Newbie Low Money Low Ram Laptop User
 

Hi all,
I'm very new to Linux as a matter of fact I'm still looking for the right program for my laptop.
They say that the old teach the young. Well, here I would like the young (you) to teach the old (me) 56.
My prime objective is to use a low ram laptop and find a Linux system that will bring new life to it. Money is tight which is why I'm doing this.

I hope to learn a lot,
Frank

Hi,

welcome to LQ. If you can get a laptop with 1 GB ram you should have no problems. With 2 GB ram pretty much any Linux distribution and desktop will run well (assuming it doesn't have some obscure/bad video chip).

What spec machine are you looking at?

Evo2.

Memory usage will mainly depend on the desktop environment you are choosing, not so much on the distro. But some distros are available with lightweight flavors so you don't have to customize your self after the main installation.

To help you choose the right distro it would be helpful to know what you intend to do with the laptop.
Just internet / email / office apps or anything beyond that?

And what interface are you looking for? Would you prefer a windows-like point and click interface, or are you looking for a distro that encourages you to look under the hood and learn the inner workings of linux? (i.e. makes you use the command line)

You may want to try out some different distros as live systems, distrowatch.com is a good resource to get an overview, but maybe start off with looking at

-Lubuntu (Ubuntu with LXDE Desktop)
-Mint XFCE (I think Mint is slightly easier to use that Ubuntu)
-Crunchbang (based on Debian, probably the most minimalistic but also the most lightweight, their artwork is a matter of taste, but I like it quite a bit)

You should be able to get a Pentium 4 with 1gb RAM for $0-100. That would be a good choice for Linux Mint Xfce desktkop, Linux Mint LXDE desktop, Xubuntu, or Lubuntu. Four beginner-friendly choices good for old hardware. :)

I'm sitting here with an AMD Sempron 2600 (equivalent to a Pentium 4), 1MB of RAM, and motherboard video (an office machine, not a games one). This will run anything bar Ubuntu, but some things better than others!

When you see a cheap machine that looks reasonable, check out the specifications on the internet and see what graphics chip it has, then check this site to see if people are having trouble with it: there have been a few that are nightmares.

Luckily you can try Linux from a live disk before installing, and choose something you feel comfortable with: the different GUIs can make two Linux systems look like quite different systems. Two you might like are
Linux Mint, Mate edition
SalineOS, with Xfce

Elaborate more please. It seems you question is what Linux distro for my so and so laptop?

I Should Have Stated
 

I will post in Laptops and Notebooks. I was following the rules, but forgot to mention it.
Please answer there.
I will read all these.

OK, we were all newbies at one time. Might as well keep using this post. If a Mod wants to move it they can.

We do kind of need to know exactly how much ram you are talking about. There are a number of choice that might be OK from limited to full linux.

I have posted in Laptops and Notebooks at "Looking To Shed Windows".