Need help, should I install linux??

Preeti_gulia

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I have an old laptop that has windows 7 ultimate in it. It has been lagging and showing a lot of problems lately and since I can't buy a new laptop, I wanted to install linux.

The specs of the laptop are:
2 GB RAM, 32 bit processor. I have included some pics of the specs too.

Which distro do you recommend I should get?
Just make sure I can do the following things:

1. Do basic programming, I mean basic calculator level things.
2. Browse the internet, I don't care if it's slow browsing.
3. Have an fairly easy intuitively understandable file manager and interface.
 

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Debian based such as Emmabuntus, or MX Linux or Debian Non-Free or Linux Mint DE 4 all of which have 32bit ISOs
 
Being 32 bit will limit your choices a bit and it would be better if you could up the ram to say 4gb but with what you have MX-linux XFCE or AntiX should work well for you. Debian also good choice but a little bit harder to get going. But that old Laptop should be able to get a few more miles on it. one question is will it boot from a usb stick?
 
I have an old laptop that has windows 7

Ok had a look at your spec's you have a celeron 1.8 processor a 2 gb ram on a 32 bit motherboard

it will run any 32 bit distribution I have an older Lappy with a celaron processor and 1.5gb ram and it happily runs MX-linux-386 [32 bit] and at an acceptable speed, [it only needs 2mb ram] or you could go for one of the lighter distirbutions ... debian stable , puppy to name just 2,
being a 32 bit machine I doubt it will be USB boot enabled so you will need a clean DVD-r to make your install medium,

good news is your AR5***** wireless will be supported by the linux drivers

TIP...
as a newcomer when you have chosen your distribution and start to install it you will be asked if you want to use the non-free/ proprietary drivers, tick the box for yes it will save you work in the end.

Bwiz
 
To respond to some of what hasn't been touched on, pretty much every distro does those things you asked for just fine. You can program on all of them, browse the 'net on all of them, and all of them have file managers that are usable - and if your preferences differ then you can pick your own file manager from a large list of them.

As the others have said, any 32 bit distro should run fine on that. You'll likely want something that's as close to a main distro as you can get, but that choice is up to you. I'll toss a couple of links into the mix, as I think they may be worth you reading.


I'd suggest reading both of those.
 
I'd suggest reading both of those.
G'day and welcome @Preeti_gulia I agree with @KGIII
I personally will not be going back to a proprietary OS as I have found that Linux meets all my needs and also I am the administrator of my PC which means as any worth his salt tradesman knows that they have to maintain their tools, that is why I am here on this site so that I have access to the information should things go awry on me and I can sort it out as I am neither a coder nor programmer but have the nonce to figure things out when I have the pertinent information. My PC is another tool to me to assist me in my thinking and writing also a source of information relating to my base trade and ancillary trades, as well as my more academic types of hobbies.
One thing I like about Linux I can view the actual progress of an update from its downloading and watch as it carries out the update unlike Vindows where all you get is dots or a bar I have forgotten now which.
So again welcome to the World of Linux and enjoy your path on the distro you choose.
 
If I had to narrow it down for you, based on your specs I would go Debian-based.
Since you want user-friendly, MX Linux. The default environment is XFCE and so your interfaces are user friendly and XFCE itself is highly configurable. Don't let the default look fool you, I use XFCE and it can look beautiful, practical, smart, or minimal to name a few. MX is also stable.

Mint is nice, but it will not run too well on your specs. "Recommended Minimum" is only a good rough idea. In the real world, I'd run it on no less than 4GB memory, and a CPU with 4 logical cores, and an STR of at least 1000. So, that's why I suggest MX in your case.
 
I have ZERO experience, but they meet the minimum requirements (exceed, even) for LMDE 4.


I have no idea how well that's gonna work, as Cinnamon is pretty heavy - but they say 1 GB of RAM is all that's required.
 
- but they say 1 GB of RAM is all that's required.
Here is a snapshot of my memory use with only Brave with three tabs open on a cinnamon DE
memory use-03.png

But as you can see I have a very decent amount of memory before Swap kicks in which itself is 2 giga and going on @Preeti_gulia hdd specs it has room for 2 gig of swap
So the set-up is tenable.
 
So the set-up is tenable.

Nice. I have no experience running anything modern on hardware that old.

I should probably spin up an artificially limited VM and test a few distros to see what works in that situation.
 
@Preeti_gulia, this is the reality vs "Minimum Requirements" (thanks @Nik-Ken-Bah for the realworld stats:
Here is a snapshot of my memory use with only Brave with three tabs open on a cinnamon DE View attachment 10454
This is why I suggested MX. Coz that minimum memory requirement is largely based on the OS "running" and sometimes running with only an app here 'n there. As we see, 2GB is nearly used just with DE and browser. Dropping to XFCE will alleviate that a little and Mint-XFCE is prolly what they refer to by "Minimum". So, that said, you may as well go MX and get a snappier response and the ability to run multiple programs and a browser with a fair number of tabs.
 

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