Ordered a new HP laptop

My trusty Dell Inspiron is literally falling apart so I've ordered a new HP machine. Nothing fancy, but sounds good enough for home use.
It comes with Windows 11 but I will dual boot it with Ubuntu 20.04 and ignore windows. There is a newer version of Ubuntu, but I didn't like it so I'll wait till the next release in April.

It will take a while to get all the software loaded. I just couldn't get the printer to work on the Dell using a cable, but it works great using WiFi. I think I'll go straight to wireless connection with the new machine.

@Capt Lightning , You didn't like Ubuntu-24.04? I use ubuntu-mate-24.04 on 2 of my machines, didn't really see any difference between ubuntu-20.04 and 24.04.

Nathan said:

@Capt Lightning , You didn't like Ubuntu-24.04? I use ubuntu-mate-24.04 on 2 of my machines, didn't really see any difference between ubuntu-20.04 and 24.04.

Click to expand...

My new laptop was delivered yesterday, and then the 'fun' started. Normally, I would alter the boot sequence to boot from Ubuntu on a USB stick. Not this time, Win 11 security wouldn't allow the boot to be altered. I tried various things and just got into a complete mess. I was already contemplating a re-install of Win 11, but I had a beer instead.
Today, had another go without luck and for some unknown reason, I plugged in Ubuntu 24.04. Surprise - did I want to install Ubuntu ? Yes I did, and off it went, installed with no problems.

I have no idea why the security didn't stop installation, but it didn't. I spent quite a while loading up various applications, Email, etc, and so far everything looks good. I'm gradually getting to grips with 24.04, but I find it more fiddly than 20.04.

Just as a matter of interest....what did you do with the old one?

Lavinia said:

Just as a matter of interest....what did you do with the old one?

Click to expand...

I've still got it. It will take me a while to load everything on the new one. If you're not familiar with Ubuntu, it comes as a very basic system, and you can add whatever applications you like, customise it etc.. It's free, as is most of the software,

Citygirl said:

I have an H.P. Laptop and have had it for 3 years with no problems at all. About 1 year ago I noticed a thing called "Last Past" had been added without my consent. Is it considered malware?
I did some research on it and was said to have leaked over
from an update to something else.
At times this computer is fine but then at other times it does the most weirdest things. I could never describe all the things it will do. You could never do important work on here.
I have tried to get rid of it but have had no luck.
Does anyone know about this or have any advice?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Never heard of anything called Last Past on a computer. There is a "Last Pass" which is a password manager program. It's used to have just one master password so you don't have to remember a whole bunch of them. Personally, I wouldn't trust it though, as they have had data breaches in the past from hackers.

If it's an actual program, you should be able to go to your control panel, click on "uninstall a program", select it from the list, and uninstall. Don't know if it's related to all the other weird stuff going on with your computer.

I don't recall the name of it, not the same but I had a similar occurrence a while back on my Windows 11. I tried picking through it, uninstalling select things but ultimately wiped/reinstalled. Got my daughter (the house pc genius lol) to help me download Firefox browser again. Been fine so far. I find it more sensible to use than what the pc came with.

Citygirl said:

@bobcat, Thanks so much for the info and you are right. I made a typo so it is "Last Pass". That is the info I found out about it, and I tried to uninstall it but they evidently go by a company or another name but thanks anyway.

Click to expand...

Last Pass is a standalone program showing up as Last Pass. If it doesn't show up that way, it's likely just a browser extension, which can just be deleted if you want to. It's pretty easy to do. Just search the net for how to delete a browser extension from your particular browser (Edge, Firefox, Chrome, etc...).

Capt Lightning said:

My trusty Dell Inspiron is literally falling apart so I've ordered a new HP machine. Nothing fancy, but sounds good enough for home use.
It comes with Windows 11 but I will dual boot it with Ubuntu 20.04 and ignore windows. There is a newer version of Ubuntu, but I didn't like it so I'll wait till the next release in April.

It will take a while to get all the software loaded. I just couldn't get the printer to work on the Dell using a cable, but it works great using WiFi. I think I'll go straight to wireless connection with the new machine.

Click to expand...

What do you do on Linux?

My other PC isn't Windows 11 compatible, so I installed MX Linux on it a few months ago to get rid of Windows. It did nearly everything I wanted it to do except some of the software I wanted to run isn't available for Linux and it was a pain to try to get it to work with Wine and other workarounds. I spent two afternoons trying to make it work and finally just said f*ck it and bought another computer. I don't like having to spend a lot of time trying to get things to work on a computer. With Windows, software generally just works and I don't need to mess with it too much other than configuration.

After I managed to get Ubuntu 24.04 loaded (I still don't know how) Things seem to be working fine. Things like connecting the wireless printer worked OK, but Libre Office gave errors, so I downloaded OpenOffice, and this works fine. Chrome didn't work reliably, but Firefox with DuckDuckgo and Thunderbird mail are fine. The latest tweak was to disable the touchpad when the mouse was installed. There was no button for this, so I had to dive in and do it through the command line.

What do I do on Linux? - browse the web, Look at Senior forums, do shopping and banking, listen to music etc etc...