A new version of MX-14 was released today and one of the developers is the fella that created antiX - which is a king among "old hardware" distros. It's a very nice system and it runs very well on old and new hardware. You can probably set it up for dual boot with XP as long as you have space available on the drive...

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/mx

Hi,

Look at this sticky: Newbie alert: 50 Open Source Replacements for Windows XP

Hope this helps.
Have fun!

You really need to list more than the pc model. Including specs is necessary to get best help.

Also, since you mentioned XP I am assuming you are new to linux? If so, I can say that from my perspective of being new to linux from XP, I think that machine could easily handle Lubuntu 14.04 and if you have 1 gig ram, you could also try Xubuntu 14.04.

I went with Xubuntu 14.04 in April in a dual boot with XP and it has worked out very well for me even though I knew nothing about linux before this.

Dell XPS M140

Looking at the specs. I agree about using MX-14.1

I just installed it on this Compaq CQ-57 with a little beefier specs but the older MX-14 runs just fine
on my Acer Aspire One ZG5 Atom N270 single core cpu , 1 gig of ram, Netbook.

There are install videos at the main site to use for instructions also.

Edit: If I was you. I would go with the non-pae iso version.
The iso fits on a cd also.

"What's the best way to putting Linux on a old computer?"

I'd say from a cd. You'd have to make sure you are using good quality media and burn it at the very slowest speed.

Thank you all for the help that you give me.

No I'm kinda still new to linux. But the laptop that I working is for my mother in law.

Also if you guys need me to give more detail about the computer just let me know.

Lubuntu 14.04 is my recommendation. I removed the XP partition completely using the parted program from a SystemrescueCD. Then just did a fresh install of Lubuntu, on two of my computers. One was an old Compaq laptop from 2006, with 512MB of RAM.

I'm curious why you would do that? The Lubuntu installer could have done that for you.

I'm assuming mother-in-law is a windows user? If so, I would even more strongly suggest Lubuntu since it has the desktop "look" of windows. I believe it also, when you mouse over an application in the menu, provides a tooltip which explains what it is which might be easier for someone not familiar with linux program names. Plus just being a 'buntu, it is going to be newbie friendly and have lots of support help.

It's always good to include the computers cpu and RAM info.

After I removed the partition using parted, I issued the following command:
The purpose was to make sure the hard drive was completely clean prior to install. My old Dell desktop had intermittent booting errors with Windows XP. It has been error free since I put Lubuntu on it. Not sure if the dd command helped it or not.

This machine is a dual boot HP Pavilion XP, with Slackware 13.37 Linux 2.6. Linux has a 23G partition.

First: Only half listen to people who go on about their newer hardware, or newer Linux. The newer Linux have upgrades for new motherboards and new ideas for automatic stuff that takes more CPU or more memory than you will have. Most of anything you need for an older computer is there in any Linux release of the last 6 years. I would not go back farther than Linux 2.6 because of the better hardware handling of udev that was introduced.

However, I ran Linux 2.4 for years beyond its prime simply because it works solid, and KDE in Linux 2.6 is a real PAIN (use xfce4 instead, unless you really really want a Windows clone). Started my long delayed switch of EVERYTHING to Linux 2.6 about 3 weeks ago, and that will take months due to so much recompiling for Gcc 4.6 and newer libraries. I really hate what they did to my favorite editor, and other pains.

I also have Linux 2.4 and Linux 2.6 running on a Win98 three boot system. No problems with small memory or small disk space.
It only has an 4GB drive and a 3GB drive.

I use LILO for the dual boot because it is simple enough to setup and I know it already. I have a menu with XP boot on top, and 6 versions of Linux following it (one huge kernel, and a bunch of custom compiles of the kernel).

I like to make one XP partition, a Linux partition, a Linux swap partition, and a few more spare partitions. Some spares are FAT32 and some at ext2, and they get used for storage, data transfer, and burning CDs. They can easily be reconfigured without any damage to the XP or Linux root partitions. Linux has no difficulty mounting the extra partitions, so there is little need for really large single partitions. My XP system has 10 paritions on a 80GB drive, and my main box has 14 partitions on a 160GB drive (2 of 64GB for a full Linux in each).
You can probably get by with 4 partitions: XP, Linux root, Linux SWAP, and spare.

If you go for the total wipe of XP, then 3 partitions: Linux root, Linux SWAP, and spare.
The spare is really handy for upgrades. The new Linux can be installed in the spare partition without disturbing the working Linux. There are many ways to reconfigure after that.



XP will be useable for a long time. It just will not get any more bug fixes. So use Firefox and AVG, and do not use IE.
It still can do a few things that I find difficult on Linux, like full funtionality in my email (outlook based animations and sound that this other user likes). But that is all I use XP for anymore, everything else is done Linux.
I keep the win98 system for regression testing and it has a good flight simulator on it.

Do we have two threads going on here?

First of all you or she picks a distro that they like based on looks, easy of use, and maybe more important to you is that it fully supports this computer. We need to know cpu, amount of ram at least. Maybe even graphic adapter.

Then you usually boot to a cd or dvd and follow the installer. You usually don't have to do anything more. Almost all installers know that you want to delete something and install linux.

If there is important data on this computer you need to get it off and test it before you begin.

A cd or dvd works fine. You may be able to use a usb drive if you can boot from it. Also try installing a vm device like virtualbox of vmware player and then install from iso file from your pc.