I need your advice!

George1960

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Dear community,

I need your help. I am an old person with limited (basic) computer knowledge. I want to learn Linux, and for this purpose, I would like to use my old computer. Its characteristics are:

- Microsoft Windows XP
- Media Center Edition
- Version 2002
- Service Pack 3
- Dell Dimension DV051
- Intel(R)
- Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
- 2.79GHz, 504 MB of RAM
- Disk "C" capacity: 70 GB

Could you please advise me which Linux distribution would be the best fit for this computer? The intended purpose is basic: send an receive e-mails, web browsing, watch videos, listen to music, banking and the occasional typing of documents.
I would appreciate very much your assistance.

Best regards,

George1960
 


@George1960
Greetings George and Welcome to Linux dot org.
From one old guy to another {I turned 85 last November}, I believe that you would find the transition from Win XP quite easy if you look into Linux Mint. {Mate is the desktop I use, but they have Cinnamon and XFCE also}.
I have tried several different distributions and have come to that conclusion, as I was coming from Win 7.
You need to get acquainted with using Google. As someone here suggested a while back - "make Google your friend." Type in your stats in Google along with 'Which light weight version of Linux can I use?" You will be quite surprised with how much information you will get.
You sound like you will make a fine addition to this forum. Enjoy your Linux. It's a real trip.
Old Geezer Tango Charlie
 
@George1960
G'day and welcome to the crew.
I just threw this question into the search box "what linux distro would be suitable for a 70gigabit HDD." It came back with quite a few answers to the query
such as this one

and this one



The best thing though is to sit down and think about how you want to use your computer.
Then take a look at the distros.
And as @70 Tango Charlie mentioned Linux Mint but use the XFCE desktop or the Mate desktop as the Cinnamon which I use takes up more resources than those two.
But as our local Wiz from down under is apt to say you are the pilot of your computer.
 
How much time and effort are you willing to put into the learning. If you just want to get up and running fast I would go for Ubuntu or PopOS. If you are willing to put in the time and effort into the learning I would go for Arch Linux. Arch is usually not too friendly for beginners but anyone that is willing to put in the time will learn a lot about Linux. Also you can make Arch as lightweight as you want only installing what you want and need. Also have a look on distrowatch to see the most popular used distros.
 
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Looking at the specs of your machine ie:) 2.79GHz, 504 MB of RAM Linux Mint 'wouldn't be' a good distro for your machine. I say that because Linux Mint Needs 1 GB of RAM.

-:::-I would give MX Linux a spin on your machine.-:::-
It's designed for older computers.


Is your machine a laptop or desktop?
And is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
 
Looking at the specs of your machine ie:) 2.79GHz, 504 MB of RAM Linux Mint 'wouldn't be' a good distro for your machine. I say that because Linux Mint Needs 1 GB of RAM.

-:::-I would give MX Linux a spin on your machine.-:::-
It's designed for older computers.


Is your machine a laptop or desktop?
And is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

Hi Alexzee,
It is a desktop, Dell Dimension 3100, 32 bit, but 504 MB of RAM is way less than 1GB of RAM. Is not too big the difference?
 
Hi Alexzee,
It is a desktop, Dell Dimension 3100, 32 bit, but 504 MB of RAM is way less than 1GB of RAM. Is not too big the difference?
You'll need enough RAM or you could run into performance issues.

For your Dell you can go with:
Linux Lite, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Zorin OS Lite, or Slax.

I checked on Linux Mint XFCE and I was surprised for 32 bit Mint still needs 1 GB of RAM so.......

Coming from Windows XP you just might like Zorin OS for 32 bit.:)
The 32-bit version download is 4.1 Gig's.

Your Pentium CPU will play nicely with Xubuntu too.
Just scroll down on that page I linked till you see the 32-bit download.
The torrent download is 57.2 MB's.


 
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If you wanted to George1960 and your motherboard has expansion slots you could install additional RAM. But that's up to you.

Just an idea or not:-
 
Linux Mint Needs 1 GB of RAM.
With that I concur at the moment I have just Firefox running with four tabs open and it is taking 2 GB of RAM. When just running Libre or image viewer it hovers around the 1 to 1.5GB of Ram
 
Puppy Linux is great if you don't mind not having a printer or can put up with sending PDFs to your smartphone to print off with Google Print.
 
Dear community,

I need your help. I am an old person with limited (basic) computer knowledge. I want to learn Linux, and for this purpose, I would like to use my old computer. Its characteristics are:

- Microsoft Windows XP
- Media Center Edition
- Version 2002
- Service Pack 3
- Dell Dimension DV051
- Intel(R)
- Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
- 2.79GHz, 504 MB of RAM
- Disk "C" capacity: 70 GB

Could you please advise me which Linux distribution would be the best fit for this computer? The intended purpose is basic: send an receive e-mails, web browsing, watch videos, listen to music, banking and the occasional typing of documents.
I would appreciate very much your assistance.

Best regards,

George1960
With those system specs it is going to be a challenge to find something which will run satisfactorily.
I would try Linux Lite 32 bit even though it is only supported for about another year.
Anything like Linux Mint with whatever desktop environment will likely struggle.

I think something like EasyOS would give the best performance and includes a plethora of software. But it may be a bit of a challenge for a 'new' Linux user.
 
Hii.
You can use MXlinux which will be good at looking and best in performance for old system like yours...
Hope this helps..
I originally thought that MX would work too, however;

MX Linux requires a i486 or an AMD CPU and 512 MB of RAM.
OP has a Pentium processor with 405 MB of RAM.
 
Easy OS looks nice-


I've tried it a few times. Very reminiscent of the 'old' Puppy Linux but it has some kind of new 'sandboxing' feature. Haven't played with it a lot but what little bit I have used it was very impressive. Barry Kauler really does a nice job putting it together. Lots of software, lots of explanatory dialog boxes (very helpful), and everything works well out-of-the-box.
 
I've tried it a few times. Very reminiscent of the 'old' Puppy Linux but it has some kind of new 'sandboxing' feature. Haven't played with it a lot but what little bit I have used it was very impressive. Barry Kauler really does a nice job putting it together. Lots of software, lots of explanatory dialog boxes (very helpful), and everything works well out-of-the-box.
That's all good news.
I might try it in Virtual Box.

I went to the directory for Easy OS however; I only found 64-bit.

Is there a 32-bit .iso download for it?
 
Dear community,

Thank you very, very much for your quick replies and great support. I have to confess, I was very touched to receive so many nice and welcoming comments.

Well, I have been reading and pondering a lot and I am leaning towards Lubuntu 18.04.4 Bionic Beaver LTS (LXDE) 32 bit. I have not installed it yet because I am waiting for two cards of RAM from Amazon.

I hope to learn a lot and be able to return all this good will and positive energy.

My best regards to you and your families,

George1960
 

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