"best" DISTRO for old (very?) laptop computer

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Hey,

Sorry if it’s not the right category to post in… and maybe it’s just not the right forum :sweat_smile:), but as always, I find endeavourOS community to be so eclectic and on top of so many different topics (not just because I’m part of it, hey :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:)

Anyway, so there’s this friend (always) who wants to keep using (1st mistake, but here we are) his core 2 duo (T5300, maybe) 2009 (or so) laptop with 4GB ddr2 ram… and who’s “happily” running (well, walking) zindoz 7 on his HDD as we speak…

Not sure the exact specs matters at this point anyway. There will at least be a sata SSD involved.

Sooooo, long story short, do you guys have recent experience with distros that would be lighting fast (ah ah ah) on this machine ?
I’ve read many different returns, sometimes contradictory, and even if I’m aware the “answer” will only come with trying, if I could narrow it down (to one shot :rofl:) thanks to your experiences, that would be terrific!

Cheers !!

(I wouldn’t consider eOS right away cause rolling release, but maybe that’s just a mistake and that would be the way…?)

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That machine will happily run any Linux distro. Where it will suffer is running heavier software and websites. You can maximise the free RAM by running something ike Bunsen Labs which is Debian based and very lightweight.

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I don’t have any recent experience but from my past trial and error more the DE/WM than distro.

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LXQt, openbox and so on might be the way..?

indeed, not much we can do :frowning:

the website seems down at the moment but will check it out, thanks !

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Hmm, the website seems to be working here

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This should be fine. I think it is what I went with on an old laptop, noticed it was better than XFCE. Openbox or another WM would be good too.

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thanks for the info, must be my DNS

edit: it doesn’t like my IP I guess, can reach it using a proxy

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@MyNameIsRichard
do you guys know to what extent installing a pure Debian would be less “minimalist” and more “bloated” than using debian-based so called “light” distro… like puppyLinux, lubuntu, busen labs then, etc… ?

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fisrt , check with any USB iso , return of inxi

inxi -Fza
  • check carefully bios version
  • check carefully 32 / 64 bits , CPU AND MOTHERBOARD
  • if possible goes to 8 Go memory ( dual 2x4Go)
  • if possible use a SSD

stay on kernel 5.15 LTS

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Maybe Antix is a distro to try out.

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good idea

and i’m pretty confident it’s 64bit (well checking won’t hurt), SSD yes it will

I kind of “understood” that running 32bits versions on old even 64bits hardware could make a difference in “snapiness”…? (I think I read somebody using a modded raspberryPI os on old computer like that or something)

It came out a lot indeed, I’ll have to try I think

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They probably wouldn’t be any lighter that a properly set up pure Debian, but they are already configured.

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Slightly off-topic, but I’m always curious how people end up thinking running e-waste is a good idea…

Would you mind asking your friend and sharing with us why they want to keep using this laptop?
I mean, even the ‘cost proposition’ of an already existing device (misunderstanding of “0-cost”) can be worse than say buying a cheap used laptop or an Rpi (let alone a N100 or something) and a cheap monitor (for Desktop use) once you start considering power consumption…

And it’s not like its a ‘not-so-old’ hardware in this case. It’s a cpu released in ~2007(?) that is probably less powerful than modern budget phones.

Edit: let alone if we are already discussing aditional costs like upgrading RAM and SSD.

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I still have a Toshiba L500 which is a 2009 that works fantastic. No issues running anything that I want to use. Just thinking back that it came with Windows 7.

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I’m not arguing if it can run something or not.

I’m simply questioning if it even financially (power consumption) makes sense to keep it instead of modern budget hardware. Actual power output, smoothness running things, etc, can then be considered as a bonus.

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I have a Gateway that was gifted to me last year that I think is around 2012 and I have endeavour on it with Openbox and besides being a little slow it works great and I haven’t had issue’s with it even after going a month without updating it.

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I couldn’t agree more, on a certain extent of course.

I think the oldest laptop at my place runing eOS everyday is an asus middle ranger from 2013 (probably older, now that I think about it, i’ll check), even if the hardware is a more efficient than the one we’re talking about here.

But yeah of course, you can’t rewrite laws of physics as it suits you, indeed.

As for the reasons my friend want to keep using this PC, and be sure I presented all the arguments you just exposed, almost none of them are rationals :sweat_smile:

I mean, there is this one… he is totally broke atm. (and yes, with a little time and effort I’m confident one could find free “ewaste” better than that… well, we live in the (deep) country side of an not populated area, but sure, still)

Anyway, here we are :slight_smile:

edit: Plus he will barely use it to check emails and browse few websites, play mp3s from an external hdd, watch old photos stored on external drives too… and I think that’ll be it…
So idk, but maybe running it a couple hours a month even if you spend 100 bucks in a second hand better setup it would take a long time for the difference in electric bill to match it.
Of course the comfort of having something smoother and snappier is priceless :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: don’t get me wrong, i totally get the point, not trying to argue

re-edit : on another side note, not related to this particular hardware, just general feeling and observation, I think a (very) huge part of end consumers are using hardware way too much powerful for what they do with it.
I’m pretty convinced than if micro$oft (and co.) wasn’t pushing bloated (very weak wording) OS’s and software (and maybe the interweb being coded with something else than feet) the economy of not having to replace hardware (on top of that mostly badly designed in the first place of course) would make it for a couple of centuries of electric bills and melting permafrost… I mean if you extend that beyond “technologeee” it’s crazy… but hey, we all know that right…

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Interesting…and I can see myself (in certain straits) doing something similar, because well no choice.

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and yeah for the “rationals” reasons, to name a few:

“well, it was a beast when i bought it, so…”

“it has always worked for doing that particular task, why wouldn’t it anymore” (ignoring why it might not when you start explaining)

etc… and if you add the “sentimental” part to it, you’re done :rofl:

But make no mistake, the real part (pushing all those rationals arguments…) is being dead broke I assume.

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Puppy Linux comes to mind. I used it to bring back to life an old Toshiba laptop from that era.

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