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Sending a friend an old Laptop.

Kazlehoff
By Kazlehoff
in Operating Systems
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Hey all,

 

I'm sending a friend of mine an old laptop i have laying around, because his sole form of internet access at the momment is his phone.

 

Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 17R (N7110). 2nd gen i5, 8GB ram. replaced the Optical drive with a small SSD for Operating system, leaving the internal drive for secondary storage.

 

Laptop shipped with Win7 iirc. works with win10 as well with some quirks (card reader driver is sketch, one of the drivers in the USB 3 hardware somewhere is too. the USB3 ports will just straight turn off and need a reboot to fix). other than some cosmetic issues, systems in good repair. 

im trying to decide if i should ship it with 10 or a linux variant, though. the user is not going to be playing games, isnt super technical so the laptop is going to be pretty much exclusively for web browsing, youtube, possibly netflix if he has an account. i dont even think he's torrented stuff in the past TBPH.

in either case, 10 or linux, i am going to be sending him a Win10 USB installer so he can reinstall if it borks, with the drivers for the system in a folder for easy access.


What Linux distros would you recommend taking a look at with this system? I've used Solus, and Ubuntu before. just want to find him something dirt simple that's hard as hell to have bugger off on him, and kind of dirt simple to operate.

No interest in Temple OS btw xD xD xD though i will be honest, the thought had crossed my mind as a prank.

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Manjaro XFCE

 

Once all updates and stuff are done its so Windows'esque I like it.  Just have to teach him how to keep it all up to date through terminal I would assume?

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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2 minutes ago, Kazlehoff said:

im trying to decide if i should ship it with 10 or a linux variant, though. the user is not going to be playing games, isnt super technical so the laptop is going to be pretty much exclusively for web browsing, youtube, possibly netflix if he has an account. i dont even think he's torrented stuff in the past TBPH.

You answered your question here.

Ship it with WIn10, make it easy on him, do the pre-install, include the iso usb as a backup for him and done.

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Character is like a Tree and Reputation like its Shadow. The Shadow is what we think of it; The Tree is the Real thing.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Reputation is a Lifetime to create but seconds to destroy.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.  ~ Winston Churchill

Docendo discimus - "to teach is to learn"

 

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11 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

You answered your question here.

Ship it with WIn10, make it easy on him, do the pre-install, include the iso usb as a backup for him and done.

I agree on the surface of it. it would make things easier for him. but he's a smart guy (Native fellow, lives on his bands res (No, not one of the rich douche-y ones. im also native, different band / culture group, we dont like the image those bands cause us) and at the moment he's the cook at the local "do all" shop, working as guard for the COVID lockdown stuff to keep people off the res, and just got a wooded lot from the band where he's going to be building his own house). while the Win10 solution would be easier, i believe he would enjoy having something that gave him some challenge and opportunity to learn.

 

i also wanted to consider this path for a bit of extra performance. the machine is not bad at all, but being a 2c/4t ~2.5Ghz it is a tad long in the tooth, so i thought something FOSS and a tad more lightweight would be a better solution for him. also concerned what happens when W10 updates farther and he reaches EOL on it. 

 

I'd ask him, but i kind of want to keep it a surprise. he's an amazing guy. he's never had a lot in the time I've known him but he helps everyone, even to his own detriment. he was living out of his grandmothers basement for a while, and was still giving money to family to help the kids, and sent me a care package of homemade jams, tea, delicious dried wild mushrooms, and even some homemade brandies (seriously they were so strong I'm pretty sure they were just straight up shine), but they were really tasty. i want to do something to help this guy back if i can. 🙂

 

12 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Manjaro XFCE

 

Once all updates and stuff are done its so Windows'esque I like it.  Just have to teach him how to keep it all up to date through terminal I would assume?

I'll take a look at the live version and see how she goes.

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2 minutes ago, Kazlehoff said:

 

 

I'll take a look at the live version and see how she goes.

