Is Xtra-PC 2.0 a Scam? (Nope! But…) - Krazy Ken's Tech Talk

[@ComputerClan]

Enjoy the new episode! The more you watch, the more I make! 😈 If you want to watch more scam-busters, check out this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLFWeyvvxf1riKzQK3dHt6c9_6D2lVwr78

[@nicholas4839]

Well can't watch no more now because you make money off me lol 😂

[@FeralDayASMR]

linus tech tips already did one on those. but hey why not a refesher

[@ComputerClan]

@@FeralDayASMR Which I literally say in the episode 😂 but he covered the older one, and did not dive as deep as me. This is more than a refresher! It's an all-new look.

[@darknessblades]

@@FeralDayASMR That was still in the Baby-Face linus era. this is the V2.0.

[@TheVikingDaddy]

Hey may want to star a comment that mentions when you go to defrag your hard drive that it is only needed if you have an old optical drive. Any type of solid state drive you do not want to defrag as it wears the drive out a lot faster and most SSDs have a dram chip to ensure even wear and tear of the SSD making defragging unnecessary.

[@kohtalaisenleveahomer]

I think there is one big problem with the product, it uses the cheapest flash memory. I wouldn't be surprised if the stick became unusable in a few months(if used daily), nowadays web browsers do a lot of writing to the disk.

[@YdenMk-II]

At the very least, the pro version seems to be using a better quality stick since there's that difference in load times. The basic is probably the cheapest shit they can get though.

[@eDoc2020]

@@franky9928 Don't trust factory restore. I once tried the factory restore partition on my HP desktop and it came out unbearably slow. It needed lots of debloating to become usable.

[@jacobeii]

7 year old usb 2.0 stick they found in an old warehouse

[@iwinrar5207]

@@jacobeii those are the best kind.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I’ve been burned by cheap nand flash before. It sucks.

[@szr8]

Another issue is that running an OS, any OS really, off of a USB stick, is generally not a good idea, as read/write speeds are going to be much slower than a HDD or SSD especally (even in a USB enclosure) and it'll eventually run out of writes, which can lock the drive to read only and some just stop working altogether.

[@szr8]

@@jamesdinius7769 Yep. I've installed Ubuntu and Debian on old laptops after swapping in an SSD and it really breathed new life into them.

[@johnbee1574]

Fair point. But random access times will be much quicker than spinning rust and that’s what you want for an os. I do agree though think they could have been a bit more clever and and give the option to used some free space on the already present internal storage.

[@3rdalbum]

Well yes it might run out of writes and then be stuck as read-only, but that's probably a fair way off down the track. I had this happen after a year or so of running a home server 24/7 off a flash drive, but that was a decade ago and I presume flash controllers and flash technology have improved since then.

[@xcoder1122]

It depends. There are USB 3 USB sticks that achieve 150 Mbyte/s read speed. Write speed is typically slower but compared to some very old HDs, especially 2,5" notebook disks with low rotation speed, that's actually way better than those HDs. I have an USB 3 stick that achieves up to 120 Mbyte/s and booting the same Linux from that stick is 3 times faster than booting it from the internal HD of the notebook. This also has to do with the seek time. The seek time for the HD to find a sector is about 12 ms on average (can be over 30 ms in worst case), while the seek time on an USB stick is almost zero. And during a boot, a lot of files must be read from all over the disk, so there is a lot of seeking. Of course, such an USB stick is nowhere near as fast as an SSD would have been but if your computer has an SSD, it cannot be that old in the first place.

[@eDoc2020]

@@johnbee1574 Random access times on a cheap flash drive are only better than a traditional hard drive if you stick to reads only. Once you mix in writes the performance tanks. Running Windows 7 off of an SD card is unbearable but it's fine off a USB HDD.

[@fatrobin72]

I'm glad their advertising seems to have moved to telling you what it actually is. I'm disappointed their prices haven't...

[@trekkie1701c]

I'm surprised that they're using Ubuntu 18, which goes out of support next year. 20 would get them a couple more years (and increase hardware compatibility)

[@ComputerClan]

If I had to guess, they have lots of inventory from 3-ish years ago!

[@IgnoreMyChan]

You mean 18.04 and 20.04.

[@3rdalbum]

@@franky9928 It's easy to turn off updates in Ubuntu, or configure them to weekly or fortnightly - and Ubuntu will never force the user to reboot in response to an update. But going out of support does have one really major impact: The software archives will be taken down and the user will no longer be able to install any software they don't already have.

[@mikixyz123]

Wait. It's going out of support NEXT YEAR? oh boy I'm starting to get old

[@linuxsbc]

@@mikixyz123 I know. It seems like they switched to GNOME only last year.

[@TeionM83]

I'm surprised how they changed their claims. I watched their old video and nearly fell off my chair from laughing. They didn't say it's a Linux distro. They said it's a computer and that it will turn your old PC into a new one. Which you don't have to be that tech savvy to know that's not how it works.

[@spaghettiupseti9990]

and they acted like the programs was exactly the same as windows which is misleading at best

[@paulstubbs7678]

I bet a lot of buyers expect this to 'fix' their computer, and when that's done, put this USB in the draw until the next time they have issues.

[@copy.floppy]

in one ad they said they took the hdd out but they just took the cd drive out bruh

[@TeionM83]

@@copy.floppy It doesn't matter which drive you take out, but I see your point. It's misleading.

[@copy.floppy]

@@TeionM83 yep

[@andrewblease7734]

Can I say how nice it is to see a good, balanced view accepting that different people have different skills, knowledge and needs.

[@hunterstone6264]

This is crazy! My dad worked as their online advertisement worker around 2014-15 (I don't exactly remember). He did a bunch of "I'm a normal guy look how easy this is videos." We never once used one outside of as a normal USB drive. It's crazy to see them still around much less with a 2.0!!

[@neozakarum]

I can’t unsee the live ad where he starts on the silver laptop and then boots on the black laptop.

[@Dorff_Meister]

Excellent video with a sane discussion of an odd product. My only suggestion is: don't suggest defragging SSDs. You should never defrag an SSD - you are using wearing out the disc for no real benefit.

