So i have a bunch of pc’s/laptops/computers and such that my family members refuse to depart with even though there really bad. so far they mangae to keep 4 bulky computers in total, we do have some new-ish ones but theses ones im talking about need some loving.1 computer is 32 bit and has 2gb of ram, the other 3 have 64-bit and range from 1gb of ram- to 2 and one of which has only 75 space hardrive.

are there any linux distros that might work becasue im a noob who uses windows so im very lost. any tips or suggestions or something would be great.

also if im posting in the wrong plac eplease let me know in the comments.

  • silent_clash@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Puppy Linux runs on a potato of any architecture and is super user friendly (grandpa certified)! Only 300 MB or so. https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/

    I know a lot of people recommended Mint, which I personally use on my very modern budget gaming pc, but you should really try Puppy Linux, it’s meant for the exact use case you’re describing.

  • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Alpine Linux is one to look at.

    MX Linux works good on old hardware.

    If you’re looking for a DE, XFCE might even feel sluggish on older hardware. You can go lighter with LXQt or use the Pixel Desktop that Raspberry Pi OS has (which is modified LXDE).

  • rimu@lemmy.nzEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Browser choice is probably going to make just as much difference as distro choice. Modern browsers kinda need at least 1 GB to be usable, ideally more. Depends what you do with it of course.

    Try Pale Moon, Falkon and Konqueror.

  • ppp@lemmy.oneEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I’ve used Debian on an old netbook with an Intel Atom and onyl 2GB RAM. The experience wasn’t so bad but web browsing was definitely a pain. Video calling and watching YouTube (Firefox) was very sluggish and annoying to deal with. It’s fine for working with documents and watching low resolution videos locally but that’s about it.

    I’ve also tried antiX but a lot of the defaults were annoying. If you (or your family members) can deal with it, then it’s probably the best lightweight Linux distro out there.

    are there any linux distros that might work becasue im a noob who uses windows so im very lost. any tips or suggestions or something would be great.

    In this case, I recommend just leaving your family members to do their own thing. From my experience, it is very hard to manage other people’s Linux issues if you don’t have decent knowledge on it yourself. If they don’t want to upgrade, that’s their problem. Not yours.

  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@kbin.social
    1·
    2 years ago

    AntiX is quite good on older hardware but beware of the fact they don’t use systemd. Nice effort to try and use newer init services but a lot of things really depend on systemd being installed.

    WattOS (which uses systemd) is also very performant on old rigs but it needs more tweaking OOTB I’d say.

  • Parallax@kbin.social
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’d like to do something similar on my Pentium 3 box. Maybe Debian with a really light WM would be a good fit, maybe IceWM? It only has 512MB of RAM though so I might have to go even lighter than Debian. I also have an Athlon XP box with 2GB of RAM, but that’s too new to be fun. :p

  • keet@kbin.social
    0·
    2 years ago

    I would suggest Mint. Considering the hardware, the XFCE version. Have you looked into any hardware upgrades for these machines? I’ve found that a simple ram or hdd–>ssd upgrade can be rather inexpensive these days.

    • Sorchist@kbin.social
      0·
      2 years ago

      There are a lot of distros which are more focused on old hardware than Mint, but Mint definitely wins in the “this distro will be familiar and discoverable to people who are used to Windows” department. If it works, it’s great for that reason.