Super old laptops and Linux

[Michael]

Guys I'm getting the itch again. And my most recent laptop computer Dell G7 7550 (still 5+ years old) would be great I'm sure. But I'm still too scared to take the full plunge. And I'm not in the market for anything new at the moment though those framework laptops look very nice. If I'm dealing with laptops about 10 years old and an older desktop, what you think I can do? We talking Arch or Gentoo and keeping that stuff terminal only? Hahha. 

I've done gentoo a couple times years ago. But I admit I'm not the best at keeping it up and figuring out what I break. But if I stick with it I guess that's how you learn... 

These Omarchy videos getting me pretty inspired but I fear these old things may not do all that. 

What do you think?

Michael Butler

[Holland Griffis]

I’m running cachyos on a thinkpad x230 with no issues. You’d be surprised what fairly old hardware can do. Also framework for an awesome lol. I love my framework 13. Also running cachyos btw.

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[Blake McBride]

If you're looking for a full Linux that just works, I recommend:

1. Fedora on newer hardware

2. Linux Mint on older hardware

I've tried several, and these two appear to be the most rock-solid and mature distros.

Of course, Ubuntu is always a good choice, but they tend to be too pushy about "their way."

Other distros are fun to play with too.

Blake

[Vincent Brown]

I've been amazed at how well Linux runs on old hardware. Here are some general guidelines I've used to breathe new life in old equipment. 

Solid state disks have come down in price. If the old computer, came with a spinning disk, replace it with SSD.

RAM has been more expensive lately but in the past I have used Crucial's system scanner while a computer was still running Windows to see what the max amount of RAM the motherboard would support, how much it currently had, and what kind of RAM was needed to max out its capacity.
In many cases, older hardware would still perform surprisingly well with Linux, SSDs, and plenty of RAM. The price of the SSD and RAM upgrade is generally significantly less than buying a new computer. 
Other considerations (particularly before spending money) is how well speccd the computer was to start with and how old the computer is.
A gaming computer with a higher end CPU, a video card, and a decent amount of RAM to start with will obviously perform better than a minimal spec budget system with a pentium CPU, 4 GB RAM, no video card, spinning disk.

Hardware age is another factor. If the original OS was at least Windows 7 and hardware specs are good, its worth at least attempting. Obviously Windows 10 boxes that are more recent are better options. There are tons of Windows 10 boxes right now that don't meet Win11 requirements that would be excellent candidates for Linux.
Next, consider what you want to do with the old computer. A lot of people just need computers for browsing the web and working with office documents. If you want gaming and video production, you'll get diminishing returns.
As for choice of distro, I've seen older computers have installation failures on some distros that would work in others. I imagine driver support is probably the main factor there. If the first distro you try doesn't install, that doesn't necessarily mean the computer is just a paperweight. You could either try different distros, or try an older release of your desired distro and then see if it will take subsequent version upgrades to get to a supported release.

[Michael]

Yeah it has been a while, but I have dabbled in Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mint. Like I said I have even compiled Gentoo a couple times but admittedly those never stay functional long with my current skill set. I usually break something or lose interest trying to get something to work. LOL. I am going to see what I can do with these old, and I mean OLD 3 laptops I have had laying around for years. And Maybe I'll eventually buy a new Linux only laptop like a framework.Or find a newer used laptop I could go crazy on. I just need to find one more AC adaptor... Isn't it funny you see something laying around or know where it is all the time until you actually need it...

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Michael Butler

Cell: 615-642-8501