My dear IBM Thinkpad A31 came into my care about 3 years ago after being rejected by my boss, who had a new laptop to care for.
I took it in, and purged it of all vestiges of Windows XP. At first I installed Ubuntu Linux, but finding the memory capacity of 384MB a bit limiting, I used Puppy Linux instead. After growing tired of Puppy, I once again installed Ubuntu -- this time Lucid Lynx (10.04). This was almost acceptable, but once again I found the memory capacity limiting. The new Lubuntu looked good, so I ran apt-get install lubuntu-desktop and once again it ran quickly.
However, in my unquenchable quest for speed on an 8-year-old laptop, I wanted to install Lubuntu by itself -- not on top of Ubuntu. To do this, I would need to burn an installation CD. I thought, "Why not just boot off a USB stick?" I tried it, and it didn't work. That was the beginning of the end.
The date of the BIOS was 2002 -- much too old for USB booting. I found a web site that had newer ThinkPad BIOSes and found the proper one for my laptop. I created a boot floppy and booted it up. That was the last time I ever saw the ethereal glow from the LCD screen. It turned off to never turn again, a victim of BIOS envy, and an insatiable desire for speed.
You will be missed, my laptop, my friend.
