Linux Mint on an Old Laptop

#linux #linuxmint #hp #hplaptop #pavilion

In this video I try installing Linux Mint on an old laptop I recently purchased for $20 on Facebook Marketplace. This will be my first time installing and trying Linux out. Let's see if Linux can breathe new life into this laptop.

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00:00 Intro
00:54 Download the ISO
02:39 Flash to a USB Drive
03:31 Trying to boot from USB Drive
04:16 First boot
04:51 Install on the Laptop Hard Drive
06:18 Success!
06:30 Taking Linux Mint for a spin
08:08 Firefox/YouTube
09:19 How long to boot from Power On/Outro

Thanks for watching.

[basicdadtech]

Thank you all for the comments/feedback. i didn't realized how many people actually use Linux. I think my next Linux project may be installing it on an old Dell Optiplex.

[FredPilcher]

I've been using Linux for over ten years. Getting rid of Windows was one of the best decisions I've ever made. 🙂

[FarmerRiddick]

After our house burned down in 2013, a friend gave me her sons old laptop he used in Iraq in 2006. I installed Linux Mint on that old beast and it was a good system. It really helped out in getting things done for the rebuild and then some, with VLC player.

I'm currently typing away, after watching your video on my, circa 2013, eleven year old Dell 7010 SFF (4th gen intel CPU, 16GB RAM... and I forget the Radeon video card in it) with current Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon as it's OS and it's been my daily driver for a long time now. I even watch Plex on it. No drama, few and rare hiccups, which usually involve the printer. Printers! ...Imagine that! lol

I'm refurbishing a Dell 3050sff for my sister right now. She works very long days, is care taker for our mom and a grandmother that has the baby often on her off days. Her evening entertainment normally is only with a smart phone and a tablet and she knows nothing about computers beyond that.
She's going to get a great system with Linux Mint and a good sized monitor to watch movies and such with.
Plus, she will have Free tech and user support from her big brother. I live some 1500 miles away. I wish I could do more for her.

As for Linux for desktops;
From my understanding, Linux has jumped to about 4% of use globally, from 2%, while Windows enjoys over 70% of the desktop market, globally. Apple has most of the remainder. (servers are a whole different story. Linux and Red Hat Linux seem to dominate the market.)
Come October of 2025, the global E-Waste is going to become a very large problem - like, the size of certain states are large, type of problem, at least. (Say, Thank You Microsoft!)
These soon to be non - compliant for Windows 11 computers, still have tremendous life and use in them, as you just demonstrated.
For myself, I've found that the Super Penguin just Rocks!
Plus, it's free. Donations are all that's asked for and not required. No muss, no fuss.

[AdamNeal]

That is the BEST distro to start with! I've tried most Debian based distros and always come back to Mint. I've been using it on my main computer for close to 8 years and love how rock solid reliable it is.

[CFWhitman]

Just a recommendation for both Windows and Linux with this hardware. You might be able to improve your YouTube performance quite a bit by using the H264ify extension. Older machines especially have trouble with the default VP9 video codec used in YouTube. With the extension you can make the browser automatically request the h.264 codec that many older machines have hardware decoding for.

[Bareego]

The youtube video playback is mostly limited by the old CPU/GPU. I find videos tend to run a bit smoother in Chrome on linux. Linux Mint was what made me finally ditch windows and use it full time, I've been running on it for over 2 months now, although I prefer the XFCE4 version. For such an older laptop I would recommend to install the XFCE4 version as it uses less resources. IF you run on new hardware and some of the hardware doesn't work properly it can sometimes help to update the kernel. That can be easily done from the update manager by selecting View->Kernels and selecting the kernel with the highest version number (atm that's 6.5), clicking on the install button and rebooting. I liked that you showed all the steps you took and also which issues you encountered. It gives people a good representation on what to expect.

[me]

As for the dropped frames on youtube vidoes, there's not a ton you can do there. The processor in that laptop is a low-powered, mobile processor that wasn't anywhere near top of the line even when it was new, so you're never going to get optimal playback on high-quality streaming videos no matter what OS you use. You can try a lighter-weight Linux distro that uses a less power-consuming desktop than Cinnamon, like XFCE or LXQT, and of course you can always lower the video quality to 720 or 480p, but you're never going to get smooth 4k or even 1440p playback on a laptop that weak and that old.