[@96blocks]

Instead, you trim SSDs, right? Trimming flash memory is a lot better than rewriting the data in a way that helps hard drives improve access time and files being split across the platter, which SSDs don’t have, and rewriting data often to the beginning sectors just wears out the drive.

[@Jono793]

@@96blocks any modern SSD has TRIM enabled by default.

[@fivish]

You can defrag the registry, but thats all on an SSD.

[@videocommenter235]

Tearing isn't a defect of this version of the OS but a feature of Xorg, specially in conjuction with window managers that don't handle compositing by default. This OS seems to be using LXDE/LXQT, so they're definitively using Openbox as window manager. They also aren't setting Xorg correctly to render without tearing or starting a separate compositor manager for X11 like picom.

[@Smaxx]

I somewhat get the feeling they configured it that way to make it feel even more responsive on lower end hardware (that couldn't waste the extra (V)RAM for compositing). At least my impression here. I'd be more interested to know why changing screen resolution makes everything explode.

[@mehregankbi]

could also be that the optimal drivers were not installed.

[@xPandamon]

Unfortunately stuff like this is why I do not like Linux and wouldn't recommend it. Sometimes basic tasks such as resolution changes are just broken for no apparent reason and unless you ran Linux for many years you're usually unable to fix these issues yourself. Help forums aren't that useful either a lot of the time since Linux is so fragmented. It sucks.

[@runed0s86]

@@xPandamon Uh... These issues you reference have been fixed for about a decade now. Use anything new like Kubuntu or Linux Mint and you'll never run into this so-called 'fragmentation' issue.

[@asutoshvariar]

Another method would be to just run Wayland, but NVIDIA GPUs will definitely suffer.

[@jdatlas4668]

This is going to be just like the last one, isn’t it? Kinda neat except everyone who really has use for a Linux USB can do it themselves and it’s being sold by dubious means to people who don’t know better.

[@tylern6420]

Your like what, 5 year old USB drive with like, 32GB of storage lying around is going to work too, if the drive still works fine, has enough space, and isn't incompatible or otherwise damaged internally

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@tylern6420 Most Linux ISO will boot from 4GB or 8GB USB flash drive, so these 16GB and 32GB drives are way overkill, plus the distro they have on these drives is very much outdated, as Linux is at kernel release 15.18 at this point if I remember correctly, and Ubuntu just released their latest LTS, but I don't use Ubuntu, or Ubuntu based distros so I forget what they call it. I stick with either a pure Debian, Arch, Chrome(Gentoo),or Solus base with Solus Budgie being my main goto Linux distro.

[@tylern6420]

@@CommodoreFan64 alright then

[@ThatLinuxDude]

@@CommodoreFan64 It isn't necessarily overkill... if the USB has a read/write filesystem, too, rather than being a live session without persistence.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@ThatLinuxDude the free space was in FAT32, most Linux distros use EXT4 including most Ubuntu based distros, and it was not doing full hardware detection based on the fact his screen freaked out, so yes this is just a basic live boot with how small the iso was, meaning if it was a president drive it would be formatted fully in EXT4 which a journaling file system, and would have saved his settings across different systems, so yes overkill.

[@Ryan_DeWitt]

Well, whenever you boot to a fresh OS, things are going to be a lot faster. Re-formatting his pc and doing a fresh install of windows with no bloatware would likely speed things up greatly.

[@fred-youtube]

Linux distros are usually even better than that lol, Windows 10 is unusable on a 2010 Netbook, but a lightweight Ubuntu (Ubuntu Mate, Lubuntu etc) runs great

[@swiftrealm]

And not running Vista

[@TUUK2006]

@@fred-youtube I have Windows 10 running on an ASUS transformer that's a lot older than 2010 and it works just fine. Nowhere near "unusable". Meanwhile, Elementary OS won't shutdown on my new laptop without telling me that a stop just is in process for Network Manager and just hangs.

[@fred-youtube]

@@TUUK2006 What specs is the Asus?

[@fred-youtube]

Also by Netbook i mean Dual core 1.6GHZ, 1/2GB RAM, Slow HDD

[@deusexaethera]

5:42 - "It's our job as tech enthusiasts to be patient with others and help them out." Holy shit dude. Do you have any idea how uncommon that attitude is among tech enthusiasts?

[@the-banana-man]

Oh totally! It's very easy to fall in a trap of thinking someone is dumb for not being able to some of this tech stuff that comes second nature to us because we find it fun. Some people just they don't like this kind of stuff or are not interested in it, and that's totally ok! Even speaking for myself, I really had to get over myself and deflate my ego when I was helping my then-partner upgrade their computer. I helped them with an SSD install, OS upgrade, and installing MS office; they helped me get my life more organized and being more productive over all! Win win.

[@marcuscook5145]

A grandparent should utilize their nearest tech savvy youngster. You can get an SSD and re-install Windows to that for less money than one of these or if the machine is still useable for basic tasks but a bit too old to have Windows 10 drivers available, That's when Linux can be a viable option.

[@danielrhouck]

If this isn’t a re-upload, then I think you didn’t mention something important: the software here is *old* and they probably should have used something newer. Ubuntu 18.04 is an LTS but is still four years old, and mentioning Flash player is a red flag.

[@gergelyvarju6679]

It is probably intentionally old, as they don't need support for any new hardware, but need support for very outdated hardware and very outdated drivers. Aiming to use some very old software, and less fancy but also less power hungry applications can be important when you want to use really old hardware that is thermal throttling due to thick layers of dust and dead fans.

[@danielrhouck]

@@gergelyvarju6679 Hmm, that makes some sense. But there’s still no reason to offer to install Flash, for example, so it’s not entirely reasonable and makes me somewhat suspicious of the rest.

[@carlosdot]

“What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.” Some wise words from a very wise LINUX man…

[@plooshdev]

I would like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, Busybox/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, Busybox plus Linux, compiled with musl libc.

