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Help with choosing a distro for a first time linux hope to bring life to an old pc (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Good day

I would please like to ask for suggestions for first time installation of linux on an old pc that has recently come into my possession

It is

Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (2 cpu) 2 Gb Ram 1Tb hardrive Onboard graphics 128 mb

I have been looking at Mint and I am assuming that the Xfce Edition would probably be the smarter choice, but I am curious to know if I could use something like Cinnamon Edition and will it run smoothly hitting at the minimum spec of 2Gb RAM. Is their other alternatives that provide a good exprience for the limited resources as I decide to take the plunge?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Mint might work but in my experience the big snag with older hardware is the desktop environment. I've had the most success with really low end DEs like Openbox (technically only a window manager I believe?). That frees up what little RAM is available for other processes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for your suggestion

I am currently downloading cinnamon and xcfe (leaning towards this) but while waiting looking around a bit.

I did have a quick look at Openbox wiki and looks like it is something to consider once I am more comfortable with the Linux environment as it seems to require a user to have a bit more experience with it. Or at least appears so from my very limited knowledge of what I am seeing

I did run across something called "Puppy Linux", that seems lightweight and geared towards older pcs and a consideration if Mint doesn't work out. Again I am still very new to this and I think I looked at the distros that are considered best for beginners so I don't mess anything up until I get more confident and knowledgeable

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

xfce should be nice and lightweight

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Thank you, will be trying it first once it finishes downloading. It seems I chose a slower link, but committed to now.