XP often can't see an android device, maybe there's an addon that makes it easy, occasionally It can see the pictures folder, at other times it can't

I can bluetooth between android and my XP machine, but its slow

I hate Android, it almost makes windows look good

If your phone has a lock screen you will need to enter that code before the USB will connect, otherwise it wouldn't be very secure.

I have had three different Android phones and can confirm there is no problem transferring files between Android and XP.

You need to enable 'USB Debugging' on the phone (at least that is what its called as far as I know). You should then be able to see the phone's folders and files in 'My computer' etc.

I have a shortcut on my XP desktop direct to the phone picture folder, as soon as I plug in the phone cable the icon changes and I'm straight without having to browse.

Ian P

Ha! My phone does all this perfectly by USB or bluetooth – it's Symbian OS

Neil

I suspect that it's the manufacturers skinning that's causing the problem rather than Android itself. I've had 2 Android phones: the first was a ZTE which was pure android, no skin whatsoever and my current Huawei (presumably made in Newcastle ) which is only very lightly skinned. Neither has any problem plugged into my Windows PC, it just treats the phone as a storage device.

Rod

I've been using IOS for a few years now and found it very intuitive from the start. I have been asked on occasion to help some oldsters struggling with Android and can't say I was that impressed. I'm sure I could get to grips with it eventually but a mate of mine gave up with his Samsung tablet and bought an iPad so maybe not?!

Robin,

One very useful 'app' is 'Android File Transfer'

I have the Mac version, but presumably there is one for XP.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 13/06/2016 11:55:47

The whole iPad Tablet thing started by taking touch screen mobile phone software technology and using it on them so really if some one can use a phone they should get on with a tablet of either type. It sort of caught MS napping for some reason as has embedded area Linux derivatives. They don't seem to be much good at catching up. Guess that's down to having very little serious competition for a long long time.

John

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Perhaps you could email them to yourself from your phone, assuming your emails can be accessed from your XP machine?? Geoff P.

I stuck opensuse 13.2 running a KDE desktop onto a HP netbook with very little memory. I also installed the most complex telescope control software Linux offers on it it runs behind Kstars and offers all sorts of things. KDE isn't known for being light – exactly the opposite. It's way way quicker than the windows stuff that was on it.

I bought the netbook from Comet when they were closing down and later found it had 1/2 the memory it should have going on the model number. Tried to open it to upgrade that but suspect as it was out for demo they must have glued the cover some how.

I have wondered about Ubuntu and Mint especially now they offer 5 years update releases but I stick with opensuse. For one I doubt if they will maintain some applications I use a lot over that period but the other reason is Linux based software and installation. The installer is more or less graphical and can be left to itself or guided in detail. It's pretty easy to partition the disks on my system exactly as I want them. Software installation is literally one click. Update though are mainly purely security related and bug fixes and that sort of thing. Applications generally aren't updated and the ones installed generally lag a little behind the latest releases. They do this for stability. They do offer releases that keep systems cutting edge as well for the brave. I install from a full DVD as that allows me to pick lots of applications I want without installing from the web later. The latest versions of most things can also be installed easily. One way is to use their usual source and click on unstable versions. They are marked unstable because they don't support them. That has never caused me a problem. Using their unofficial source of applications etc has so that one needs some care. When that did mess my machine up their forum told me what to do to fix it pretty quickly. It involved work in the console. I stay completely away from that unless I have no choice. Other than compiling from source I have no interest at all in learning how to use Bash at anything other than a trivial level.

The other reason I stick with it is Linux software. I might want to do something and not know what the application is called. The graphical installation package YAST keeps a data base of everything they have. Ubunti's list of what is currently being downloaded and installed a lot by people wasn't of any use to me when I tried it. Sometimes I need to google linux and what ever it's used for. Info from any distro can be of use for that.

OpenSuse update cycle is circa 18 months but that can usually be stretched to 2 years but once the support ceases all packages they offer disappear from their main source of them. However it's often still possible to find packages in the right form for installation for some time after that and chances are that the newer releases can be compiled from source anyway for some time well after this. Compiling packages is really easy. Anyone could be told how to do it in 10 mins. There are only 2 basic methods often mentioned in the readme that comes with the source files.

John

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If anyone is intending to buy a new computer to run Linux it is generally cheaper to buy a computer with Windows installed than one with Linux or no operating system. That's because the manufacturers are paid to install PUPs (probably unwanted programs or crapwear). You can then install a distro of your choice either to replace Windows or alongside it. You can find details of over 200 distros here

This is a good guide to installing Mint ( also applicable to many other Ubuntu based versions) alongside Windows.

Russell