[@rayirth.upside-down]

I would like to interject here for a moment. What you are referring to as "Linux" I have recently taken it to calling it "Penguin plus GNU/Linux"

[@mirandahw]

No, Richard, it's 'Linux', not 'GNU/Linux'. The most important contributions that the FSF made to Linux were the creation of the GPL and the GCC compiler. Those are fine and inspired products. GCC is a monumental achievement and has earned you, RMS, and the Free Software Foundation countless kudos and much appreciation. Following are some reasons for you to mull over, including some already answered in your FAQ. One guy, Linus Torvalds, used GCC to make his operating system (yes, Linux is an OS -- more on this later). He named it 'Linux' with a little help from his friends. Why doesn't he call it GNU/Linux? Because he wrote it, with more help from his friends, not you. You named your stuff, I named my stuff -- including the software I wrote using GCC -- and Linus named his stuff. The proper name is Linux because Linus Torvalds says so. Linus has spoken. Accept his authority. To do otherwise is to become a nag. You don't want to be known as a nag, do you? (An operating system) != (a distribution). Linux is an operating system. By my definition, an operating system is that software which provides and limits access to hardware resources on a computer. That definition applies whereever you see Linux in use. However, Linux is usually distributed with a collection of utilities and applications to make it easily configurable as a desktop system, a server, a development box, or a graphics workstation, or whatever the user needs. In such a configuration, we have a Linux (based) distribution. Therein lies your strongest argument for the unwieldy title 'GNU/Linux' (when said bundled software is largely from the FSF). Go bug the distribution makers on that one. Take your beef to Red Hat, Mandrake, and Slackware. At least there you have an argument. Linux alone is an operating system that can be used in various applications without any GNU software whatsoever. Embedded applications come to mind as an obvious example. Next, even if we limit the GNU/Linux title to the GNU-based Linux distributions, we run into another obvious problem. XFree86 may well be more important to a particular Linux installation than the sum of all the GNU contributions. More properly, shouldn't the distribution be called XFree86/Linux? Or, at a minimum, XFree86/GNU/Linux? Of course, it would be rather arbitrary to draw the line there when many other fine contributions go unlisted. Yes, I know you've heard this one before. Get used to it. You'll keep hearing it until you can cleanly counter it. You seem to like the lines-of-code metric. There are many lines of GNU code in a typical Linux distribution. You seem to suggest that (more LOC) == (more important). However, I submit to you that raw LOC numbers do not directly correlate with importance. I would suggest that clock cycles spent on code is a better metric. For example, if my system spends 90% of its time executing XFree86 code, XFree86 is probably the single most important collection of code on my system. Even if I loaded ten times as many lines of useless bloatware on my system and I never excuted that bloatware, it certainly isn't more important code than XFree86. Obviously, this metric isn't perfect either, but LOC really, really sucks. Please refrain from using it ever again in supporting any argument. Last, I'd like to point out that we Linux and GNU users shouldn't be fighting among ourselves over naming other people's software. But what the heck, I'm in a bad mood now. I think I'm feeling sufficiently obnoxious to make the point that GCC is so very famous and, yes, so very useful only because Linux was developed. In a show of proper respect and gratitude, shouldn't you and everyone refer to GCC as 'the Linux compiler'? Or at least, 'Linux GCC'? Seriously, where would your masterpiece be without Linux? Languishing with the HURD? If there is a moral buried in this rant, maybe it is this: Be grateful for your abilities and your incredible success and your considerable fame. Continue to use that success and fame for good, not evil. Also, be especially grateful for Linux' huge contribution to that success. You, RMS, the Free Software Foundation, and GNU software have reached their current high profiles largely on the back of Linux. You have changed the world. Now, go forth and don't be a nag.

[@sbrazenor2]

@@mirandahw TL;DR

[@punkrockllama]

@@sbrazenor2 tldr: GNU refers to a set of programs on top of the Linux kernel. To their logic the Linux name should include every other important parts like XFree86 or in distros that use other c compilers. Are they then XFree86/Linux or XFree86/gnu/Linux? And then some more: It say Linux is just a kernel added to gnu is really RMS showing his ego and there's reason to not want to stroke that. That are outside this current topic. Even if one considers the big distros (debian, arch, Fedora, Alpine) it's more appropriate to just call them Linux based operating systems than adding yadda/ for ever part that makes it up.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

The most jarring thing about these is the flashing lights on the USB sticks. Too distracting. It's like having a damn disco plugged into your computer.

[@benjamin_luscombe]

Rgb: 👀

[@DaciaSandero_1.5DCi]

Read 'O' Write

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@benjamin_luscombe My point exactly. RGB is shit.

[@benjamin_luscombe]

@@FlyboyHelosim lol

[@weberman173]

@@FlyboyHelosim you mean.. the exact same kind of light light that most PCs that this would be used on have anyway to indicate drive activity?

[@Russia_Moscow_countryhuman]

When I saw the ad for this I was expecting it to be another scammy product like the Blaux or UVLEN. Even though it’s a temporary fix, at least it’s not a scam.

[@Roninkinx]

It's a temporary plug and play fix, which is useful for alot of end users. A lot of people are scared to actually crack open open a pc so let's say your HDD died. It's an acceptable stopgap you can use internet apps for most things that are needed etc. But that's still so Navy use cases where Linux just isn't what you need.

[@Bobis32]

i recently moved my grandparents over to POP os in about 3 months ive heard no complaints seeing as most people only use their computers for web browsing it was plenty for them i also gave them a shortcut on the desktop which would restart the computer into the old windows OS for when they need their old files and software

[@Smaxx]

Think it's also worth mentioning there are tools like Unetbootin that will automate the whole imaging process: You pick a distribution, select a drive, and hit okay. And it's available for most systems.

[@Funboringness]

I've seen so many of these products use the same slideshow software, and although I can't remember the name from the top of my head, I can tell that these are probably not the most trustworthy, if they arent willing to pay for any sort of proper video editor and someone skilled enough to do more than a screen capture.

[@pabblo1]

I'm not sure which one exactly, but Powtoon & Biteable come to mind when I think of this sort of corporate style.

