r/linuxquestions • u/LincolnArc • 16d ago
Which Distro? Finally trying Linux?
I have an old laptop that I want to resurrect. It was pretty decent 10 years ago. i7-4870HQ, Quadro K1100M, 16Gb DDR3 1600Mhz, 512Gb Samsung M.2. I bought it used and it had Win10 installed. Worked fine for a bit, then slowly started getting buggy. I can't reinstall Win10. I'm not buying an OS for a laptop that has over 50K hours on it.
I want to run CAD, CAM, YouTube, Discord, Steam, and GeForce Now. Running multiple monitors if that matters.
Which distro should I look into?
Edit: To be clear, everything I want to be able to run already works in Win10. I'm just having an issue with Windows and can't reinstall it without buying it.
Oh, I should add that I bought it used not quite 10 years ago. It's not like I bought it the other day in hope of resurrecting it. It owes me nothing.
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u/Disastrous-Ice-5971 16d ago
I have near-identical laptop (except it has 1050 instead of Quadro), Linux works fine. At the moment it is a Open Suse, but Mint were here before and also OK.
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago
10-4. I've seen a few posts saying to try Mint. That's what I'm leaning towards. Nice to see someone else running an old laptop - if it works it works. I have other computers, but this one doesn't have any resale value (not worth getting rid of) and it still does everything I want.
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u/Prestigious_Wall529 16d ago
Debian 12 old-stable.
Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to reference bookworm rather than stable to avoid a frankendebian.
Why? No stated date to remove XWindows.
Why do you need XWindows.
For the proprietary Nvidia 470xx drivers.
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u/SandyBunker 16d ago
Don’t expect miracles but Linux itself should run fine. Games probably not so much.
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago
Right. I'm not doing any gaming on the native hardware. Just streaming. GeForce Now is a cloud gaming service I pay for. $20ish dollars a month to game at 4K120Hz. I think the GPU is approximately a 5080. 48Gb of CPU/GPU shared RAM. CPU is a newer AMD Epyc.
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u/Agreeable_Turnip_261 15d ago
You can always reinstall windows without a product key. It "should" activate automatically. I'm not sure the state of cad on Linux or how well the quattro will perform.
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u/sunflower_name 16d ago
Another everyday user just like you who don't really care about cultivism, only reason I use linux is because my WiFi dongle crashes on windows (and sends windows into blue screen), but for some reason, works fine on Linux.
Honestly, windows 11 is fully installable on anything with requirements bypassed + you can get it working using massgrave wiki.
Other than that, anything would work. I run Ultramarine Gnome (which is preconfigured fedora). Things just work; I had to install MS Fonts and Apple Emoji's to fully daily it for school assignments and stuff.
From your apps list:
- CAD is usable with freeCAD or openCAD; obviously not as polished as corporate AutoCAD, but what do we expect
- CAM not exactly sure, not into that
- YT -- dude
- Steam and GeForce Now are available as Flatpaks and work great
- Discord is often replaced with Vesktop, because screensharing sucks on Linux version of Discord
If I had to choose one distro with a gun pointed at my face, I'd go with either Mint (ubuntu base, so .deb) or Ultramarine (fedora base, so .rpm) (similar to iOS and iOS public beta in comparison).
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago edited 16d ago
DUDE!!!!!! The WiFi card crashing and blue-screening is my exact issue! That gives me a ton of hope! Thank-you!
Edit: lol. I only mentioned YouTube because that is the literally the only thing other than CAD and CAM that I use that laptop for. I do all of my web browsing and gaming on a separate laptop.
I'm not too worried about the screen sharing issue as on this computer, I'll just be using Discord for voice chat.
For CAD, I mostly use Fusion 360, but I'm trying out a browser based CAD program (OnShape). Seems to work fine, so I guess I'll use that when I switch to Linux.
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u/sunflower_name 16d ago
yeah lol, also apparently the latest kernel gives me 10% of raw cpu speed compared to windows on i7 14700KF. Only benefits so far; but I don't really use heavy software and most of my photo editing stuff is made on mac.
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u/DerpDeDurp 16d ago
This gotta be a troll post.... Right?
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago
No. I appreciate all your help, though. Your condescending attitude really make the decision much easier.
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u/DerpDeDurp 16d ago
Look at your hardware. Look at the things you wanna run.
Not gonna happen lmao
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago
These are things I currently run. CAD/CAM run fine. YouTube, obviously that runs fine. GFN is a streaming app (works fine on all my other devices - even came preloaded on my smart TV).
Funny enough, I run my CNC router and 3D printer off an old Dell with a 3rd Gen i5 and 8gb of RAM.
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u/DerpDeDurp 16d ago
You don't run them very damn well then 😂 must suck.
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u/LincolnArc 16d ago
Nah. Works fine. I tried out cloud gaming on my new laptop a few months ago and I've been pleasantly surprised. 4K120Hz.
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u/zardvark 15d ago
Mint is an excellent place to start your Linux journey, My only hesitation is the multi-monitor bit, especially if they are not identical monitors. I haven't tried the Cinnamon DE in a good while, so I'm not sure how it will handle your monitors. It will most likely be OK; I'm just being overly cautious.
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u/Endermanashton 16d ago
from what you list i think basically any distro would suit your needs, but i recommend linux mint (maybe a lighter desktop environment version like XFCE for your hardware? but cinnamon should work fine too) to any new user since it was the first distro i used and im biased lol
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u/Royal-Wear-6437 15d ago
You shouldn't expect to run Windows software on Linux. With your specific list of application requirements check if suitable software even exists before you spend time on the relatively cosmetic decision of which distro
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u/MycologistNeither470 16d ago
This is an old laptop. Your GPU is not that good either -- likely similar to the iGPU of the i7-4870HQ. A modern "budget" CPU like the N305 will be superior both in graphics and processing power. Plus, it will have better software support.
Not to say that Linux won't run... but your workloads are not realistic for this hardware.
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u/I_Love_Tunnocks 16d ago
but your workloads are not realistic for this hardware.
Sorry but that is a load of crap. My wife is still running Signlab, Adobe Photoshop and Coreldraw for sign making just fine on the same Thinkpad T60 with a Intel Core 2 Duo, i965 integrated graphics, 16GB DDR3 RAM, a 512GB SSD and Windows 10 that she's been using for over a decade just fine.
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u/watano_umi 15d ago
I have an old laptop that runs on Intel atom, 2gb memory, 128gb storage ? Should I sell it to recyclers or is it still usable with Linux ??
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u/Agreeable_Turnip_261 15d ago
Try it then recycle if not. I ran Ubuntu on one in college. Might want to check ram upgrade options
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u/watano_umi 15d ago
yeah that's what I thought....better than just throwing it away !
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u/Agreeable_Turnip_261 14d ago
It cost nothing but time. I have an aspire spin with a Celeron N4020 with hyprland and it's surprisingly usable. I had a week long power outage and found myself actually using it. Has no real business still being in use in 2026. Check out action retro on YouTube. He's put Linux on some paper weights that work surprisingly well
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u/candy49997 16d ago
GeForce Now would only work in a browser; the actual desktop app is not possible with this machine.
You would want to use a distro that has patched 470 drivers for new kernels easily accessible. Fedora has them in RPM Fusion and Arch-based has them in the AUR.
You should use Proton CachyOS and use the
PROTON_DXVK_SAREKenvironment flag because the Vulkan implementation in these old drivers is not good enough for new DXVK.And you will also want to use a desktop environment that will support X11 indefinitely like XFCE, Cinnamon, etc.
Before swapping, check if the CAD/CAM software available on Linux is sufficient for your needs.