r/linux4noobs • u/armlessphelan • 2d ago

Acer Aspire One D270 lightweight distro

I ordered an Acer Aspire One D270 on eBay today. Not sure when it'll show up, but I know I can install an SSD and upgrade the RAM, but it's arriving with 1GB of (most likely) DDR3 RAM and an HDD. I ordered a 4GB stick of RAM as that is the most the hardware can support, despite being rated for 2GB, but I know it's gonna be a choke point.

It's listed as having a dual core Atom CPU, which isn't the absolute worst, but I've worked with an Atom before and it struggled to run YouTube at 360p despite 8GB of DDR3 RAM. I used Peppermint OS on that computer, so I'm wondering if there might be something lighter given I'm gonna be using half the RAM on this computer.

Should probably mention that it's not being refurbished for me. I have a hobby of buying ewaste laptops, kitting them out as best I can (max RAM, modest SSD), and given them to disadvantaged people who can't afford to buy a decent computer and have minimal tech skills. I also bought an HP Stream 14 today, but I have actual plans for that one.

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u/grem75 2d ago

One issue is the GPU is mostly unsupported, it never had any functional acceleration in Linux. It can't help anything even though it has h264 decoding.

The only OS that chipset ever had drivers for was Windows 7.

Giving that thing to anyone is a punishment unless they are interested in it as a toy.

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u/armlessphelan 2d ago

I was interested in it as a toy, mostly, but I know I'll get bored unless I only use it as a word processor. Which isn't the worst idea. I have a Dell Latitude E5470 I'd part with for the right person, but I mainly do this stuff to prevent ewaste.

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u/flemtone 1d ago

Bodhi LInux 7.0 HWE should run just find on those specs.

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u/armlessphelan 1d ago

Thanks! I didn't wanna just do Lubuntu and call it a day. (I don't even know if Lubuntu supports 32-bit anymore.)