[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So you can run 64 bit programs on 32 it computers unless the program is bigger than 4GB?

No. It's the other way around. 32 bit is a subset of 64 bit. You can run 32 bit programs on a 64 bit machine (and most application program code is still 32 bit.) You cannot run code built as 64 bit on a 32 bit machine.

32 bit and 64 bit refer to the amount of memory the machine can use. That value is called the machine's address space. Each byte of memory must have a unique address the system can access to load, store, change, and remove data. The number of possible unique addresses is governed by the size of the register that holds the address. 32 bit machines have addresses that are up to 2^32 in size, which means a maximum of 4GB worth of addresses. 64 bit machines us a 64 bit address register, but I'll let you do the math as to how big a number that can be. (It's a very large number indeed.)

All three of the laptops I have are Dell Latitude D505. But the issue with the delayed booting is with my desktop.

Still curious about the specs on the 505s.

But I've rolled the mouse when the red light is flashing and the screen still shows nothing (except the "No input signal" window).

Yes. So? Nothing happening in the computer at that point is generating any output to the screen.

Moving the mouse/pressing a key can wake up a monitor where the screen has been blanked because of no activity, but the system must be at a point where there is something to display when you do it. In your case, there isn't.

That's good to know. (If I have to do it I'll probably back here asking for help! LOL)

The first and strongest recommendation I will make if you do that is Look Stuff Up and make sure you understand what you are doing before you pull the trigger.

This particular thread is largely a consequence of not knowing stuff.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. This is what I've got on the computer:

gregg@LG:~/Desktop$ aptitude search linux-image |grep '^i'
i A linux-image-4.2.0-35-generic    - Linux kernel image for version 4.2.0 on 64
i A linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic    - Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64
i A linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic    - Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64
i A linux-image-extra-4.2.0-35-gene - Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.2
i A linux-image-extra-4.4.0-21-gene - Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4
i A linux-image-extra-4.4.0-22-gene - Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4
i A linux-image-generic             - Generic Linux kernel image                
gregg@LG:~/Desktop$ uname -r
4.4.0-22-generic
gregg@LG:~/Desktop$

And so the 4.4.0-22-generic is what is running and it's 16.04LTS. So is 4.4.0-21-generic. But 4.2.0-35-generic is 15.10 short term. (I think. As far as I know I've never had an LTS on it till 16.04LTS.)

That's about right. 4.4.0 is a later version than 4.2.0.

You might want to download and install Ubuntu Tweak. It's a system cleaner utility, and one of the things it makes easy is removing older Linux kernels. New kernels do not replace existing ones. They are installed in addition to any existing kernels, and a successful upgrade will have the new kernel the one that will be loaded by default. You can select earlier ones via Grub. Run Ubuntu long enough and get enough new kernels, and you can have a significant amount of stuff occupying space to no purpose. I generally clean out all but the current and immediately previous kernel, and delete the older kernels and associated kernel header packages. One such exercise recovered close to a GB of disk space, as I hadn't cleaned house in a while.

And I've always enjoyed getting the 6 month upgrades. You get the new Libreoffice and don't most of the other apps get upgraded, as well?

There is no direct connection between OS version upgrades and application version upgrades. They happen independently of each other. Depending on your setting in Ubuntu, you get notified when there are newer versions of applications you have installed when they appear. Newer versions of the apps will generally run just fine on older versions of the OS, and if there are OS version dependencies, you'll be informed of them.

I'm obviously not a beta guy, but if I get the LTS I feel like I'm missing out.

If you don't go with the LTS, you are a beta guy. LTS stands for Long Term Support, and LTS releases are considered to be stable and debugged. Intermediate releases are not, and are beta code. You can have problems (and I have) by using them. They are there for testing purposes, and sometimes tests fail.

Here's the latest. Today I did the power switch turn on. After about 6 minutes of nothing the red activity light came on for about 20 seconds and after it went out I scrolled the mouse to see if perchance the computer had come on. No luck. Then, as I had experienced before, when I got to 18 minutes (to be safe) I scrolled the mouse again and nothing.

So, I powered the computer off and waited till the 18 minute mark without touching the mouse and it was on.

We still have the question of what all is going on before it reaches that point, but I gather once it has the system is usable and behaves as expected.

Power on and go have a leisurely coffee break, then come back and use it.

(Our friend Naomi was grousing that her Internet at home wasn't working. In fact, it was working fine. I set up her wireless router for her and her laptop automatically authenticates. The problem was, she was impatient. She was trying to use the machine and go online before it had fully booted and reached the stage of authenticating with the router. My SO said "You were trying to use it before it had its coffee. You know what you're like before you have coffee. Turn on the laptop, go have a cup of coffee yourself, and by the time you come back the Internet should be available." That she understood, and when she followed the advice, Lo! Things Just Worked. )
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Dennis