On Thu, 4 Jan 2018 16:44:50 +0000, JoeJoe wrote:

snip

If it runs and has a Microsoft OS and Office,

(or even Windows and Libre/Open Office)

it will be taken off your
hands in seconds if you put it on Freecycle/Gumtree (for free).

Agreed.

Problem is that most people are usually too ignorant to properly wipe
clean the HDD, so they take it out, and then nobody wants to touch
what's left.

Agreed.

I installed Linux on a couple of old PC's as an experiment for mate in
the PC shop and he actually sold one (£25). It wasn't long before it
came back because it wouldn't run his golf program. ;-(

The thing is, few people know what an OS is, let alone know the
difference between Windows and Linux, all they (learn to) care about
is that the kid next door can help them fix Windows and knows nothing
about Linux (along with most PC shops).

A few years ago now I installed Linux for my BIL and he uses that
mainly for his everyday needs. He still needs Windows (dual boot) for
those 'Windows only' programs and games and it's funny when I go there
and find all the Windows programs / installers he's downloaded and
finds won't run.

I went up there the other day and whilst there he asked me to explain
why the Linux updates wouldn't complete successfully. It gave a clue
to their being 'insufficient disk space' but he had 1.9G free on his
root partition? Because there were no friendly (/obvious) 'cleanup'
tools on Linux I had to roll my sleeves up and deleted about 20
obsolete linux-kernel files (using Synaptic), magically freeing up
enough space for the update to complete?

Cheers, T i m