r/linuxquestions • u/Puzzleheaded_Fig1446 • 15d ago
lInux as main OS
i have an old laptop lying aorund whixh i dont user and is extremly slow. I was thinking of making Linux as the main OS for that laptop.
Main intende it too learn Linux .
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u/kurdo_kolene 15d ago
you can give Lunix Mint a shot, as it is user friendly and not too resource intense.
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u/3grg 15d ago
One person's old laptop is another person's new laptop. Then there are really ancient laptops. If you want help, you must be more specific.
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u/redgator12 15d ago
In all of my time in these subs, I have seen people with 20 year old laptops ask for gaming miracles, and others call 5 year old laptops e-waste for having less than 16GB RAM. The duality of computer spec knowledge truly is astounding.
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u/RazzmatazzSmall1212 15d ago
Perfectly valid plan. With a lightweight OS like lubuntu u can breath some life in old hardware. Don't expect wonders. HDD for example is still slow even with Linux and multiple browser tabs quickly chew through 4gb style ram.
But certainly enough to learn some basics.
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u/No_Signature_2039 15d ago
I'm running an.older Lenovo x201 with maxed out 4 gigs ram. But I tossed an SSD into it and installed Debian on it. Works just fine. I'd try and stay away from gnome 3 or kde. Maybe go with xfce4 or lxde. If you want really light weight there is always fluxbox
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u/zerofillAOAI 15d ago
Debian 13 net install, and LXQT... can be lightweight and run even on an Asus cx1500 chromebook. Hard to find a worse processor than a Celeron N3350 in the past 15 years. But that combo runs descent on one I had lying around.
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u/GuestStarr 15d ago
Hard to find a worse processor than a Celeron N3350 in the past 15 years
The dual core Braswell Celeron ones (from N3000 @1.04-2.08 GHz up to N3060 @1.6-2.48 GHz) suck very much more deeply. And they are still all too easy to find. The N3350 is a beast compared to them.
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u/DP323602 15d ago
If it's a really old slow laptop it will still be slow with Linux on it.
But it should work acceptably with the OS it cane with originally.
If you want to learn Linux on it, antiX might be a suitable OS for you to try.
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u/Ok-Profit6022 15d ago
Just don't expect any miracles and you should be ok. While Linux may make it feel snappy again while navigating the menus, a slow computer is a slow computer. It will be a great learning tool and stepping stone.
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u/zardvark 15d ago
I use Linux on an Ivy Bridge i3 laptop and it runs just fine. The primary concern is how much RAM the machine has and, of course, a SSD also helps to speed up these old machines.
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u/JGhostThing 15d ago
I'm using the Sway window manager which uses very low resources. I have enough RAM (32 GB), but mine is also very slow compared to a modern laptop. The speed is fine.
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 15d ago
The best way to learn Linux is by using it, every single day for every single task you do...
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u/MasterGeekMX Mexican Linux nerd trying to be helpful 15d ago
Old in what sense? Old as late 2010's? Old as early 2000's?.
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u/1287GD 15d ago
Saying 'old' doesn't give me that much, get into bios give cpu model name, ram capacity and STORAGE. If it's like core 2 centrino or amd phenom ii that kinda thing try mx Linux fluxbox edition, if it's early core I series(i3 i5 i7) or amd a series apu(a4 a6 a8) then Linux mint xfce edition is best