Post #2690561

2026-04-28 23:54 UTC

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?

Replies (7)

@boelder@shakedown.social 2026-04-29 00:08

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Yeah, Ubuntu is operatingsysta-non-grata right now...

Open ##2690562
@lich_silvae@masto.fediverse.games 2026-04-29 00:33

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online Linux Mint would work fine on both of those machines. The recommended amount of RAM is 4Gb but can use as low as 2Gb. My mom used it for years and found it very easy to work with. The deal with Minecraft however is a little tricky with Linux. There's no Bedrock support: Windows Store, Consoles, and Phones. Only Java launchers: prismlauncher, and the outdated official launcher on Linux, and a launch option on Windows So unfortunately they wouldn't be able to cross-play with all of their friends even on realms. Just be prepared for a little bit of friction there unless Microsoft decides to play nice.

Open ##2690564
@Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz 2026-04-29 02:04

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I'm using Devuan on a fleet of old Lenovo X-220 laptops. Very pleasing. Devuan is a systemd-free distro, which removes quite a bit of cruft searching for a problem to solve. #devuan https://www.devuan.org/

Open ##2690571
@vosje62@mastodon.nl 2026-04-29 03:08

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I had to say goodbye to a old laptop first running on early Win7 (hardware problem). I still run another Win7 laptop on Linux. As you are familiar with Linux, I can just say: 'burn' a startup USB stick with the distro of your choice and try it*. If distro '1' is not the thing for you of the laptop, don't worry, but 'burn' another. Ubuntu LTS is still a safe choice. I use Kubuntu LTS. With AI ... Let's wait and see if you running an LTS . 😅😅 All the time in te world... /2

Open ##2690573
@stragu@mastodon.indie.host 2026-04-29 06:43

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online distrowatch has an "old computers" category, and sorts distros by popularity, so should give you a few good hits to start with: https://distrowatch.com/search-mobile.php?ostype=All&category=Old+Computers&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleresults

Open ##2690575
@mikerspencer@mastodon.scot 2026-04-29 07:15

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online To keep maintenance low you could use one of the fedora atomic variants, but it depends what software you want to install because they need to be available as a flatpak.

Open ##2690577
@aho@mastodon.social 2026-04-29 09:24

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online sure mint can be good option, you may want to go for lxqt instead of kde or xfce instead of gnome, as I do think your main hurdle may be the Desktop Environment you pick. If you have really old laptops, then maybe take a look at antiX. I would recommend no matter what you pick, stick to the same distro on all, it's easier to administrate that way. You may need to tweak with kernel options and maybe some hardware not supported, but ask if you run into issues and we will help

Open ##2690578