Linux on an OLD Laptop

The amount of times I've needed to fix this laptop... anyways let's get Linux on this old laptop to make it great again. We are going to try out two lightweight Linux distros to see what it needs.

Distributions:

00:00 - The Laptop
03:10 - Windows 7 Starter
06:40 - Zorin Lite
08:51 - Antix Linux

My Workstation (PAID LINKS)

[ruejr]

I remember having a similarly-specced netbook with windows 7 starter and I decided to upgrade it to windows 7 ultimate because I wanted to have customizations. Let’s just say that I had the patience of a saint at that time.

[notrealecho]

They weren't kidding when they say Linux can bring life to old machines. Keep these vids coming, mate.

[shaunpatrick]

I had a netbook with Windows 7 Home. It slowed down over time and became unusable so I reinstalled windows. It took a day to install all the updates, after which it was as slow as it was before!

MX Linux gave it a few more years of life.

[zmlin]

I learned these by actually tryin them out in my mini-110 as well. Antix is the best options for this kind of hardware, extremely light, many CLI software out of the box, 32-bit supported Debian base, etc.. Even the lightest DEs like xfce and lxqt or hybrid like peppermint OS would not perform as well as the WMs in Antix with this machine. However, I had to use Pale Moon because Firefox is still bloated and not fast enough for 1G RAM.

[EliasOda]

Peppermint 10 raspin works very well on my 2011 laptop. There is no noticeable lag. It's great for much older hardware.

[andymann]

What a coincidence - just a few days ago I discovered antix to load onto an old Acer netbook. Being a long time Debian fan, I love it. Bang on review.

[certs]

Bodhi Linux is also a great option for a netbook or lower end, older laptop.

[TheHolaviste]

AntiX is a great distribution, I've installed many years ago in a Pentium 4 with 512 MB of RAM with IceWM desktop environment and it worked very well. Time later, mi GF and I bought similar netbooks similiar to the ones on the video, and I installed on both of them AntiX 32 and 64 bits with LXQt, using minimal edition. Both of them still working until today. Great video!

[Flash]

You're lucky you have the Intel GPU version of this laptop. I got one with the PowerVR GPU, and to this day it is still not supported by Mesa.

[Ataraxia_Atom]

I did a similar setup to my 10 year old laptop though it has 8gb of ram and around 2.2 processor. But I went with Linux mint and it runs like a champ now. I actually prefer using it to windows

[norgeball]

Isn‘t your grandma sort of the sponsor of the video, too?😄
Btw, I already recognized antix on the thumbnail by the wallpaper. It is a great distro, reducing tech waste👍

[fawzanfawzi]

Electric toothpaste sounds outlandish. Imagine if it has a DRM where it locks up for having an "unauthorized" paste.

[astrawby]

Talk about a trip back to the past! I had that computer in high-school and to be fair, it's as tough as it is slow ; it fell multiple times, overheated in my backpack more times than I counted, I forgot it in a freezer at some point and other shenanigans, but it never stopped working! Plus, thanks to the metal hinges under the plastic, the screen never fell off either!

[JohanlastZa]

Would be cool to see how the laptop battery life holds out on such a lightweight operating system versus the default.

[mto]

Didn't know about antix. Got an early Ultrabook with touchscreen, 2gb ram and Intel atom and even xubuntu didn't run very well on it.

Gonna try it out.

[DeeDoctor]

This is awesome, I'm quite new to the Linux community and I really love watching these as I'm very interested to learn more of it

[MarkNF]

Tried puppy on an old Atom but as I'm only a casual linux'er, there were some fiddly bits that were a bit too fiddly to get it where I wanted. Still a few on AntiX, but a tad more user friendly I think. I've been trying to migrate to linux for years, but usually get a driver, app or window manager screwup that pushes me back to windows after a few weeks/months.

Just wanted to say a big thanks for the style of videos you do. I've completely given up on most tech channels for the long flashy openings and animations, loud music and loud, "in your face" speed talkers that seem to be the trend now. It's awesome to see people can still make calm, professional and entertaining vids. Great Job.

Cheers.

[medinachete]

Zorin is not a light distro at all, don't get distracted by that 32 bit support.

[binchamers]

I installed linux on my dad’s old windows vista laptop (1gb ram, 1core, 1thread) and it works pretty well again, I’m using it to learn linux

[arturofernandez]

I have a HP mini slightly older than yours that shipped with xp and it run great for its specs, now it’s running lubuntu 18.04 I believe, and serving as an octoprint server. It does it’s job well enough.