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Okay guys, here's your chance! I am in possession of a 15 year old laptop. What Linux OS should I put in it? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's been about 8 years since I gave Linux a real chance. I have an Sony VAIO PCG-3D3l Laptop which was abandoned by it's previous owner.

I have no real plans for it, except to install Linux, and if I get comfortable with it, it's probably what I will end up doing my banking on, because as much as I love Windows, I can't say I ever feel secure using Windows.

What are your recommendations? I consider myself an advanced user with most forms of technology (Have an A+ certification that's older than this laptop), but not on the level most of the people reading this are probably on.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Just about all Linux distros will have comparable performance.

I suggest focusing instead on which desktop environment to use. LXQt or Xfce might be worth a try, or a plain old window manager if you want to get really lightweight and can tolerate some extra work. Get a live USB image and test drive one.

(For those who don't know, most distros have a variety of DEs and WMs available in their repos. You don't have to use the one that's installed by default.)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This answer has a lot of wisdom. It would have helped me greatly at the beginning of my Linux journey if someone had explained the difference between a distro and a DE, and how they both work. Choosing a DE is probably more important than choosing a distro for most beginners imo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

There's a reason why Linux Mint gets recommended a lot because not only is it built upon a stable base and the distro is good (at least lmde), the cinnamon de is easy to use as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I found that comment clear most of the fog I was suffering from. I'm grateful to have read it before getting started.

I have another laptop of my own with 8 gigs on it, which I I'm going to convert as well now. Exciting times lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into that.