[@carlosdot]

I also saw an ad about one of those apps, but I don't remember the name

[@pabblo1]

@@carlosdot Don't know what you're talking about. Capcut, maybe?

[@carlosdot]

@@pabblo1 maybe idk

[@YouAreBreathing]

I haven't seen a 16gb USB flash drive since they were released years ago. I still remember using a 128mb (yes, MB, as in megabytes) USB flash drive.

[@JonathanMcCormack]

My 1st one was 16MB and cost nearly £50 😳

[@GrumpyIan]

I still got my 128 mb flashdrive from middle school and it still works

[@Homme_De_Kro-mignon]

I'm from the 1$/Gb generation and I'm amazed to see it's now almost at 10 cents/Gb

[@matthewtuel2747]

My first USB stick as an 8 MB model. Don’t recall the cost but it was a hand-me-down from my dad circa 2002 or ‘03. Would be useless today but back then it was as convenient as a floppy but 4x the capacity.

[@Pasi123]

My first USB flash drive was a 8GB Kingston DataTraveler 100 G1 in 2008 or so

[@DarkMastaC]

I hope for their sake they make a new one soon, if they are going to base these on Unbutu LTS then they probably want to update soon. I can see this being a good short term solution for people, I ran DSL off of a USB for about a year when my hard drive failed and all I had was a 1gb usb stick lying around. but of course I only did that because I was out for a job and couldnt afford a hard drive at the time. Hopefully they will take some of the criticism into consideration (thought I doubt they would ever see any of it) when they develop their next usb.

[@caralynx]

They updated it in June to use Debian Bullseye, so pretty recent now, though I fully expect them to not make any updates for another 4 years and have that go out of date. At least they didn't disable automatic updates this time.

[@Sithhy]

Love it when you show smaller channels in your videos, like Linus Tech Tips, so they get all the recognition they can

[@AaronShenghao]

LTT made the video on V1 a long time ago and I recognized the product.

[@rayirth.upside-down]

Poor guys :( I am afraid this covid must have hit them hard

[@Inxwolf]

obvious irony

[@drdarkeny]

As soon as I realized what you were talking about, I went "Of course!" Back in the day a number of us used to run Ubuntu right off of a cd drive as a demo, so it's perfectly reasonable to expect a Linux distro to runoff of external media.

[@HR-wd6cw]

The biggest benefit I feel from making your own bootable key is you can choose the distro used, and you know it comes from a "clean" source (providing you choose one yourself, such as going directly to Debian, for example, to download the image files). Yes it's not the easiest task, but perhaps the most customizable and "safe" way to do it. Who knows what bloatware could be on the XTra-PC sticks (or possibly spyware, etc).

[@peoplez129]

Yeah they're basically selling something someone could make on their own in 5 minutes with any USB drive. But I think it also has some features like reading windows desktop settings to add icons from it and try to make the icons on your desktop be available. Except this is also a problem, because as a linux distro, it's not going to really be able to run windows programs. So if you had someone not computer savvy running this thinking they're going to be able to run their PC like normal, they're going to be sorely disappointed. Bootable USB's are only meant to be temporary usage for fixing things.

[@lordpolvo222]

please be careful recommending defragging especially to people who aren't that tech savvy. if they have an SSD it will just eat up write cycles and do nothing for performace.

[@H2R5GSXR]

I isn't too smart and the old laptop I used died. Then I went to library tech lab and ordered an X-tra PC USB. It runs my laptop with the hard drive removed. The battery had been tossed years back. so I am happy to be able to watch You Tube videos 8 hrs a day again. Living the great life.

[@vladutcornel]

It would be so awesome if Linux distros provide a tool to transfer some settings (like the wallpaper). Something like this xtra-pc could run that tool to configure the desktop environment on Linux as close as possible to what the user had.

[@runed0s86]

You could make this. Windows PCs have the wallpaper stored in a specific folder.... Also, have you changed the wallpaper on a Linux distro? Pretty sure it's already a thing, though I use the "picture of the day" wallpaper option to change every 3 hours and I selected the nature category for unsplash wallpapers.

[@vladutcornel]

@@runed0s86 I was talking about copying and applying the settings automatically, to make the transition easier for less technical people.

[@imgladnotu9527]

@@vladutcornel most likely doable with a bash script that runs on stsrtup

[@_aka_pizzaking]

Hey @Computer Clan, thank you very much for making these videos! I had been passionate about computers for the last few years, but for almost a year, my passion slowly dwindled. But about a few months ago, I discovered your channel and my passion was revived! I thank you for that.

You forgot to mention the very relevant fact that you're limited to thumb drive speeds, which in most cases are similar to low-end spinning rust.

[@DrakeDaraitis]

USB 3.X can easily surpass HDDs.

[@jamespowers8826]

@@DrakeDaraitis Yep. I have extended the life of numerous older iMac's by booting them off an external SSD and using the internal spinning drive for data storage only. The users were amazed at at the speed difference and very happy to keep using the computers.

[@MikinessAnalog]

This video is NOT clickbait, very informative from an audio amplifier technician's perspective. He discusses "workarounds" for various computer user skillsets. Should you use this product, depending on your ability and expectations, etc.

[@MISTER__OWL]

Hey dude I loved this video and I love the way you explain things. You earned a sub from me. I greatly appreciate that you don't make me watch the whole video to get the information I need. But you have a whole video to watch if I choose to. Your titles are straightforward.

[@FuzzyElf]

Thanks for mentioning subscribing. I found I hadn't yet, but now I'm subscribed.

[@rogerhiley1167]

Brilliant video - great presentation , great ability to put in context, great appreciation of the world we live in, great practical advice - magic job.

[@SenileOtaku]

The question is whether these USB drives have enabled "Persistence" (the ability to keep your settings and files after you power off/reboot). That is also a consideration in someone's 'skillset' for making their own Linux USB. Additionally, is the company contributing to Linux kernel development, or maybe development of the included applications? That would be a justification for charging money for the product, as some of the money funds development (I have no idea if they do or not).

