Post by mikkh on Feb 27, 2021 4:25:30 GMT
It used to be the case that installing Linux was a good alternative to resource hungry Windows, and while that's still mostly true, the difference is not so severe anymore.
The mainstream 'distros' have matured over the last decade or so and now require just as many rersources as Windows in a lot of cases.
Luckily Linux isn't a single entity, it has many variations (probably too many) and can usually cater for any kind of hardware, no matter how old or lacking in resources
At one extreme we have Tiny Core, which can be as small as 15 MB and is more a proof of concept than a serious OS. it's a last ditch effort to get a working system out of a computer that Noah threw away!
A bit further up the chain we have 'Puppy' Linux which is designed to run directly from a CD or USB thumb drive and doesn't need a hard drive at all, but it can take advantage of one if fitted.
it can take a while to load though, especially as it loads itself to RAM first. Great system though and a real OS with plenty of features. Ideal for that Windows XP era kind of computer, that would otherwise be thrown away as useless.
Above that we have the real 'lite' versions that have to be installed to a hard drive and are ideal replacement OS's for Windows Vista kind of vintage (15 years old as opposed to 20 years old for XP)
Microsoft stopped supporting these old operating systems and more importantly modern browsers don't work on them, so going on the internet is frustrating at best (using ancient software) and definitely not secure or safe.
This is where lighter versions of linux come into play. You can use the latest browsing software with it's better security, but don't need a modern PC to do it.
My usual goto distro for resurrecting old PC's/laptops is Antix. It claims to be able to run with as little as 256 MB RAM, but I think that's pushing it when a modern browser will use at least that on it's own. I keep a stock of old RAM and if I can't upgrade it to bare minimum 512 MB RAM (preferably 1 GB) I won't even bother to try and make it useful again. I can do the impossible but miracles take a lot longer.
A recent discovery called Mabox Linux might be my new favourite though, it uses a tiny 200 MB of RAM (Windows 10 uses ten times as much!) to boot and even with a browser running stays comfortably under 1 GB of RAM.
It didn't matter on the laptop I was trying it on, because it had 4 GB of RAM anyway, but it gives me confidence to try it on a real old beast.
The mainstream 'distros' have matured over the last decade or so and now require just as many rersources as Windows in a lot of cases.
Luckily Linux isn't a single entity, it has many variations (probably too many) and can usually cater for any kind of hardware, no matter how old or lacking in resources
At one extreme we have Tiny Core, which can be as small as 15 MB and is more a proof of concept than a serious OS. it's a last ditch effort to get a working system out of a computer that Noah threw away!
A bit further up the chain we have 'Puppy' Linux which is designed to run directly from a CD or USB thumb drive and doesn't need a hard drive at all, but it can take advantage of one if fitted.
it can take a while to load though, especially as it loads itself to RAM first. Great system though and a real OS with plenty of features. Ideal for that Windows XP era kind of computer, that would otherwise be thrown away as useless.
Above that we have the real 'lite' versions that have to be installed to a hard drive and are ideal replacement OS's for Windows Vista kind of vintage (15 years old as opposed to 20 years old for XP)
Microsoft stopped supporting these old operating systems and more importantly modern browsers don't work on them, so going on the internet is frustrating at best (using ancient software) and definitely not secure or safe.
This is where lighter versions of linux come into play. You can use the latest browsing software with it's better security, but don't need a modern PC to do it.
My usual goto distro for resurrecting old PC's/laptops is Antix. It claims to be able to run with as little as 256 MB RAM, but I think that's pushing it when a modern browser will use at least that on it's own. I keep a stock of old RAM and if I can't upgrade it to bare minimum 512 MB RAM (preferably 1 GB) I won't even bother to try and make it useful again. I can do the impossible but miracles take a lot longer.
A recent discovery called Mabox Linux might be my new favourite though, it uses a tiny 200 MB of RAM (Windows 10 uses ten times as much!) to boot and even with a browser running stays comfortably under 1 GB of RAM.
It didn't matter on the laptop I was trying it on, because it had 4 GB of RAM anyway, but it gives me confidence to try it on a real old beast.