I’m planning to dualboot all of my old computers (mostly Windows Vista and 7 era machines) with Linux so they can have a bit more usability as more and more apps drop support for those old Windows versions, you’ll probably be seeing a lot of topics from me in the next few days. All machines will be used for just standard daily use tasks (web browsing, listening to music, watching youtube, etc.). I’m not a Linux expert but I do have quite a bit of experience with Debian and Arch based distros. Being able to dualboot with Windows is not a requirement for this machine since I’m planning to wipe the current Windows XP install.
Specs:
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
GPU - Intel GMA X3100
RAM: 2x2GB Samsung 800MHz DDR2
Storage: 120GB Fujitsu 5400RPM HDD
Make/Model: Dell Latitude D630
WiFi: Dell DW1395
Audio: SigmaTel STAC9205
Ethernet: Broadcom NetXtreme 5755m
Linux mint LMDE and possible 32 bit version is what I would put on this or similar aged machines to give it a possible future life.
Otherwise lubuntu as a second choice.
I have done both on the older machines and been quite happy with the continued use.
Welcome to the forum @Ella. I hope the information you find here will be useful for you.
I would suggest you look at one of the It’s Foss articles https://itsfoss.com/lightweight-linux-beginners/ and it has the title of " Best Lightweight Linux Distributions for Older Computers"
I would also strongly suggest replacing the 120 GB HDD with a 120 GB SSD. I just checked the price of them and it can be purchased for less then US $15. At one site I saw it for less then $11.
Good Luck
My vote is for Debian with LXDE.
Or Enlightenment if you want something fancy. (The todays web browsing will be sloooooowww anyway on that machine, no matter what a light distro you find.)
@Ella ,
If you want something that is a bit more work and learning, Void Linux has a 32 bit version that works well on my old Pentium laptop. It originally came with XP.
Void is rolling release. I use it with Xfce in the laptop.
Regards
Neville
@Ella
XP machine, probably 32bit? Ditch the HDD for a small SDD, even then with just 4G of ram it will be slow. Probably your biggest challenge will be finding a Linux driver for the GPU and the wifi. Had Debian 32bit running on an old Emachine Desktop at one time, dual booting XP media center, but got tired of the hassle and it is now in storage.
That CPU is 64 bit capable.
I don’t know about the wifi, but I expext the video to work. I’m unsure of the sound card…
Yes and so was mine, just was not many 64bit XP systems in the days of that machine. Had to change the GPU to even get my old Emachine to boot.
Hey Ella, welcome to It’s FOSS Community!
My parents gifted me an old laptop so I could try SSH and stuff on it. It ran Windows 7, although saying it ‘ran’ it is being quite generous. Anyway, I looked up some distros to see what I could put up on it, and I read a blog post of a guy talking about how you should look for older releases for old hardware. I found Linux Mint 20.3 “Una” Cinnamon Edition (an LTS release that will be supported until 2025).
It runs pretty good on this very old laptop (which might be fro 2009 or 2010). I am not going to say its blazing fast, although that’s not a criticism of Linux Mint, I don’t think anything would be fast on this laptop, but it very usable. My wife mostly uses it, but I did use it to do some Bash research on it last weekend and it was more than serviceable in that regard.
If you have a laptop that is significantly newer than that, you can probably get away with the most recent LTS version. If not, then keep in mind to check out older (but still in supported) LTS releases.
@nevj
Got my Dell XPS laptop back online, had to replace the keyboard. Got me a brand new back-lighted keyboard, sent all the way from China.
I can recommend AntiX for that machine. AntiX usually is recommended for low spec machines, in this case the performance of the RAM is at issue.
An SSD would definitely be helpful. However, if you have a bit of patience things will work out ok with AntiX.
If the RAM were faster, you could go with basically anything. 4GB is enough for almost any distribution.
I can second that. Antix runs well in my old pentium laptop.
Not sure I would agree with the SSD comment, the original hard disk should be fine, you could always use the system to test the disk before investing.
If it is a 32 bit system then 4gb memory is the maximum it will address. The motherboard may not have slots for more.
4gb on a system of this age with a lightweight distro will be fine for everyday use for mail, internet, word-processing or spreadsheet work, it’s only if you really want to play games or have lots of applications open at the same time would need more.
Stick with what you have enjoy and learn then invest in bigger faster machines later.
IMHO
@callpaul.eu
Yes I agree, SSD probably not worth the money and time to install, just use the HDD. SSD would be better if more ram were available.
Actually, if the processor supports PAE (Physical Address Extension), it can address more than 4GB.
By the way: the processor supports 64bit. You could easily do with a 64bit os.
And of course the CPU. It won’t keep up with todays expectations.
Despite others disagreed with the SSD, I think it’s not a bad idea.
Even such an old CPU waits a lot for the IO to finish, especially if the HDD is from the same age. SSD would speed up boot time, and loading of programs and definitely hugely faster for SWAP.
I just put MX-23 on an older dell laptop -Vista era. (MX linux is cooperative venture with AntiX) It is running great. It also has a 32bit version