[@caralynx]

It's persistent. It has a bog standard ext FS.

[@ciclon5682]

about the second point. i think that the price is very expensive for what it is. if as you say they just made a quick linux distro and placed it into a bootable USB then you should only be able to charge for the bootable USB but im not sure about the distro

[@caralynx]

@@ciclon5682 The GPL allows you to sell anything for any price, as long as you give the source code on request. They are legally entitled to charge however much they want, so how much they price it for depends on the market.

[@GeneralGayJay]

That was a really good shout-out for the sponsor, first time I didn't skip it! Good work!

[@HandFromCoffin]

Yes, thank god you corrected him on GNU/Linux or all hell would break loose in this forum!

[@kantraa]

i never expected Ken to acknowledge the copypasta as people outside the linux community barely know about it. every time someone says "linux is an os" my inner Stallman just screams, i don't even know why,

[@leevi6026]

@@kantraa For me it's the opposite, every time someone corrects "It is GNU/Linux, not just Linux" I'm very close to losing it. When Ken mentioned it I almost stopped watching the video because it annoyed me so much :D Everyone knows what you are talking about even if you just use "Linux", and everyone who cares already knows it's GNU/Linux, so no need to point it out every single time.

[@Elder-Sage]

DITTO@@leevi6026

[@rodneykingston6420]

I've always thought of myself as a pretty savvy pc user, but it was only a few years ago, when I was fooling around with an old laptop that I discovered this whole new world of alternative OSes that you can download onto a thumb drive, then boot from it, and have, basically, a totally different PC. I was fascinated. This is all due to the emergence of thumb drives with massive storage capacity. Back in 2002, for my job, I needed to have two different versions of Windows on a computer and the hassle the IT guys at my company had to go through, partitioning the hard drive so it could do that took almost a week!

[@jonglass]

IMO, probably the best Linux for running on old computers off a USB stick, is Puppy Linux. It takes some getting used to, but it is small, fast and persistent (like Xtra-PC, which most USB stick versions of Linux that people make aren't--those live distros are simply for testing and installing onto the internal drives of computers). It is probably the fastest Linux for older computers.

[@Pasi123]

I remember trying Puppy Linux on a Pentium 133MHz, 64MB RAM system back in 2009/2010. It ran pretty well but web browsing was slow and it easily ran out of memory

[@reaperreaper5098]

It's pretty easy to make a persistent bootable USB, the only thing is that it requires a spare USB for the OS to be installed onto from live media. I've made a few persistent Manjaro, Ubuntu, Pop!, Mint, Kali, and even Android sticks over the years.

[@RandomBitzzz]

I've always found the best way to speed up an old PC (that's otherwise working ok) is to install an SSD. A lot of SSDs come with free software (or a free download) that will clone your old drive over to the new SSD. I've worked on A TON of older PCs that shipped with a 4200/5200 RPM drive that was fine when the PC was new, but the later Windows SPs slow it down. I had a Dell machine that literally took 10+ minutes to boot (with a 4200 rpm drive) in about 30 seconds with a new SSD.

[@ian_b]

I upgraded an ASUS bog standard PC (it was my late father's) vintage 2013 or so from HD to SSD recently and it went from minutes to a handful of seconds to boot. As a bit of a "brand experiment" I went with an Ortial 256GB which worked out at about £1 per 10GB and was impressed. I probably wouldn't store vital enterprise files on something for that price, but for a secondary PC that's mainly for watching video, it was tantamount to miraculous in upgrade terms. HD->SSD is the greatest bang for buck upgrade there is.

[@gregsmith9183]

I've always told people that if you backup, format and reinstall the OS ito the internnal drive. It's like buying a new car and going to be nice and snappy. Running an OS from USB 2.0 is still IMO going to be fairly slow. and usually only recommended for running diagnostics or backing up when internal OS is inaccessible.

[@BMcC78]

I started with a dislike, but when you provided the convenience factor I did remove it and heard you out instead. You provided a technical review and honest impression of the product.

[@NoobixCube]

The screen tearing as you moved the window around is, in my experience, just what you get with Linux on software rendering, or GPU rendering on open source drivers. Whenever you mention screen tearing to Linux people, they're full of either advice on how to fix the screen tearing, or denials it's even a problem, but I've always found screen tearing to be an issue, to varying degrees. Hell, I'm reasonably experienced with Linux, been using it since 2004, and with my mismatched monitors on my desk I was getting screen tearing on the secondary monitor. Whichever one I set as primary was fine, the secondary had screen tearing. I hypothesized it was because the two monitors had different refresh rates (and the solution I found by messing around later bore this out, when I forced them both to a lower refresh rate they had in common), but when I brought this issue up on a forum, I was told that this doesn't happen, that it does happen and it's an NVidia driver issue (and linked to another thread about an unrelated problem), that my monitor was failing, basically anything but an admission that there was a real problem. As much as I appreciate the overall mission of Linux and open source software in general, the users have a strong case of Stockholm Syndrome, or have basically gaslit eachother into thinking everything is fine. On the other hand, every rough edge I've ever experienced on Linux still leaves it better than having to use Windows. I'll put up with a lot of minor issues for that. I have a Mac these days, though, and I'm growing to learn there are things that can actually work well and be good. This is a novel experience for me.

[@SUPERBOBESPONJA1000]

I have my Thinkpad T400 with arch, and a Vostro 1520 with debian and before mint, always had screen tearing with the 4500MHD and all fixes never work or make my DE stop working, i use XFCE

[@3rdalbum]

There are problems with screen tearing, but honestly, I barely notice them. I would consider that the bigger problem is *we need to finally get the hell off X Windows*. This old clunky piece of software is probably the cause of a lot of screen tearing but more importantly it's not really able to support more advanced display features. It was clunky in 2005 when I first started using Linux and although it has improved a lot, it's not a modern system by any means. Can we finally have Wayland?

[@lindadauglash2946]

Thank you so much for your video, my PC was running so painfully slow and the disk defrag that was installed was useless. Downloaded the free version of Auslogics and what an improvement!! Now I have to figure out which paid version I should get...Thank you again.

