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submitted 20 hours ago by chraebsli@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml

A friend of someone related doesn't have a laptop nowadays, but needs one. Now we have 2 old laptops at home, and we want to give her one so she can do some things on it. Since she isn't used to laptops and the old laptops wouldn't run a Windows 11 (I don't want to install a Win10 because of end of support and lacking security features), I guess installing a simple Linux is fine. Now comes the big question: Which Linux distro should I install? (see requirements below)

Laptops:

  • Acer Aspire ES 15, AMD dual-core E1-7010 @1.5 GHz, 4GB RAM, 1000 GB HDD
  • HP Pavilion 17-e030ez, Intel Pentium @2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, 10000 GB HDD (I'd choose this)

Tasks:

  • Office Stuff (I thought about OnlyOffice)
  • Internet surfing
  • Banking via Web

Requirements:

  • needs to have full German support
  • needs an easy software installation center
  • should be easy to learn
  • optionally, her friends (which probably use Windows/ Mac) should be able to help her (since she never had a laptop before)
  • eventually German forum/ German Guides

I'm using Linux/ Manjaro for myself but don't have any experience with beginner-friendly distros. I used a KDE neon for some time and also have used Ubuntu, and to be honest, they seem beginner-friendly too.

Please let me know your opinions, thanks!

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[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 11 points 18 hours ago

That's a pretty weak machine. Linux Mint is my #1 recommendation for new Linux users, especially former Windows users. It's what I moved my parents to on their very old computer and it works great.

Try the default Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop first, but if it seems really slow, go with the XFCE version.

You really need to use an SSD in that laptop if possible, it will speed things up to a usable level. Also, if the RAM is upgradable, you should put 8GB minimum in it. DDR3 laptop sticks are dirt cheap, you can get them online for $20-$30 for 8GB sticks.

Same with SSDs, get a 1000GB brand new SSD for $50-$60, it will make everything much more responsive.

[-] chraebsli@programming.dev 9 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, it's an old laptop. She doesn't have much money for a new laptop and since she won't use it often, it's enough to check mail, e-banking, ... And we have some old laptops at home nobody uses, so we thought we could give it to her as a gift.

Eventually, she'll buy a new ~400$ laptop later with some good specs but that's not in the next few months. But thanks for the tips.

[-] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

On my living room setup hooked up to a projector:

mint xfce
sff tower
dual core
only 3GB ddr2. (One slot fried) 1080p via display port to HDMI 1tb HDD Use 2 VPN. An sshd server Myriad physical issues. Old as fuck BIOS.

(Was released in 2009 or 2011?)

Memory is a bit of a pain sometimes. Mostly Firefox needs to be closed and reopened after system sleep.

I can watch 4 football games in HD with no real issue.

It is tweaked to high heaven in kernal and configs.

As long as it can work I will make it work.

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
49 points (94.5% liked)

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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