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excerpt says:

Questions about Ubuntu on old computers

What exactly is an "old computer"? Where to draw the line? How I know my system has a problem because is old (btw, mine is almost 10 yo and still kicking)? Exactly who is capable of answering questions tagged with this?

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    An old-computer is a one with a floppy drive. :)
    – falconer
    Dec 22, 2013 at 14:21
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    I think my laptop from 2010 is an old computer. I would remove the tag since it's not a strict definition of it. It's up to every user to tag this and that as old-computer. Also is an old computer a bad computer? Like a Mac Pro from 2005, that's an old computer but still it's very fast...
    – Alvar
    Dec 22, 2013 at 15:36
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    @Alvar then, you are saying that this is not a good tag?
    – Braiam
    Dec 22, 2013 at 15:44
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    @I'm saying it's a very abd tag since it changes over time and is up to every user to decide if it's an old computer. A better tag would be low-end-hardware-computer. OR something better, but more about the hardware than the age of the computer. As I said a good computer that is old shouldn't be tagged with this. Therefor I suggest an improvement on the name.
    – Alvar
    Dec 22, 2013 at 15:46
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    I think it's awesome that not only did we allow the tag to be created, but at some point someone added a description to it. Dec 31, 2013 at 4:53
  • This is hard for me, because as a system builder/PC gamer, I am replacing parts every year or two. At this point, how would you classify a computer that is always changing? Dec 31, 2013 at 21:20
  • @JorgeCastro you forgot </sarcasm>, right?
    – Braiam
    Dec 31, 2013 at 21:23
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    @falconer - I thought an old computer uses punched paper tape :-)
    – Wilf
    Jan 2, 2014 at 10:10
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    @wilf I think there is a generation gap between us. :) I would call that one not an old, but an ancient computer. I may create a tag named ancient-computer for that one. I feel there is demand for that tag. :)
    – falconer
    Jan 2, 2014 at 10:28
  • It doesn't matter how old you are, just where you went on work experience @falconer :D
    – Wilf
    Jan 2, 2014 at 10:38

3 Answers 3

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I don't think this is a good name for a tag. Since it will change over time.

  • An old computer isn't necessarily bad.
  • A low end hardware computer isn't necessarily old.

these two arguments should be in this tag, since that's what the questions are about that it's being tagged with.

I would suggest that someone creates a synonym of this tagged that should be used instead. That has a better name and still carries the meaning that this tag has.

Most of the questions with this tag is what you would call low-end hardware computers, with less than 1GB of RAM, old processors, etc. These computers mostly run Lubuntu or Xubuntu. And have different problems from a computer with better hardware.

What I'm saying is that we need this tag, but we need a better name for it.

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    A high end computer isn't necessarily new Dec 31, 2013 at 21:17
  • @mattTimbrook ehm, that wasn't what I wrote...
    – Alvar
    Dec 31, 2013 at 21:19
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Nah, just get rid of it. We don't need a tag based in the age of a computer, is madness. Madness I say!

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    Getting rid of it wont solve the need for it...
    – Alvar
    Dec 31, 2013 at 21:30
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    @Alvar you think we need of that tag? I've retagged several of those questions and most (if not all) are asking "will Ubuntu run in my pc?" we don't need a tag to establish the age or condition of the PC, if we do we would need a broken tag, a help tag, a diagnostic tag (this is a discussion for another day). Please check meta.stackexchange.com/q/214339/213575
    – Braiam
    Dec 31, 2013 at 21:34
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    Low-end-hardware tag since there are a lot of low-end computers, and more and more computers will become low-end...
    – Alvar
    Dec 31, 2013 at 21:38
  • @Alvar and who is the "low end hardware" expert that will answer those questions?
    – Braiam
    Dec 31, 2013 at 22:05
  • That's like saying do we need a Dell tag? Do we have any Dell experts here? What if you are an expert in dealing with old computers, and getting the most amount of power out of them. We need an low-end-computers tag. We need it.
    – Alvar
    Dec 31, 2013 at 22:07
  • @Alvar if you haven't noticed, those tags will go too... meta.askubuntu.com/questions/7733/…
    – Braiam
    Dec 31, 2013 at 22:10
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    well we got a bunch of low-end-hardware questions... why not find them easier....
    – Alvar
    Dec 31, 2013 at 22:11
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    @Alvar that is madness....
    – Braiam
    Dec 31, 2013 at 22:13
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Low-end, perhaps, could be a machine which does not meet the specs required for Unity. That's what we use at Freegeek.org (where Xubuntu is the default, anyway).

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