[@mr.stratholm4999]

You forgot to mention that you should NEVER defrag an SSD!

[@AaronShenghao]

In newer Windows (e.g. Windows 10, 11) the system auto detects what kind of drive you have. If it's a SSD it will say "optimize" which help SSD by run a TRIM command.

[@mr.stratholm4999]

@@AaronShenghao I know that but if they're running Windows7 o0r even older (Because we're talking about making older computers faster) there will be folks that say "Oh yea, I'll get an SSD for this old thing and re-install Windows 7 from my OEM cd/dvd and if it slows down I'll just defrag.

[@eDoc2020]

I disagree with your NEVER in all-caps as there are times where it is helpful but as a general rule of thumb there's little need to.

[@th30519]

The cut-away to "Grandma Ken" single-handedly earned my subscription.

[@Balikon]

When Computers get slow and *loud* - even when doing simple tasks - you should consider your CPU throttling due to high temperature. Maybe there is dust blocking the cooler. Or the thermal paste has to be renewed. If Notebooks become loud and hot although doing nothing, it's worth bringing to service renewing the thermal paste.

[@rayirth.upside-down]

And if you have a Dell XPS or a HP Slims well you are screwed cuz nothing except rebuilding it in a better case can fix it.

[@AidenRKrone]

It's not an outright scam, but there's something slimy about selling a Ubuntu, a free-to-download operating system, for upwards of $70. You're right that non-tech-savvy people will use it for the ease-of-use and convenience, but it still comes across as dirty.

[@norgeek]

I genuinely doubt that a person who is incapable of creating a bootable USB stick will be able to get into the UEFI and change the boot order to allow the system to start the USB stick before the Windows partition 🤷

[@kantraa]

in most cases you can spam f12 while your system is booting and access a boot menu of some sort

They have a tutorial on how to get into the UEFI.

[@copy.floppy]

@ then they have one to make a linux usb stick too

[@markhigginson9897]

Two points. One; Most Linux distros have the ability to view the hard drive of the machine you are trying to rescue, and are able to copy the files present to the USB if it is big enough. Two; you did not say if the Xtra-PC thumb drives were created with persistent file systems, so that they could operate as a plug in drive retaining saved programs and data. If the later is so the need for another solution becomes less important. However, replacing the internal hard drive or reformatting the hard drive may well have solved the problems, but most non-tech, end users will not do that. Great video as always.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

The problem is, people who would use this... the non tech savvy... don't understand that files have size, etc. So even if it was setup with persistent storage, there's no way a slow 16-64Gb flash drive is going to be a good long-term solution. It would fill up too quick and with crap transfer speeds. A new HDD or SSD is always going to be a better long-term alternative.

[@aaronthomas6155]

The last time I booted Ubuntu from a flash drive, it did save changes made to the OS.

[@gydo1942]

for some reason, i totally expected the GNU/Linux interjection. Well done.

[@ComputerClan]

: D

[@HotelPapa100]

I remember giving my then about 12 year old son an old compaq sewing machine form factor luggable computer running DOS 3.2 to play. I'll never forget his astonisment at getting a prompt within 5s of turning the thing on... Yeah, I know. Not a OS, but I can't help but think that not everything has got better. Especially when it comes to customised automation, GUIs have complicated things no end.

[@pseudotasuki]

"This product isn't for you" needs to be said far more often. Like all the people saying "Why would I buy a PlayDate when I could get a used Switch for less money?"

[@MatthewTaylor3]

I appreciate his energy level and the video editing done.

[@joltdude]

It be tempting if someone tried to enforce GPL with Xtra PC's "customizations" ..so folks could actually download it without buying it... Have played with bootable USBs with Linux, but still havent found the ideal distro for it... esp for persistence vs a Live distro. Been actually tempted to build a linux distro that boots of a genuine external USB drive vs a flash stick...

[@fred-youtube]

Linux distros can boot off an external HDD, just load the ISO from a USB stick, plug the HDD in and install, when it asks which HDD you want to use choose the external one

[@razerow3391]

GPL... So the license... Erm.... Someone as r*tarded as Childrapist Ken.

[@razerow3391]

Do you mean the compiler of the GNU collection? GPL is the license for using the GNU package.... The GPL is just a collection of licenses for free software.... God you fakers are so funny. Nobody that understands computing would watch this channel seriously. We all use here and Linus Tech Tips to laugh... GNU-Lunix... Hahahahahaha... So funny. Like somebody saying CreativeCloud-Windows... Or Office-OSX.... So what is Parabola with Linux-Libre? Ahahahahahaha. But this shows his audience... This kinda shit is as old as the idea of downloading more RAM and Im not sure who the video is aimed at... The product doesn't really do anything... Anyone with a brain know what is is... I mean given you can run a PC booting windows from an old iPod is it really video worthy? I mean at the very least he should have bought three laptops. Left one with windows. With the other used the stick. And with a third compile and install a distro and show them all working... But hey why do something professionally or scientifically when you can say "GNU-Linux" is a thing.

[@thiekus]

Knoppix based Linux distros basically does the same idea for over two decades

[@rayirth.upside-down]

Puppy linux is the best IMO for usb drives...

[@Mocha-Latte]

I was looking at the thumbnail and instantly assumed this was just a boot thumb drive. If you want a real way to boost an old pc is to replace your old hard drive with a solid state drive. You can make a backup of your old one beforehand and either put it in the cloud or place it on a spare hard drive if available. The main thing bogging old systems down is full hard drives running all windows functionality while also sorting trough all other data you’re using.

[@spudd86]

I think the reason you couldn't rescale the UI is because it's XFCE, at least it looks like it to me from the little bit of footage you showed. The XFCE in Ubuntu 18.04 would still be mostly based on GTK2 which doesn't have any support for HiDPI and scaling so the setting doesn't exist, even though some of the programs would be GTK3 based. It's only the most recent release of XFCE that finally finished migrating to GTK3 fully 4.16 released December 2020. No idea why it couldn't change the resolution of the displays, that's just a bug.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Not being able to change screen resolution or scaling is a common issue when running live Linux distros off USB drives.

