Asking Mastodon: Boost for More Reach

[reanguiano@tilde.zone]

@ClancyParliament As others have said Mint is a fine choice, but you may want to try this nixOS-based distro that mimics ChromeOS: https://nixbookos.org/

[burnside@mastodon.social]

@ClancyParliament whichever distro you choose, you may benefit from using the Xfce edition of it. One caveat: I don't play minecraft, so I cannot say if there would be a conflict between it and Xfce.

[ml@social.mitexleo.one]

@ClancyParliament Can you please share some spec? You should probably go for a distro with XFCE.

[zonnigewoning@mastodon.nl]

@ClancyParliament I used Linux Mint on two of my very old dust collecting laptops. With 4GB ram. Unhandable slow with Windows. Not one special change needed with Linux, it just works including cd-drive.

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@ClancyParliament how old are we talking about? do you have some hardware specs to get an idea?

My general recommendation would be to try out plain Debian as a starting point, with a lightweight window manager rather than a full-fledged desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE. If you do prefer to have an actual desktop environment, KDE can be configured to be much lighter than GNOME despite the overabundance of features.

[amgine@mamot.fr]

@ClancyParliament @gangrif

One small note: AMD supports linux by releasing its various drivers compiled for linux. This helps AMD devices be as performant running linux as running Microsoft.

Distrowatch.com is a useful place for locating some of the many many flavours of Linux; and you can search for mixes which suit your goals.

The graphics/windowmanager is not part of Linux, yet it is what everyone is deliberately not talking about here. 'Pretty' costs performance; try'em all and see!

[ugone@mastodon.cisti.org]

@ClancyParliament Hi, it depends on your basic knowledge of Linux, but I'd say that with Mint Cinnamon we can sort the problem out.

[ni_nad@mastodon.social]

@ClancyParliament for the pure backup duty role, I swapped an old laptop to Debian last weekend. It'll live at my in law's place, use sync thing to fetch from phone, and maybe another sync thing link over tailscale to backup to my home nas.

[u0421793@toot.pikopublish.ing]

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I’ve put Zorin on one recently and I’m more impressed with how good it is than I thought I would be, so I’m happy to recommend it. It also has a very good stance on the so-called ‘age verification’ idiocy (ie they’re not going to do it) so I’m double happy to recommend it,

[n_dimension@infosec.exchange]

@ClancyParliament

#archlinux of course

Anyone who tells you something else is a dirty liar.

[netraven@hear-me.social]

@ClancyParliament did anyone mention Puppy Linux? that's a sure fire way to go for old machines, or Damn Small Linux (DSL).

[isaackuo@spacey.space]

@ClancyParliament @Flux FWIW I use Debian Stable with all my computers, including 2010ish old hardware, and have it running Minecraft Java edition for my daughter. All of them use XFCE desktop, which is a bit lighter on resources than KDE or Gnome.

For running Minecraft, I would recommend more than 8Gb of RAM, although it seems to do okay with 8.

[wolfinpdx@pdx.social]

@ClancyParliament

I would lean towards Linux Mint.

Home - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.

(www.linuxmint.com)

I've been using Linux for over 20 years. I enjoy this Linux distribution greatly. It "just works".

[stragu@mastodon.indie.host]

@ClancyParliament distrowatch has an "old computers" category, and sorts distros by popularity, so should give you a few good hits to start with:
https://distrowatch.com/search-mobile.php?ostype=All&category=Old+Computers&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleresults

[stragu@mastodon.indie.host]

@ClancyParliament the debian/ubuntu-based @Emmabuntus is specifically made for giving a second life to older computers, so might be a good bet!
#upcycling #permacomputing #linux

[roknrol@beige.party]

@ClancyParliament if you've got 4G or more of RAM, Debian is usually my go-to.

If you have less RAM than that (or an unsupported proc or something), you'll have to look for a niche distro (PuppyLinux used to be good at like 250mb of RAM, but it's been awhile since I've used it and I have no idea if it's still under active development).

@stragu suggested DistroWatch, and that is literally the best place to find distros for specific needs.

[magnetichuman@cupoftea.social]

@ClancyParliament @lich_silvae in that case I would recommend Prism launcher also

[bodil@social.treehouse.systems]

@BoydStephenSmithJr @ClancyParliament Those aren't recommendations for old hardware, though—I think if we're talking 10 year old hardware, my recs are still good, but at 20 years I'd probably go with Debian too, and a very lightweight desktop environment like XFCE.

[aho@mastodon.social]

@ClancyParliament sure mint can be good option, you may want to go for lxqt instead of kde or xfce instead of gnome, as I do think your main hurdle may be the Desktop Environment you pick.

If you have really old laptops, then maybe take a look at antiX.

I would recommend no matter what you pick, stick to the same distro on all, it's easier to administrate that way.

You may need to tweak with kernel options and maybe some hardware not supported, but ask if you run into issues and we will help

[sirtao@social.sirtao.it]

The simplest answer is "any of them".
A more complex answer is "depending on your skill level and how much you want to bother"

Let's assume limited skill so to make this reply possibly useful for as many people as possible.

The best part is that most distro nowadays are available as #LiveDistribution so you can put them on a USB stick and try them to see if you like them and they work well on your system, no strings attached.

The most popular answer is usually #LinuxMint: it's widely used, widely supported and available with an official Xfce version.
#Xfce is a #DesktopEnvironment (henceforth: DE), what manages the actual program windows(to simplify a bit), made with older systems(think Windows7 and older) in mind so less bell&whistles but lighter on CPU and RAM.
You can change it to a "cooler" one(i.e.: #GNOME, #KDE, #Cinnamon, #Mate) later anyway if you want: this is only the "starting look" so to say, to minimize\simplify impact.
Do note Mint is derived from #Ubuntu, with a number of changes(generally taken as improvements), and Ubuntu has been taking decision not everybody like(a #Debian based version is also available).

Another option is #OpenSUSE, currently enjoying a bit of extra popularity due it being developed mostly in the #EU and not derived from other pre-existing distributions. Multiple DEs are available at installation.

#Debian, with its Stable version, is THE paragon when talking about long term stability at cost of using older version of programs. You can manually install more recent ones but that increase the complexity perhaps beyond the scope of the request.
I haven't installed it in decade but I recall the installer not being the most user-friendly. Of course things can have changed wildly since then.

If you dislike having an invasive service manager, you can try out #AntiX, #MXLinux or #Devuan.
...but that might be beyond the complexity limit scope of the request.
Note: MX Linux and Devuan are specifically derived from Debian Stable.