Linux Distro for laptop

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6 yo HP laptop running vista AMD/2gb. Has no free upgrade path to win10, want to try a dual boot of Linux. Whats the best Distro? I was thinking Mint, but not sure.
 
Quote:

Whats the best Distro?


Just like "the best oil" there is none.

Download a few and try them out. For a laptop like yours with limited memory, look at Linux Lite (ubuntu derivative) or Ubuntu MATE
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

Whats the best Distro?


Just like "the best oil" there is none.

Download a few and try them out. For a laptop like yours with limited memory, look at Linux Lite (ubuntu derivative) or Ubuntu MATE


X2. Backup your data first above all. Always better safe than sorry.

Get a couple of USB drives and make them bootable linux distros and try them for awhile. Once you find one you like install it.

I also agree with the limited memory you won't want a bloated OS such as Ubuntu.

You can easily search for some lightweight linux distros. I will go ahead and point you to this site since it is relatively new: lightweight linux distros of 2016
 
I'd advise a mainstream distribution: Mint's Cinnamon if the laptop has some graphics horsepower, Mint's MATE version otherwise. Hardware support will be as good as it gets and the support community is as friendly and helpful as it gets. All of this built on top of Ubuntu and its considerable gravitas. (You could always just use Ubuntu, too. I administer several Ubuntu installations, many of them laptops.)
 
All of those above sounds good and lite for a older machine. You could add DSL [censored] Small Linux, or Puppy Linux to that list. Lubuntu might give you the lean machine with the access of all of those Ubuntu packages. The older machine the better with Linux driver compatibility.
 
What are you specs? CPU and RAM mostly. Is it a 32 or 64 bit CPU? If it'll run Vista, it should run any Linux distro even better. IIRC Vista was the biggest resource hog of all the Windows OS's. I really liked Mint XFCE. I used Chromium browser with peppermint flash for the flash support. I guess Firefox doesn't have it anymore.

Xorin was kinda cool, but I worried about support, Seems Mint is more mainstream.
 
It will cost a little money but this is what how I got to Linux. (Maybe $30?)

I was never able to successfully dual boot. I know it can be done, others do, I couldn't get it to work. If you have an older Dell, the hard drive just sits at bottom edge. I purchase another hard drive, (maybe eBay since it is an older style of hard drive) and just physically swapped out the drive, basically running Linux. I choose Mint-Cinnamon. There were a few times I needed to used Windows, such as my Scan tool software or FitBit so I would just install the Windows Vista drive. On many laptop computers, (you didn't state what model you have) you can purchase a hard drive adapter that inserts into the space of the CD-DVD slot. Yes, you can't watch DVD's will this is happening, but if you want to learn without danger to your current system.

You can install Linux by making your USB drive into a boot-able device. That step has become really easy. ANd a total, with update and format of a hard drive is < 20 minutes. Just did another yesterday.

The big advantage to swapping physical hard drives is you can start trying all different flavors of Mint within any worry when you reformat a hard drive. You not playing and accidentally deleting the wrong ( Windows) partition.
 
Originally Posted By: tgrudzin
You not playing and accidentally deleting the wrong ( Windows) partition.

There really is no such thing. In reality, that's called a happy accident.
wink.gif
 
I am personally using Linux Mint's xfce distro and like it the best. I've tried Lubuntu, Slackware Puppy, Xubuntu, etc. On some 10+ year old laptops with 512 MB RAM, it runs, but frequently swaps to disk if you try to run modern stuff like browsers. It runs well on a 2 GB with an Intel Celeron from about 6-7 years ago.

The Windows installer successfully did a dual-boot for me on two of the laptops.. just be careful and read the prompts during the install.
smile.gif
 
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