[@NoTimeForThatNow]

The ad for this product showing a removable dvd rom and claiming it is the laptop’s hard drive makes it a non-starter for me.

[@majoryoshi]

I knew that GNU+Linux copy pasta was inevitable knowing what Xtra PC is, but hearing Ken say it himself made me laugh far more than it should've

[@GunnerSiIva]

Thanks Ken for always giving subtitles for non-native English !

[@abdelali9279]

It's like the thing that your mom would buy for your grandma and make you setup on an old laptop and since it's already there you don't have to bother, so yeah we pay for convinience.

[@webslinger2011]

Back when ubuntu 12.0LTS, I created a bootable usb drive using sandisk. For an old dell d630 laptop. 2gigs of ram was enough to do common stuff. Lasted for a year on a friend’s laptop. I also made one for my white 2010 macbook. I used ramdisk to run chrome faster. Lasted for a year as well. Till the sandisk cruzer drive was faulty.

[@bryantfloyd7471]

First off as software requires more and more space to install these days then 64 GB of storage is really not enough anymore these days. Also to note.USB flash drives are slower than SATA SSD and even slower than M.2 SSD. A USB flash drive typically runs at the speed of a HDD.

[@rayirth.upside-down]

Not to mention that they have the lowest grade controllers and storage modules as well to save costs

[@retrogiftsuk4812]

I think it's worth adding that since Linux is (basically) free, you can get an alternative to this on eBay for about £8 ($10) delivered. Yes there are better options (explained in this video) but if you are not tech savvy and need a quick, and cheap, temporary fix then it may be the option for some people (particularly if your computer can't upgrade to the latest version of Windows and you find your version unsupported)

[@ricedbroccoli]

It's really not hard to flash a USB with a Linux distro. Like it takes 10 minutes. And installing the OS is as simple as setting up windows. It's nothing that you can't do alongside a KZbin video, or you can just have someone that you know who is tech savvy do it

[@singletona082]

So basically.... A live distro. -_-

[@ComputerClan]

What’s the definition of “live distro”? I’ve only ever heard that in the context of installers.

[@omegadomega]

@@ComputerClan it's basically that but it actually writes to disk I think

[@rayi512x]

@@ComputerClan Linux distros that run off of removable media such as USB sticks. there are 2 kinds of it, one has persistence and one doesn't. Persistent live distros can only run off of USB drives because it saves your data after a shutdown which DVDs can't do, and are mostly referred to as "Persistent LiveUSB" or "LiveUSB with persistence". whereas live distros without persistency or one that doesn't save your data after a shutdown can run on both USBs and DVDs, installer ISOs often don't have persistence.

[@singletona082]

@@ComputerClan Essentially an OS, typically linux but a few non linuxes have done this, that can run off CD or USB drive. Example: Way way back in the day my hard drive went through the click of death and I ran off a knoppix CD for close to a month before I could get a replacment drive.

[@theartistchair_]

Happy to have a new episode on my birthday!

[@SavvySage]

Well, today's your lucky day. : )

[@Galactum]

Happy birthday! :)

[@CoffeeMug2828]

When you got told that 90% of the internet runs on an OS that you only heard as a myth from your computer class teacher who has vague memories of how a flappy disk works.

[@NoName-oc6wz]

And calls the PC tower a "hard drive"

[@DragonJohn]

They lost me on version 1 in one of the marketing videos when they said they took out the computer's hard drive and were holding a laptop DVD drive.

[@tergish1]

Xtra pc is *sorta* a scam. A free Linux distro on a 16gb flash drive, for waaaaayy too much money, might be okay for anyone that’s not computer versed. But. If you’re not well versed on computers, you’re probably going to have a hard time figuring out Linux number one, and you’re probably going to have a hard time figuring out how to boot from usb

[@fge00]

It's not magic. I figured it out in my fifties, I'm in my sixties now

[@3rdalbum]

If you're just doing desktop-y things on Linux it's really not difficult at all. But I am somewhat surprised the Xtra PC includes Synaptic Package Manager instead of something that only shows end-user applications.

[@acidthunder1]

F12 is not rocket science

[@Agamemnon2]

Having a bootable Linux distro on a USB stick can be a great recovery / troubleshooting tool sometimes, but there's no sense in paying someone to build one.

[@tonykeltsflorida]

Yep, that is why i have a backup on usb and a dvd. I use linux mint on my SSD drive.

[@googlesucks6029]

Imagine paying for this when you can achieve this by getting a regular flash drive and a bit of googling.

[@kawi704racing]

I think this breakdown was fair. I appreciate that. I could see why someone would find the product useful.

[@BulbasaurForever]

hello

[@krozareq]

32GB sticks are ~$4 in bulk. Throw a Puppy Linux distro on there and charge $50... gotcha.

[@ender3870]

First

[@thedeskman08]

second

[@cirkulx]

third

[@Redeem195]

I don't know if many other Distro's do it. But I noticed Fedora offers a "media writer" to streamline the process of flashing the usb drive. Very cool.

[@johnnyq1233]

The extra bonus is that you can take files and media with you to any computer... This includes both the Xtrapc or one you made yourself.

[@BaconMinion]

If you were like myself decades ago that lived in a place with bad pipes, bottled water was less convenience and more not having to boil water by the pot full to stave off dehydration.

[@danielbene4923]

I honestly could not wait for the video to come out after the teaser

[@AtrocityEquine01]

I wouldn't say it's a scam, it's just overly hyping itself. It's clear that it's just it's own OS running through an USB, similar to that Tails program used for deep web exploration. So I don't think it's a scam.

[@goldy24t]

If it gets some casual users into Linux it could be a good thing. Of course, it would be far better to install a proper SSD in the computer and install Linux onto that.

