Regarding Specs, I'd choose a lite DE.
- Xubuntu
- Linux Mint with Mate or Xfce
You can even use an LTS version for longer lasting editions.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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There are lots of choices, but personally I would go with Linux Mint as something likely familiar and packaged with pretty much all the basics for the use case you outlined.
That's a pretty weak machine. Linux Mint is my #1 recommendation for new Linux users, especially former Windows users. It's what I moved my parents to on their very old computer and it works great.
Try the default Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop first, but if it seems really slow, go with the XFCE version.
You really need to use an SSD in that laptop if possible, it will speed things up to a usable level. Also, if the RAM is upgradable, you should put 8GB minimum in it. DDR3 laptop sticks are dirt cheap, you can get them online for $20-$30 for 8GB sticks.
Same with SSDs, get a 1000GB brand new SSD for $50-$60, it will make everything much more responsive.
Yeah, it's an old laptop. She doesn't have much money for a new laptop and since she won't use it often, it's enough to check mail, e-banking, ... And we have some old laptops at home nobody uses, so we thought we could give it to her as a gift.
Eventually, she'll buy a new ~400$ laptop later with some good specs but that's not in the next few months. But thanks for the tips.
On my living room setup hooked up to a projector:
mint xfce
sff tower
dual core
only 3GB ddr2. (One slot fried)
1080p via display port to HDMI
1tb HDD
Use 2 VPN. An sshd server
Myriad physical issues.
Old as fuck BIOS.
(Was released in 2009 or 2011?)
Memory is a bit of a pain sometimes. Mostly Firefox needs to be closed and reopened after system sleep.
I can watch 4 football games in HD with no real issue.
It is tweaked to high heaven in kernal and configs.
As long as it can work I will make it work.
Linux Mint for sure.
It's more welcoming to newbies than even Windows.
Anything will be fine. I’d try a xfce/lxqt desktop, but even on old dual cores the newest kde is good.
Everyone says mint, but suse has a huge German community because it’s from Germany.
Another person said you should upgrade to ssd and maybe add more ram, and I agree with them. Usually I spend $40 to do that to laptops and it makes real dogs run great.
Post the model numbers on the bottom of the laptops and I can give some pre-gifting upgrade advice with actionable links. Both seem to take 2.5” sata ssds so that’s good and cheap, but there’s different models of the aspire es-15 which take different memory sizes.
If you do take the cheap ssd replacement route, give them one of those usb hdd enclosures with the old big rotational hdd in there. They’re like seven bucks and it means they have a place to hold a backup of their data if the gift laptop dies.
I'd also recommend Mint with Mate or Xfce. They have a German forum too.
New user that didn't exactly choose to try Linux, I'd go with Ubuntu or Mint just for the sake of being compatible with pretty much anything you'd find when looking up "how to X on Linux". On those specs I guess I'd go Xubuntu or Mint Xfce edition.
I'd try a few Wayland compositors and X11 WMs on the thing and see what performs the best. Depending on the graphics situation and drivers, Wayland can be faster or slower. At this vintage I'd guess the best will be Xorg with no compositor at all, just plain 2D acceleration, but sometimes even the crappiest OpenGL can be surprising.
If you put Waydroid on it, it'll also double as a shitty Android tablet. Almost all bank apps will refuse to run because it's not a certified device, but it will be some common interface their friends are more likely to be able to help with.
I guess there's also the option of just installing ChromeOS on it.
Fedora.
Opensuse Tumbleweed.
Pop! Os
Imo.