Windows or Linux for an old laptop?

[Merkey]

Hi, so I've just repaired my Acer V3 571g, which I bought in 2012. I have got a PC, so I'm going to use it only for net browsing and light games on the go. But should I install Windows 10, or a Linux distro for a better battery life?

[Techguy1993]

I’ve only used Linux a few times where I needed to run something that windows / OSX doesn’t support. From the little I know is that Linux may be a lighter OS, but may not have the optimization for your hardware as windows may have.

 

I’d slap in an SSD before I do either of those, maybe install both on seperate partitions and try it out for a couple days.

[Merkey]

10 minutes ago, Techguy1993 said:

I’ve only used Linux a few times where I needed to run something that windows / OSX doesn’t support. From the little I know is that Linux may be a lighter OS, but may not have the optimization for your hardware as windows may have.

 

I’d slap in an SSD before I do either of those, maybe install both on seperate partitions and try it out for a couple days.

I have used Ubuntu on desktop, and I heard that it sucks battery quite a lot. But some LTT community members said they generally got a few hours more on their older laptops with Linux. I've already installed SSD

[Granular]

Windows does generally get better battery life, but using Windows 10 on older machines has been torturous in my experience.

Among Linux distros, I've read that Fedora comes with some good energy saving tweaks out of the box, but if you're ok with experimenting with some tweaks yourself, I'd get Linux Mint, turn off UI animations and read up on guides for improving battery life on Ubuntu as that's what Mint is based on.

[Sauron]

The main area where you'll see improvements is performance - old hardware tends to be unbearably slow on windows if you don't have an ssd.

[Mitko_DSV]

I have an Acer netbook (AOD255) and it's triple-booting Windows 7, 10 and Linux Mint 13 at the moment. From what I've noticed there's no significant performance improvement when using Linux, but the battery life is worse in Linux. Windows 7 and 10 are basically the same performance and battery wise. I've also used different Linux versions on this laptop like Ubuntu, Zorin OS and a few others which I can't remember now. There were one or two Linux distros which provided better performance and battery life than Windows, but I have forgotten which ones exactly. Haven't tried the newest versions so my knowledge is a bit out-of-date.

[q54528]

Ubuntu +1

I replaced DVD-drive with a SSD in my Acer V3-571G ， which installed win7 on SSD and Ubuntu on HDD . 

I prefer that linux would be better for an old laptop ，low-power-use ，better performance （in my feeling） .

[DeLorian]

I would install Windows 10. Your laptop isn't that old and with an SSD it should be fine.

[Worstcaster]

Linux.  It's free and has more resistance to viruses and malware.  The GUI and resource center are pretty user friendly on my distros.  No microsoft spying, forced updates, repeated requests to tether your phone, or enable cortana.

[vatorres]

If you're worried about battery life, Windows native machines usually have a better time with Windows 10. However, if performance is an issue, light distros like Puppy, Lubuntu and Xubuntu can make old machines shine (I ran Xubuntu on my N3050 Celeron machine and it was blazing fast). Bear in mind that power management for extended battery life is possible on Linux, it just takes some extra tweaking.

 

Before formating and installing any distro, I recommend booting from an USB drive to check for driver compatibility (touchpad, function keys, wifi/bluetooth, etc), as well as seeing if you're really comfortable with it.

[Dat Guy]

Tried BSD?