@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online
Post #1822848
2026-04-28 23:54 UTC
Replies (21)
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@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online 2026-04-28 23:54
They’re pretty low powered laptops, even for their age. One is used mainly as a music player (streaming and mp3s) and the other is mostly a backup laptop, and for Minecraft if the kid has a friend over. I used to have some Ubuntu machines back in the 2010s, but I’ve been out of the loop on Linux since I no longer live or work with a bunch of Linux knowers. I’ve heard good things about Mint? Is that a good one for old, underpowered laptops?
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@gangrif@social.undrground.org 2026-04-28 23:56
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Man i hope you're ready for two dozen correct answers that will leave you feeling just as lost as when you started. :P Linux distros are as much about preferences as they are about technology. I would personally suggest Fedora, but a lot of this comes down to my own experience, and my preference. I think its a solid distro, and works well -for me- but you may hate it. Do you have some requirements that might help inform the decision?
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@jpaskaruk@growers.social 2026-04-29 00:05
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I like Debian, but you need to make sure to select KDE when you get to the screen where you pick your Desktop Environments. But generally, Debian is stable and reliable and won't tend to break anything when you update.
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@RJ@urusai.social 2026-04-29 00:09
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online A few months ago, I was able to install Linux Mint on an old PC. The PC only supported legacy BIOS, which other distros no longer support. Linux Mint had been running very well. I think it's a good distro for older hardware.
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@BoydStephenSmithJr@hachyderm.io 2026-04-29 00:23
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I use Debian, but https://social.treehouse.systems/@bodil/115889714321160414 seems like maybe a more informed opinion, as I haven't surveyed the distribution landscape in quite a while.
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@ddr@pony.social 2026-04-29 00:28
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I ran Mint for a while, that might be a good choice. I'm currently on KDE Neon, but I think it's a small project based on Ubuntu so I can't really recommend it. Plus it's misbehaving for me at the moment. What OS you install and what desktop environment you use are usually pretty independent, so like you can switch between Gnome and KDE and i3 and others to see which one you like and which meets your performance budget on the old laptops. 🙂
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@mast0d0nphan@beige.party 2026-04-29 00:28
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online https://distrosea.com/ https://distrochooser.de/
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@Flux@wandering.shop 2026-04-29 00:48
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Cliché question, but what do you want to *do* with it?
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@Eleyon@mstdn.party 2026-04-29 01:03
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online ZorinOS is Ubuntu based (and Ubuntu is based on debian). ZorinOS is designed to be very stable, and it's also marketed as being designed for revitalizing older technology. It's a familiar layout to windows, and has a LOT of custom patches to make windows apps, and windows related things easy for someone who may never want to touch a terminal.
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@crow@irlqt.net 2026-04-29 01:22
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Want it to look and feel like Windows? Use Mint Want to ensure it can game? Use Bazzite Want a modern OS with all the cool and nice to have features in a polished package? Use Fedora Ubuntu, Debian are never bad choices. Note: I don't use any of these because I am insane and have lots of free time - but this is the 'common' wisdom
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@reanguiano@tilde.zone 2026-04-29 03:56
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online As others have said Mint is a fine choice, but you may want to try this nixOS-based distro that mimics ChromeOS: https://nixbookos.org/
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@ml@social.mitexleo.one 2026-04-29 04:14
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Can you please share some spec? You should probably go for a distro with XFCE.
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@zonnigewoning@mastodon.nl 2026-04-29 04:17
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I used Linux Mint on two of my very old dust collecting laptops. With 4GB ram. Unhandable slow with Windows. Not one special change needed with Linux, it just works including cd-drive.
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@oblomov@sociale.network 2026-04-29 04:35
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online how old are we talking about? do you have some hardware specs to get an idea? My general recommendation would be to try out plain Debian as a starting point, with a lightweight window manager rather than a full-fledged desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE. If you do prefer to have an actual desktop environment, KDE can be configured to be much lighter than GNOME despite the overabundance of features.
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@ni_nad@mastodon.social 2026-04-29 05:08
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online for the pure backup duty role, I swapped an old laptop to Debian last weekend. It'll live at my in law's place, use sync thing to fetch from phone, and maybe another sync thing link over tailscale to backup to my home nas.
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@u0421793@toot.pikopublish.ing 2026-04-29 05:28
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I’ve put Zorin on one recently and I’m more impressed with how good it is than I thought I would be, so I’m happy to recommend it. It also has a very good stance on the so-called ‘age verification’ idiocy (ie they’re not going to do it) so I’m double happy to recommend it,
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@n_dimension@infosec.exchange 2026-04-29 06:00
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online #archlinux of course Anyone who tells you something else is a dirty liar.
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@roknrol@beige.party 2026-04-29 07:10
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online if you've got 4G or more of RAM, Debian is usually my go-to. If you have less RAM than that (or an unsupported proc or something), you'll have to look for a niche distro (PuppyLinux used to be good at like 250mb of RAM, but it's been awhile since I've used it and I have no idea if it's still under active development). @stragu@mastodon.indie.host suggested DistroWatch, and that is literally the best place to find distros for specific needs.
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@sirtao@social.sirtao.it 2026-04-29 13:24
The simplest answer is "any of them". A more complex answer is "depending on your skill level and how much you want to bother" Let's assume limited skill so to make this reply possibly useful for as many people as possible. The best part is that most distro nowadays are available as #LiveDistribution so you can put them on a USB stick and try them to see if you like them and they work well on your system, no strings attached. The most popular answer is usually #LinuxMint: it's widely used, widely supported and available with an official Xfce version. #Xfce is a #DesktopEnvironment (henceforth: DE), what manages the actual program windows(to simplify a bit), made with older systems(think Windows7 and older) in mind so less bell&whistles but lighter on CPU and RAM. You can change it to a "cooler" one(i.e.: #GNOME, #KDE, #Cinnamon, #Mate) later anyway if you want: this is only the "starting look" so to say, to minimize\simplify impact. Do note Mint is derived from #Ubuntu, with a number of changes(generally taken as improvements), and Ubuntu has been taking decision not everybody like(a #Debian based version is also available). Another option is #OpenSUSE, currently enjoying a bit of extra popularity due it being developed mostly in the #EU and not derived from other pre-existing distributions. Multiple DEs are available at installation. #Debian, with its Stable version, is THE paragon when talking about long term stability at cost of using older version of programs. You can manually install more recent ones but that increase the complexity perhaps beyond the scope of the request. I haven't installed it in decade but I recall the installer not being the most user-friendly. Of course things can have changed wildly since then. If you dislike having an invasive service manager, you can try out #AntiX, #MXLinux or #Devuan. ...but that might be beyond the complexity limit scope of the request. Note: MX Linux and Devuan are specifically derived from Debian Stable.
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@zer0unplanned@friendica.rogueproject.org 2026-04-29 14:47
@ Choose one that you like distrowatch.com/
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@reed@social.lol 2026-04-29 14:54
@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online others have made some good suggestions with distros I've used. My main laptop is 4 years old, running Zorin (I did build-to-order on that one). My 3 yo ThinkPad yoga is on Origami, and my 15 yo MacBook Pro is on linuxlite.