Linux for old laptop (which version/distribution)

L

LouisCribben

Registered User
Messages
337
I've a laptop bought in 1998, a Gateway Solo 5150 with Pentium II 333mhz and I think 320mb of Ram.

It used to run windows 98SE, but I want to run Linux on it.

Its fast enough to run XP, I installed it for evaluation, but I dont have an XP licence, so I need Linux.

Which version/distribution should I use ?

I need a plug and play version if possible (the less stuff I need to manually configure the better)

I need it to recognise my 3Com LAN CardBus ethernet PCMCIA card, and allow me to connect to my router to access the internet.

Has anybody tried Linux on their laptop ? Is it more trouble getting it to work with the hardware than it's worth ?
 
Probably the most user friendly and easiest to install at the moment is ubuntu
I have installed it in a few older machines and have had very few problems in comparison to other distros.
 
I would second the ubuntu recommendation.
I'm using the xubuntu distro which is aimed at lower spec computers ( was running kubuntu previously, and this is noticeably faster/smoother )

http://www.xubuntu.org/
 
Ubuntu

Try the live cd so you can see how well it works without actually installing it.

Any other debian derivative would be a good alternative
 
blacknight said:
Ubuntu
Click to expand...
The Xubuntu variant would be better for the machine spec mentioned in the original post. Also - running it from CD is grand for getting an idea of what it's like but will be a lot slower than running from a hard disk installation so if it seems slow from CD don't be disappointed.
 
Thanks for replies, very helpful.

I installed Xubuntu and I am using it to type this message.
It installed very cleanly, and recognized all my hardware.
Its perfect for an old laptop, like having a new machine.
So far, I'm enjoying using it
 
A newer version of Ubuntu is coming out on 23rd April and I would like to install it on my P.C. which currently runs Microsoft Office and Windows 2007 which has slowed my system right down. Do I have to uninstal Office in favour of Ubuntu? Is there some way to make Ubuntu the default system? Is there much (or complicated) work involved in tweaking all other systems through Ubuntu?
 

Not quite sure what you mean. Ubuntu is a operating system like xp or vista Programmes designed to run on one will not run on the other although different versions of some applications have been written for both windows and linux. Open office is the equivalent of microsoft office also its free

the installer will qive you the option to dual boot you computer. This means you can choose which operating system to start when you first switch on your computer hope this helps
 
Many thanks for your response and sorry.........my original question wasn't very clear, was it! All the papers and documents on my P.C. currently are created and saved as Microsoft Office Windows 2007. If I install and run Ubuntu (including, according to your post, 'Open Office' which is equivalent) can I open these documents without doing any complicated technical tweaking of P.C. (some of us are less comfortable than others with technology). Following from that, if the answer to first question is 'yes' do I then un-install Microsoft Office. I date slow-down of system to installation of Microsoft Office 2007.
 
As far as I know microsoft office documents should open in open office all the formatting may not be 100%, but this should be easy to remedy. As for uninstalling mircosoft office. If you are running linux then xp or what ever is installed on it eg office will not slow down your system unless you dont have much memory in that case the operating system will use the disc as memory (ram) in whats called a swap file. The disc will be a lot slower than ram hence the slow down also as new features are added to applications they use up the computers resources and so slow things down. So if you don`t need these additional features and what you have is doing the job don`t upgrade to the latest version . All this is beside the point as you don`t have a licence there is no point in having xp installed anyway Its illegal!. so probely the best thing would be to allow linux to overwrite xp. but first copy any documents,photos or any other date you may need to some form of external media such as dvd`s or external drive before you install.
Hope this is of some help
 
Hi Adder. To clarify.

I don't have anything 'illegal'! Where did you pick that up?

I have a desktop Sony VAIO HDD 120 GB 512 RAM, Ethernet 10 base, V90 modem 2A GHz CPU Intel Pentium 4 running Windows XP Home Edition including Word 97. I use Firefox as browser.

In October last I purchased and installed Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 for Home Use as my bibliographic softward - (Endnote) was not compatible with Microsoft 97.

I paid for it, have a license-number and am registered.

Though my control panel and system analysis show plenty of spare capacity and I defragment regularly and use a registry scan I date a significant slow-down of my system to installation of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007. Since installing it both my stored Word documents and anything I download initially open in "compatibility mode" and have to be converted, individually (which is time-consuming), to Office 2007 format.

I have excluded everything else as possible cause and attribute the slow running of my system to Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007.

My interest in installing and running Ubuntu is in the potential to get rid of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 from my system and use another word processing package instead of Microsoft Word 2007. Responses on this thread indicate "Use Open Office".

Yes! I would. But the documents in question are my PhD and supporting papers. I don't want them lost or corrupted nor do I have masses of time to amble about exploring technical labyrinths.

Can Ubuntu and Open Office be designated as 'default' and by-pass Microsoft or do I need to un-install Microsoft Office Eneterprise 2007 in order to get round the slowing-down of my system which I attribute to that software? If I un-instal Micorsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and Word 2007 do I risk finding my documents be locked or corrupted or unavailable to Open Office?
 
I find MS Office 2007 a bit slow running on XP and Vista on decent PC. However Windows 7 it seems to be much faster for some reason. However I think the best solution would be to try sell your 2007 and get version 2003. As that will be compatible with End Note. I'd also up the RAM on the laptop.

I don't think you get the End Note menu in Open Office.


When you're in the middle of something its not the time to go changing your whole system. In my experience a full desktop Linux still needs a decent PC with a decent amount of RAM. You'd need to look at a "lite" Linux if you've a low end PC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register