Opensource operating system help

General
#1

hey i am looking for an opensource operating system to speed up my girlfriends old laptop. i have had a look and there are a lot of options,

her laptop : core 2 duo proccessor T5750 (2.ghz, 667mh, 2mb l2 cache)

3gb ddr2 (but she thinks she upgraded this- has no idea to what)

250gb hard drive

so not limited to the ultra light operating systems but want somthing that will run smoothly and speed up (not that hard as it is on vista)

please note this laptop has been hidden in a cubord for the last 4 years - just got my hands on it!

anyone got any suggestions?

#2

I guess it depends what you’re intending to use it for.
Is this supposed to be an everyday use thing or are you just trying to revive it to get a bit of use out of it?

#3

revive it, i think she might want to use it for a bit of internet use and the odd document maybe ,
thinking about trying elementary

#4

I’m pretty sure your looking for a linux distribution and I think the only one to recommend for beginners is Ubuntu. It’s probably the most widely adopted, their package manager makes for easy installation and I feel they have spent the most amount of time trying to deliver a “windows like” experience, for better or worse.

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#5

Linux Mint is another option. It’s based on Ubuntu Linux, so can use all the available Ubuntu software packages. The Mint desktop environment is very similar to (at least older versions of) Windows.

The Xfce version of Mint uses the Xfce desktop, which is “light weight”, thus suitable for hardware with limited resources. However, the stated hardware in the OP would likely be OK with any Mint version.

1 Like
#6

Yeah, I can also recommend mint, I’m a fan of their live distributions that don’t require you to install anything will just run off a ramdisk. A mint live cd saved my butt a couple times.

#7

Pretty much any Linux distribution these days will allow a live version to run from their installation media.

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#8

Yes Ubuntu is great but I use Peppermint which has the greatest GUI or even Fedora 25 which is a gaming edition as well. Good Luck!!!

#9

The other option is just to get a small SSD and install Windows 10 :smile:

1 Like