Hello everyone! My relative has an old laptop (probably 8 years old): Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Moble (I believe it's 500 series, I can't see it right now, as I don't have access to that computer for the moment). Originally it came with Windows Vista (mercy, please!). Couple of months ago I saved this computer by introducing Linux. Unfortunately I had a very hard time finding a good distro that could work well with that computer.

The biggest issue was the screen resolution. For some reason I could only use very low screen resolution, Ubuntu & Mint didn't let me even go above 800x600 (while this computer under Windows was working under 1280x800 - if I remember correctly). Elementry OS turned out to be a way better option, everything worked better, but still not at the maximum resolution and the video is always cutting (it doesn't play smoothly), and also after few months of using elementry OS there appeared some annoying thins about that distro (for example side bars navigators).

My question to you guys is: what would be the best distro for such a computer? The laptop's owner is using it only for few software:

Firefox with Flashplayer (web browsing, YouTube, etc.)
LibreOffice: Calc & Writer
Inkscape (vector graphics)
Qmmp (for listening to music)
VLC Player (watching movies)

and rarely:
GIMP (drawing / graphics)

Hello!

I don't know about the Esprimo per se, but I installed Manjaro (Arch based) with Xfce as desktop environment on an Amilo, that is also very, very old, and it worked really well.

But probably most distros that aren't too "heavy" (in other words it's probably best to avoid Gnome 3, KDE and Unity) should work.

Try out Lubuntu especially if you are beginner. You can try out multiple distros with bootable usb key prepared with unetbootin.

Very cool

If this one

http://www.linlap.com/fujitsu_esprimo_mobile_v5555

AntiX 15 will fly and get you over the Sis graphics chip speed bump.

MX 14 should be OK I would think also.

Go for the 32 bit full version if AntiX. 32 bit MX14 also if deciding on that one.

Fujitsu laptops are weird.

Hi...

Welcome to the forum

If this system has a graphics chip from SiS, that would explain your resolution problems, as rokytnji has alluded to above.

@chessmasterz88: Welcome, as well.

Regards...

Hey! Thank you everyone for your replay(s)!

YES!

...and yes!

I agree with that articles' statement, that the laptop is very weird. But also 8 years for a laptop I think is a lot. I know a lot of people with Acers etc. which didn't last even 2-3 years.


I will definitely try AniX or MX.


I know nothing about Arch distros. I would prefer to stick to Debian-based. Does Arch uses X11 for the keyboard?



Also I would like to add some questions:
My friend who is a Linux fanatic recommended me LXLE or Q4OS. What are your thoughts on these? Basically speaking there are sooo many distros out there that is really hard to decide...

And also, if some programs are made specifically for Debian-based distros, is there a way to run them under other distros?
Does Skype work under any distro? Skype is also the other very important software for the laptop's owner, that I forgot to mention in the first post.

You're welcome.

Not sure but I know that installing it can offer varying levels of difficulty depending upon the distribution. What might be important to know is that, starting with version 4.3, Skype dropped direct ALSA support, so you would need to install PulseAudio, if the distribution you chose did not have that installed by default. That might (or might not) present additional headaches.

If this solution would work for the owner, it might be easier to install native Linux solutions like Ekiga or Jitsi but again the owner's needs might be Skype specific. These two programs are possibly offered in a given distribution's repositories, as well. I know they are for Ubuntu.

Regards...

Hello Firefox works out of the box in Iceweasel in AntiX and MX14.
At least on my installs.

My /etc/apt/various.list in AntiX is

MX-14 has access to installing Firefox latest also.

No outside software is needed for video chat in Hello Firefox.
Every window user I am related to and talk to online has Firefox installed on their box.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/hello/