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A friend just replaced his laptop. The old one is about 5 or 6 years old and was acting up a lot. I suspect it has virus, malware, trojan, etc problems. I asked if he considered trying to install Linux and somehow found myself saying that I'd mess around with it if he left it with me and wasn't in a hurry to get it back.

So SparkExchangers, where do you suggest I start? We are not looking at making a fancy machine out of this. If it handles email, browsing and can connect to wifi we're probably laughing. Of course the installation should be as simple as possible and have a user friendly interface.

20100318 - Thanks all. I've downloaded MEPIS and UBUNTU. I'm now waiting for the laptop to arrive.

edited Mar 18 at 11:53

asked Mar 16 at 20:32

Tony
166●1●1●6

phorneker · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-17 01:40:27Z UTC

For an older laptop, I would recommend downloading one of the following live CD distributions: SimplyMepis, Ubuntu, or PCLinuxOS

These Linux distributions were designed for and run well on older laptops, and they are very friendly for those who are used to either a Windows or a MacOS environment.

While Puppy may be a viable option (per last answer), SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS are distributions designed specifically for those just starting out with Linux.

Alexander · Answer 2 · 2010-03-17 02:00:34Z UTC

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For a new user, I'd recommend Ubuntu. What are the specs for the RAM and processor? In my experience, 512 MB and 1.4 Ghz is the lowest comfortable for Ubuntu/Gnome.

answered Mar 17 at 2:00

Alexander
21●3

	In theory, you should be able to run Linux on any Pentium class processor. In practice, the amount of RAM required depends largely on what desktop environment you have installed. GNOME and KDE are complete desktop environments that are resource hogs. Ubuntu itself requires 128MB without running a desktop environment. This itself is impractical unless you are running it on a server. Xubuntu, Fluxbuntu, Lubuntu (with LXDE) replace GNOME and KDE with lightweight desktop environments. Hence, the RAM requirements are lower (specifically 384MB) – phorneker Mar 17 at 4:36
	As for the processor. Today's distributions work best with a Pentium 4 or newer processor if you are running GNOME and/or KDE. XFCE, LXDE, Fluxbox and other window managers such as WindowMaker run well with older processors. In general, the newer the processor, the faster and more responsive Linux will be. – phorneker Mar 17 at 4:39

Josh · Answer 3 · 2010-03-16 21:00:41Z UTC

One of the smallest and quickest would be to load it with Puppy Linux, you can also use it from a USB stick, another option and maybe the moat polished interface is Ubuntu but it takes a bit faster laptop, don't have the specs for the laptop you are looking at. Puppy will run on old Win98 machines, like panasonic CF-27.

Puppy Linux Video Tutorials http://rhinoweb.us/

Puppy supports WiFi: How to Set up a Wireless Network in Puppy Linux http://www.wikihow.com/Set-up-a-Wireless-Network-in-Puppy-Linux

ErichZ · Answer 4 · 2010-03-18 00:19:47Z UTC

I'm also an Ubuntu fan, though I honestly think most of the distros are similar and user-friendly - I had a PPC version of Fedora running on a G3 iBook without any ramp-up, it was so similar to my Ubuntu environment.

However, the best way to decide is to test, and that's what the Live CD is for. If you have high-speed internet, a CD burner, and some CD-RW (or CDROMs to spare) download several ISOs, from a site like this one. ISOs are disc images, and can be burned right to the CD. With a Live CD, you can run the OS right from the CD, without installing it - that way, you can decide which distro is faster or most user-friendly (or even just compatible with the laptop).

I use Ubuntu with my junior school computer club, and the youngsters pick it up quite quickly.

Linux, where do I start?

4 Answers