 08-12-2016, 20:12
emptybox
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At $25 I can't imagine it would be a particularly decent flash drive in terms of read/write speeds. These Live versions can be great for repairs and dabbling in Linux, but as a day-to-day OS I could see it getting frustrating pretty fast.

The other issue would be that the OS state on Live distros is usually frozen so that any changes to files/configs/applications are lost on reboot - not sure if that is the case with this? If not then what happens if/when the user hoses the installation?
No it'll be one where you can save stuff to the USB stick, as it says it can be used on a PC with no HDD.
Bit more complicated to set up than just a simple live USB, but Puppy Linux is designed to be used that way for example.

Quite a good idea, but a bit deceptive in the marketing of it?
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Old 08-12-2016, 20:52
TelevisionUser
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Facebook is inundated with ads for somethingcalled Extra-PC which promises all sorts - take a look here My initial and continuing reaction is that it is a load of bollocks as are pretty much all other such 'solutions' which promise to make your PC run faster. Does anyone have any direct knowledge of this?
Yep, anything that promises to make your PC faster, more tuned up etc. is basically useless bloatware which shouldn't be downloaded.
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Old 09-12-2016, 00:38
RobinOfLoxley
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Mind you no use at all if your computer can't boot off USB...
Even if BIOS doesn't support USB Booting, on very old computers, Plop Boot Manager (Free) can do it.

But very old computers can be not worth the tinkering to run to modern standards in other ways.
If you like a 'Wardobe Challenge', it provides some geeky entertainment for a while.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pl...utf-8&oe=utf-8
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Old 09-12-2016, 11:53
Mr Dos
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It's probably not the case here, but flogging a cheap OS on a stick would be a brilliant wheeze to scam people with keyloggers, bank and other DNS redirects - especially easy to do with an unfamiliar Linux platform. I know it's happened in the past with doctored 'free' Windows from dubious sources.

Although I'm not a Linux fan, it annoys me when people sell a free OS - like the Puppy, Ubuntu etc cds on sale at eBay. They are also open to abuse . . .
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