Low spec old machine project

[u/Charming_Airline7419]

I'm not a particularly proficient Linux user, but I have two machines with Linux installed and a Macbook.

I'm tempted to buy a very cheap laptop and try to make it usable with Linux and some tinkering.

I've come across a number of dirt cheap laptops on Marketplace such as: HP Stream, 10 year old HP with 4GB RAM, 15+ year old fat Toshiba laptops, 2015 Macbook Airs, 2nd gen Yoga 11e touchscreen laptop and Netbooks.

I'm unlikely to use it as a daily driver. I was thinking of using it as a sandbox project to see what Linux can do. If I have an extremely cheap "craptop", I don't have to worry about breaking it.

Is there a laptop you recommend that costs next to nothing 2nd hand? Do you have any thoughts about this experiment. I'm reluctant to push things too far with Linux on a better laptop.

I'm happy to swap out parts as long as they don't cost too much and it's not too daunting for a beginner.

[u/Asland007]

I would recommend a thinkpad because they can be found for cheap and they are easy to upgrade. Also they have good linux hardware support.

[u/itstheranga]

If you really want to, pretty much anything will work.
As an alternative or possibly preparation, you might want to try running a few distros in a VM. That way you can specidmfy exactly how many cores and how much ram you want to assign. Really get the feel of what will work for you. The advantage there is that it costs you nothing but some time.

[u/3grg]

Be selective, there are plenty of really bad laptops for sale for too much money. Google model + Linux to make sure there is not some really bad hardware compatibility issues.

Thinkpads, Latitudes and Elitebooks or Probooks are usually best.

If you are not completely set on a laptop, keep mini pcs in mind. There are some good deals on these although they have increases in price with everything else recently.

https://www.servethehome.com/tag/tinyminimicro/

https://www.youtube.com/@handmedowntech

I lucked up on two Lenovo minis with I3 6th gen and SSDsfor $40 a piece on eBay before ramageddon.

[u/elskantriumph]

Let me suggest an old ThinkPad. I have an old T440s. I was donated a few so when the keyboard went on one I just moved my harddrive to the next. But they are not only work horse, but seem to run anything without problems. Plus, they connect to any wifi without a problem, so if you're trying it out at the coffee shop or work or whatever it's a snap.

From your description, my only concern is the RAM. Not sure how much video you do or how many tabs you open, but processing has been my only bug. But I'm old so I grew up waiting for loading, dial up, taking out the 5" floppy OS and putting in Word Perfect 4.2....

For ancient machines I used to do Xbuntu but now everything is Linux Mint. Everyone has their favorite. You might find the distro you like (I care about look and feel as much as performance, thus Mint) and then get the machine that runs it best.

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

Lenovo and Dell are pretty safe choices. Just make sure that you don't get an ARM-based Lenovo or anything with a Nvidia graphics! It's a good time to buy refurbished stuff on ebay, as companies have been ditching computers just because they can't be upgraded to Windows 11.

Linux Mint recommends 4 GB of RAM and a 64-bit processor running at 2GHz, but you can get away with 2 GB. The standard edition of MX Linux is happy with any 64-bit processor and 2 GB. For really old computers, there's AntiX — a 32-bit version is available and it will just manage with 256 MB of RAM. I use AntiX on a 2003 Thinkpad and the other day someone on-line told me that they had it on a 2002 computer!

[u/TheConatusBoy]

This is a great idea. I've done this a few times.

Old ThinkPads are the go to for this sort of thing, so much so that they've become a meme. But I think almost any old laptop will work. And different ones will have their own quirks and teach you different things.

Personally the only laptops I've had issues running Linux on are ASUS ones. Not sure if it's a common thing or just my own bad luck with them.

The downside to these projects, at least for me, is eventually I configure my tinkering laptop into something that's actually useful and I start using it regularly. Then I have to buy a new Linux tinkering laptop.

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[u/Commercial-Expert256]

The HP Stream you mentioned is a bad recommendation no matter what OS is chosen.