What Linux Distro for my old laptop
 

Wondering if someone has a positive recommendation about my Boat Anchor; Microsoft sent a message saying Vista support ends in a few weeks; so, can I use this boat anchor with a Linux Distro that will still function?

Laptop details:
Toshiba Satellite A135-S4427
2 GB RAM

Is there anything out for Linux that I could use that may be functional? Thanks

AntiX will run on anything, but it's a bit basic.

It would have been nice if you'd given us the specification, but looking it up I see you have a two-core 32-bit processor and an all-Intel chipset. Any 32-bit Linux should run on that, probably faster than Vista does. The processor is not all that fast, so I suggest nothing too demanding!

We always say that you can't go too far wrong with Linux Mint. Try the version with the Mate desktop (not the Cinnamon). Alternatively, MX Linux comes with the Xfce desktop, which will be a bit lighter. You don't need to go down to a bare window manager, as in AntiX. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, get the Xfce version of Salix: Slackware with more programs and user-friendliness: I run that on a Pentium III laptop from 2002!

tboneshep, since 2001 this question has been asked & answered about a million times:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=What+Linux...+my+old+laptop
hope this helps.

I suggest Linux Mint or Xubuntu.

I've had great success with Puppy on old / and /or / limited hardware. Many folks here also recommend antix.

I will stop recommending my favourite, Arch, for 32-bit systems, since they are discontinuing support for 32-bit this year.

You'll probably find most versions of linux will perform better on your laptop than Windows Vista did. In my humble opinion, Vista was the worst version ever of Windows ....

Have fun !

I agree with all previous posters, but I'll add in my own hearty recommendation for Slackware. I haven't looked lately, but as I recall its minimum RAM requirement is 64mb or so, and I've installed it on old Dells that had far less than 1Ghz processor (I think it was 533mHz or so). I've also cheated and installed Salix or Zenwalk, both of which are Slackware-based.

I guess one of the main advantages of Slackware is that it boots to a text console, so you can build your system up from there in an attempt to discover what your old computer is capable of. For instance, the XFCE desktop should work at that speed, but then again you may find Fluxbox faster. Most non-essential services are not enabled by default, so you can also turn services on as you need them, or else turn them on gradually to see what the computer can comfortably manage. In other words, it's all up to you, and in the end you get your OS finely tuned for that specific computer. Of course, you can do the same thing with other distros, it's just not exactly built in to the process the same way.

The alternative, of course, is to spend $35 on a Raspberry Pi or a Pine64. It's probably about as fast as your computer, and would run with a fraction of the wattage!

Interesting ... I've never used slack, but the way you describe it makes it sound analogous to Arch, my own distro of choice. If ever I need a 32-bit alternative along those lines, I'll check it out.

Thanks notKlaatu.

Hi...

Lubuntu, for the most part, has worked pretty well for me.

Regards...

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/...tion-are-you-1

Try it ... Fun ;) I got Slackware!

Hi...

Thanks for posting that. It was a little edgy and I would have preferred different wording for some of the entries but it was kind of fun. It says: "I'm a Red Hat." :D

Regards...

Nearly any of the distributions available in 32-bit should run. Any with the lighter/faster windows managers (xfce, lxde, openbox as examples: KDE and GNOME are heavier and slower) should run enough faster than VISTA to give you a real kick. MINT and MINT-DE are a joy to run. Q4OS and Elementary work fine. While I love Gentoo, Slackware, and Arch I do not consider them a reasonable replacement for VISTA for a new flyer. Test your wings on something easy and fast first, and go for solid geeky options later.

BTW: there are MANY Live-CD and Live-DVD images that you can use something like E2B (Easy2Boot) to load from a USB device. These allow you to "try before you fly" as many as you like before installing to the hard drive.

PS. Check your hardware stats early. Some of that model had hardware that could handle 64-bit once the BIOS was flashed to a later version. A quick test with a 64-bit version of TinyCore, Puppy, or Knoppix might prove interesting. IT would do no harm, the worst that could happen is that the 64-bit kernel would not boot on that platform and you would know to seek ONLY 32-bit images.

You may go with Puppy Linux or Peppermint OS 2.

WELCOME *BACK* (after spending 16.3 years hiding out with RH7.2?;)).
Yes, likely most any http://DistroWatch.com will be well-supported.

A thought: start planning whatever you want to save (backup to flash drive maybe).

A [possiblyGenus:D] idea: use VirtualBox to TRY any Linux (before you disturb/erase Vista).
Trust me, it's 'trivial'! And you still have your web-browser running, so you can easily post a screenshot IF you run into any 'glitch'! Great for trying 'live' distros e.g. this (or even preinstalled OSboxes; try just 512M for VM's memory, tho). A VM will be ?a bit? slower tho, but I don't know how much:( 10%-10000%:(

I suggest to start from top to down. Grab any new distro and try. There are great chance it will work. The only limitations is graphic card of your computer. Brand new desktops like Gnome 3 or KDE 5 can be too heavy for old graphic card. Also you should disable file system journal on hard drive. Simple hard drive is too old, and active journal probably will kill the hard drive on your computer for good. As it was done on my notebook. Now I am using ext2 very old files system, it is not as safe as any system with journal, but well, if you care much about safety of your data, then I suggest buy new notebook.