Day job: CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) consultant for an (automotive) engineering consultancy

I have an 11-year-old iqon desktop computer (Intel Celeron 2.00GHz) with Windows XP originally installed on it. I have recently tried to revive it by upgrading with as much memory as it will take (2GB DDR) and installing a SSD. However, the improvement has been a little underwhelming: while Windows started quickly, it shuts down very slowly and internet videos have been poor. Therefore I decided to install a lightweight operating system (Lubuntu 14.04). I had hoped it would have been a quick straightforward job, but there are/were some issues that needed fixing. However, the computer does shut down much more quickly now and functions satisfactorily for some jobs (scanning, emailing) so some success has been banked.

I have been a user of Unix/Linux since 1995, but only in the last couple of years have I been involved with the administration of Linux: partly at work (Ubuntu and CentOS) and partly at home with this desktop (Lubuntu).