Edit 2: to everyone suggesting an SDD: i know. Look, if this guy had enough $$$ for an SSD, he could buy a used lappy less than half the age of this one that has an ssd and 2-3x the memory.

Currently, my buddy has a budget of $0, and, if he ever has money to spend, it will be on a newer computer, not upgrading this one. Thx!

My buddy’s old laptop was useless running Windows 7. I wiped it, put on Linux Mint (MATE), and it’s humming along just fine.

Edit: I really love helping people out like this. This guy is in his late 60s and has no other computer. He told me he hasn’t been able to use it in years (I believe it!), so I told him I could wipe it and make it usable again. He was thrilled!

After trying LM Cinnamon, I found it was a bit too much for this machine (Core 2 Duo “Penryn” @ 2.3GHz, 2.77GB Memory, Intel Series 4 Integrated Graphics). I reinstalled with LM MATE, and found it more responsive. I did the standard secondary installation of all the goodies like multimedia codecs, TTF support, battery tweaks, etc. I set up snapshots and the firewall, and installed UBlock Origin in Firefox. I updated everything. Shockingly, the battery still gets about 90-120 minutes, which blows my mind. The damn thing is 18 years old!

So, it’s still slow to launch stuff, as it’s running off of a slow HDD, but it manages to run most things just fine. It’s certainly far more responsive than Win7, and it enables my buddy to enjoy safe, secure, and modern web browsing (which is pretty much all he uses it for).

    • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      10·
      7 months ago

      no landfills here in Florida, they just burn the e-waste and pump the fumes into the local orphanariums, selling it as “Vytameens™".

    • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      42·
      7 months ago

      AkTuALly:

      In this particular instance, due to the microscopic amount of memory in the machine (even for the day, when 4GB was considered “minimum”, this lappy has… 2.77GB?), more memory would probably impact performance just as much as an SSD.

      But, yeah, and SSD would increase app launch performance and other HDD-centric tasks a great deal. But more memory would allow more apps to cache in active memory and quick-launch after first-launch. This might be a better and more cost-effective “first upgrade” before going SSD.

      Also, this dude is in no position to spend money on this machine, so I’m doing what I can to make the most of what he has.

      • Guest_User@lemmy.world
        5·
        7 months ago

        Just playing devils advocate but a faster drive would allow better page caching even with the low ram which is probably already happening on that terribly slow HDD.

        • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          22·
          7 months ago

          Sufficient memory = very little/no paging

          And it would be cheaper (for this vintage of ram)

          You’re not wrong, but it’s a matter of priorities: the memory is the biggest problem with this machine and it can’t be made up for with any other resource, except, sometimes, swap/paging. But more memory is the answer to that issue, not an SSD, and more memory would solve a lot of other performance issues that only more memory can solve.

          But, of course, an SSD would bring many of its own benefits (including, yes, faster paging/swap). These, however, are far less likely to benefit this particular user, especially considering that they’re more expensive.

  • verassol@lemmy.ml
    5·
    7 months ago

    Recently did something similar and yeah it seems Mint, specially LMDE in my case, is a great fit for such cases. It’s on that sweet spot between being too bare and too bloated.

  • Eugenia@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    7 months ago

    I’ve been putting together a lot of old laptops for friends and family, so here’s my opinion based on my experience:

    Your CPU speed is ok (that CPU scores 932 passmark points, which is ok for dekstop usage and youtube at 360p (you should set up his youtube at 360p, and to not autoplay). If this was Chrome, that cpu could do 480p, but firefox is much slower than chrome on youtube. The difference in speed is not visible on fast systems, but it is visible on very old ones (anything less than 1500 passmark points).

    Your biggest problem is the RAM. You have only 2.77 GB of RAM, which is NOT enough for normal web browsing in this day and age – if you’re using lots of tabs. The moment you will open more than 2-3 tabs with heavy websites (e.g. facebook, nytimes, and linkedin), you will start swapping like crazy with Cinnamon. So your user will always have to be conscious of what apps they have open (and make sure you configure 4 GB of swap too, just in case).

    Mate and XFCE should be using less RAM, indeed (about 600-800 MB instead of 1.3 GB on Cinnamon). I find XFCE more stable personally, and it only uses 100 MB more RAM than Mate on average. The only good thing Mate has over XFCE is that it comes with a user administrative gui app. I usually install that on xfce (“mate-user-admin”).

    • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      We’re in Florida, so no landfill— they’d just burn it and pump the exhaust into local orphanages, sold as “Vytameenz™”

  • ToffeeIsForClosers@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    7 months ago

    Question for you guys.

    How do you know which version to install relative to the hardware? Is it just trial and error?

    I have some 13 year old Macs but I’m not sure which distro and version to go with and I’m not keen on spending days figuring it out.

    I recall reading another post from some guy who went through like six installs with various problems. Didn’t seem encouraging.

    • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Tell me the specific model of the Mac, and I will give you a specific recommendation for the hardware

      • ToffeeIsForClosers@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Thanks, that’s very kind of you to offer.

        I’ve got quite a few older machines. I’m pretty keen to figure out the top four, at least.

        Any advice on the following and/or on the method of identifying viable distros and versions in general is very appreciated.

        • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009)
        • iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
        • Mac mini Server (Mid 2010)
        • MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)
        • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)
        • iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
        • Mac mini 2018
        • gregorum@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          Ok, so, for the 2008-2010 machines, depending on the memory available, you can try Linux Mint, EndeavorOS, or, maaaaaybe (on the ones with dGPUs and more memory), Pop!_OS.

          For everything post-2010, Pop!_OS. Maybe Endeavor OS of you happen to like it, but I think Pop!_OS has really done a lot of work to become the new, de facto “where to start with Linux” distro after Ubuntu got enshittified (Linux Mint for older machines)— especially because popOS has a custom-spun NVidia version that is one of the few out-of-the-box distros that “just works” with NVidia cards.

          Edit: after some tinkering, you may pick LM over Endeavor for the older ones, or just Endeavor for all. I’ve never used it, so I don’t know how well it will do on older hardware, but LM is great for that.

          popOS, on the other hand, is great for hardware that can run it (and a lot can), so check that out. It’s my favorite, and a daily driver in my server and another machine I have, both older Macs.

          • ToffeeIsForClosers@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            7 months ago

            This is great! Thank you so much for giving me some direction here.

            I’m going to give this a whirl on one of the units and see how it goes.

  • Petter1@lemm.ee
    13·
    7 months ago

    Replace that HDD or your buddy will soon wake up to grub rescue 😌