[@anomamos9095]

There was an actual external PC on a USB stick it had a cpu and graphics processor onboard as well as USB ports. Basically you could plug it into a laptop external expansion brick and it would be a full pc. The intended purpose was for diagnostic purposes and to have a much smaller pc that people who need a secure pc could use anywhere they could access something to plug it into. It would also boot an existing pc as an external HD but the main purpose of this was to use the monitor and keyboard. It was very handy for virus scanning and fault diagnosis so I considered buying one but the price was close to that of a laptop so I just used one of those and a diagnostic boot disk.

[@GrumpyIan]

The laptop was running Vista... Well that explains why it's running slowly

[@thedarkdragon89]

What operating system is it running? Umm....Vista! WE ARE GOING TO DIE! If you don't know this reference, watch "IT Crowd" It's a great British comedy about IT professionals.

[@GrumpyIan]

@@thedarkdragon89 oh I know IT crowd quite well

[@copy.floppy]

vista wasn't that bad and if u had the right hardware its fine

[@GrumpyIan]

@@copy.floppy I know. But back in the day most PCs didn't have the right specs for it

[@secretagentjesus4406]

So...just a bootable flash drive. The senior wig and glasses bit from that other video was hilarious.

[@isawadelapradera6490]

8:08 the swap partition is, obviously enough, in the usb drive itself too. What a scam.

[@JPChampion]

I recently revived a friend's 8 or 9 year old laptop using Xubuntu 21.10. It was completely unusable with a clean install of Windows 10, but now it's like a new computer by comparison.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Good choice. I normally use Xubuntu whenever I need to use Linux, which luckily isn't very often.

[@NamesGolden]

the laptop in that video gave me flashbacks. I worked at a small town computer shop from ~2010-2015. I spent a lot of time upgrading vista shitboxes I upgraded from 2 to 3-4gb ram and w7. I instituted a "if you don't like the SSD we will refund you in full" policy towards the end. before I started working there I was linux only, I had left the windows camp when the vista beta's came out. I started running w7 around the time sp1 dropped -- mainly because I could do complex malware/virus removals and driver issues, but couldn't tell someone how to change their wallpaper. one trick I learned from having a pile of those shitbox laptops that were deemed "economically unrepairable" is that I figured out what dual cores would drop into what single core rigs (thanks cpuworld). there was a kid that actively played LoL on a single core compaq cq56? with 2gb of ram. I finally had him come do some manual labor and upgraded him to dual core and 4gb. he nearly cried because the load time went down from like a minute to twenty seconds or something (idk not a gamer)

[@comaiscool]

Oh I remember seeing ADs for this...the guy was holding up a laptop disk reader and calling it a hard drive...

[@ComputerClan]

Oh yeah, haha. I believe that was just an honest mistake.

[@joshm264]

The GNU+Linux copypasta was my favorite part, it's my favorite copypasta out there

[@nickolaswilcox425]

ive actually got one of their photo sticks, bought it at a thrift shop because i needed a thin low capacity drive for my jailbroken ps4 to use as the exploit delivery, barely anyone makes thin flashdrives anymore and most of them are expensive, high capacity and/or having some specialty gimmick like the phone drives

[@fred-youtube]

Does it work well?

[@fred-youtube]

And many thin drives still exist, like SanDisk Ultra Fit

[@nickolaswilcox425]

@@fred-youtube yeah nope, those are too thick to fit a ps4 and you will still need a usb extension cable as for how well it works... a ps4 exploit drive is deliberately corrupted in a specific fashion, it does its job so i dont really pay any further attention to it, i was wanting a cheap small drive because any extra capacity is wasted using it this way and the 'file' is only a few mb

[@eDoc2020]

I had a PNY "Attache" flash drive with a bulky sliding case. The case broke and then I was left with a nice and small super-thin drive.

[@carlcampbell6827]

I have 2 nice old workstation laptops in my home office; Lenovo and HP. I also have great Altec Lansing music system connected to the Lenovo. All this equipment with Windows XP has been totally outdated and not safe to use for a very long time. I had to use my new Windows 10 laptop for 90% of work. Then I ordered Xtra-PC and bingo I now have 2 great new high tech laptops in my office with great Linux system, which I love. The main thing music on Pandora and Amazon was non functional on old laptops forever now the performance is beyond stunning! I love Xtra-PC, especially low cost!

[@babysawayburlington3406]

Hey Krazy Ken, there is an ad running on your lit video. It's for eco obd2. It uses the kid that was kicked out of college 3 days after he invented the Blaux because he refused money from big ac corporations after he invented a way to cool his college room because the ac unit broke...only now he was kicked out 3 days after petroleum companies offered him big bucks for his tech

[@kbhasi]

(9:18) Aah I forgot that even existed! I used it back in my Windows Vista days following a recommendation from another KZbin user at the time, but moved on and forgot about it when I upgraded to Windows 7, and then to PCs with flash storage!

[@Malryth]

Good review, a slight comment from myself (53 year old male who was building and servicing PC's from 1996-2000). Some of us geeks were better with hardware than software (especially screwy Windows). I downloaded and use "for free" the Tails OS that fits on my old 8GB flash drive. The only thing that irks me is...I'm not Linux savvy enough to know how to add a script to the Linux boot so I can access the HD on my laptop, or keep any preferences you have to set up each time you boot. So I can see why lots of people would pay for Xtra-PC. Linux is powerful, Linux is amazing, but it's not the easiest to learn for some of us hardware nerds.

[@AntonioNoack]

@5:20 because it tastes different, and water from the tap isn't carbonated (which is part of the taste as well).

[@onlineamiga]

The best way to speed up an old PC is to replace the HDD with an SSD (even a basic SATA one) add some extra RAM if its got the ability and re-install Windows 10. Ive seen PCs go from taking 10 minutes to booting up to taking just 30 seconds with doing this. Total cost about £60 in parts and you get to keep windows if thats what youre used to

[@thephoenixking1086]

Computer Clan > Linus Useless Tips I much MUCH Prefer your content, it is nicely filmed, edited and so on, awesome to see someone make these videos who cares and not just for money.

[@jochenstacker7448]

Somehow puts me in mind of Asus Express Gate, as shown on Cathode Ray Dude. The difference is, it was built in.