[samshort]

A while back now, I completed 3 master's degrees on a $100 Toshiba laptop which came with Vista. I installed Linux Mint on it and that machine worked very well. I still have it and it is still running Linux.

[VektrumSimulacrum]

On top of installing linux, upgrading to an SSD if it doesn't have one already helps a ton. Old RAM is still somewhat cheap so maxing out the memory and upgrading to an SSD makes it feel like a whole different computer. QOL improvment even if you're not gaming on it. I did this to an AMD A6 laptop and it became my mobile workstation for 2 years. It's currently running Fedora Kinoite.

[chichimus]

I bought a low end Lenovo laptop mainly for just surfing the net and basic tasks. It came with win11 and it is painfully slow. Going to try live booting a few distros and pick one I like. Mint is certainly in the mix.

[Xerpina]

Ah, great vid.
And Linux Mint is my Favorite Distro, use it for a old Dell Optiplex 790 for YouTube/Movies/Some <Cough> Backup gaming...
And after you got everything installed, you need to do the updates and such, Mint run's much better with them. Remember, the Terminal is you're friend, Linux is very user friendly, it's just Picky about who it's friends are XD

[xec]

On low-resource machines, Debian-based distros usually perform even better. If they are also accompanied by lightweight desktops interfaces like xfce or lxde, old machines seem to fly. In addition to heating up less and booting as if they were computers twice as powerful.
On an i5-i2500 machine from 2011, which I am writing to you, I have installed MX Linux in its xfce version. It runs much faster than with Windows 7 that came with it, in all activities. It heats up much less, meaning it also consumes less. I have even installed a VMWare Player with a "Windows 7 Ultimate" for a Legacy Windows program that I need and all ok, even speed.

MX Linux is a desktop-oriented distribution as simple as Mint, but Debian based. I have tweaked the UI desktop interface a lot... almost unrecognizable. It looks almost nothing like the default configuration. It has turned out very beautiful and elegant at my eyes. There is a bit of a learning curve to get used to (very basic), but as with everything, don’t?. Furthermore, once overcome it is forever. And most importantly: without telemetry, recalls, and future intrusions into my privacy.
I feel much freer. I feel much more at peace and comfortable with digital life. No longer be at the expense of the whims and interests of the large corporations in power. I have taken control 100% of my computer. I understand that for many people it is the least of priorities. For me it has been like going back to the beginning as far as sensations are concerned. It is worth overcoming yourself if you are aware of what your privacy, control and digital freedom are worth.

Mint also has a version that uses xfce as the main desktop interface. Although being based on Ubuntu, it is slightly less optimized for very low-resource machines. But it is also an very interesting option.

[MrRajabmm]

Mint can revive any old laptop I just used it on my 20 yrs old vaio and it’s never been better 🎉

[apostle.sigmund]

Linux Mint user here since 2020. So far, so good.

[tonykeltsflorida]

This is a good video. A real Linux Mint install. I have been using Linux Mint for a while. I stopped using windows 10 when Microsoft decided to declare my older PC obsolete. I built a new PC that has only had Linux Mint. My older "obsolete" PC is my print server.

[geoman]

I run latest Linux Mint XFCE on my MacBookPro from 2008. It runs fine!

[PWingert]

I used to work at Free Geek Toronto and while there I developed a standard installation process manual based on how they were installing it. I have since used that to install Linux Mit on over 100 different machines from Pentium 3's up to Multi CPU former servers now turned into computer workstations. I have never come across a machine that I could not successfully install on. There are some fine points in regard to older IBM laptop due to proprietary devices but other than that it's totally smooth. Linux mint has evolved rendering some steps less relevant.

[maxtornogood]

I've tried Linux Mint Cinnamon & it's a nice build. I'm currently using the Cinnamon Spin of Fedora Linux.

[see-sharp]

I have one slower than this one, i make it fly using Arch with a very minimal installation and everything with hardware acceleration.

If you have anything newer than a 775 and don't want to watch 4k videos you will be fine for most uses just putting one SSD and Linux Mint with XFCE.

[nathanrussell]

Running mint in 2 of my older pc’s. Works great for what I use them for. My main pc is windows 10 pro, I do a lot of file sharing between them.