Im a linux newb.  With google and a couple prods here I am able to use Manjaro XFCE as a media consumption device no problem - so for me its why I guess it - Im a newb and it comes with a browser (Firefox) and once the kernel is up to date (and keeping it up to date I think is the key thing here from what I noticed when I let things not update to long in between and have to do a new install)

Workstation Laptop: Dell Precision 7540, Xeon E-2276M, 32gb DDR4, Quadro T2000 GPU, 4k display

Wifes Rig: ASRock B550m Riptide, Ryzen 5 5600X, Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700 XT, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz V-Color Skywalker RAM, ARESGAME AGS 850w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750, 500gb Crucial m.2, DIYPC MA01-G case

My Rig: ASRock B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 3600, ARESGAME River 5 CPU cooler, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 16gb (2x8) 3600mhz TeamGroup T-Force RAM, ARESGAME AGV750w PSU, 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD, Fractal Design Focus G Mini custom painted.  

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 video card benchmark result - AMD Ryzen 5 3600,ASRock B450M Pro4 (3dmark.com)

Daughter 1 Rig: ASrock B450 Pro4, Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.2ghz all core 1.4vCore, AMD R9 Fury X w/ Swiftech KOMODO waterblock, Custom Loop 2x240mm + 1x120mm radiators in push/pull 16gb (2x8) Patriot Viper CL14 2666mhz RAM, Corsair HX850 PSU, 250gb Samsun 960 EVO NVMe Win 10 boot drive, 500gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 512GB TeamGroup MP30 M.2 SATA III SSD, SuperTalent 512gb SATA III SSD, CoolerMaster HAF XM Case. 

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/37004594?

Daughter 2 Rig: ASUS B350-PRIME ATX, Ryzen 7 1700, Sapphire Nitro+ R9 Fury Tri-X, 16gb (2x8) 3200mhz V-Color Skywalker, ANTEC Earthwatts 750w PSU, MasterLiquid Lite 120 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config as rear exhaust, 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD, Patriot Burst 240gb SSD, Cougar MX330-X Case

 

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Posted

manjaro or lubuntu 

puppy linux is also a good option

if it was useful give it a like :) btw if your into linux pay a visit here

 

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3 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Im a linux newb.  With google and a couple prods here I am able to use Manjaro XFCE as a media consumption device no problem - so for me its why I guess it - Im a newb and it comes with a browser (Firefox) and once the kernel is up to date (and keeping it up to date I think is the key thing here from what I noticed when I let things not update to long in between and have to do a new install)

manjaro is my daily driver

being a rolling release distro it has to be updated constantly which is a bit of a pain

if it was useful give it a like :) btw if your into linux pay a visit here

 

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6 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

You could dual boot the system and ask him to try to use both and decide on one.

Also an option, concern though is the SSD is small (IIRC, 120GB). windows is like a good third of that because Version bloat. want to keep some freespace for applications. its not gonna be gaming, but i also want to keep the SSD below 70% cap after app installation so the SSD doesnt start slowing down. may still try that.

 

6 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Im a linux newb.  With google and a couple prods here I am able to use Manjaro XFCE as a media consumption device no problem - so for me its why I guess it - Im a newb and it comes with a browser (Firefox) and once the kernel is up to date (and keeping it up to date I think is the key thing here from what I noticed when I let things not update to long in between and have to do a new install)

I have some experience with linux. at various points ive had my laptop and desktop running Windows, Linux Variants (Solus and Ubuntu and the main ones ive tried) and that other popular OS made by those people who like to encrypt and lock everything down (cant anymore, Nvidia 30 series GPU. first world problems right?). configuring installers for liveCD (is it still called live CD? Live USB? whatever, running the OS from USB for testing. lol) isnt an issue for me. installers are pretty easy to make with RUFUS, an ISO, and a USB 🙂

 

6 minutes ago, mahyar said:

manjaro or lubuntu 

puppy linux is also a good option

 

a 2nd recommendation for Manjaro, ty :). i'll have to look up the other two, though i have heard of puppy linux before.

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10 minutes ago, Kazlehoff said:

(No, not one of the rich douche-y ones. im also native, different band / culture group, we dont like the image those bands cause us)

Ill take your word for it as I have no context to go with on this. /shrug.

 

12 minutes ago, Kazlehoff said:

while the Win10 solution would be easier, i believe he would enjoy having something that gave him some challenge and opportunity to learn.

 

i also wanted to consider this path for a bit of extra performance. the machine is not bad at all, but being a 2c/4t ~2.5Ghz it is a tad long in the tooth, so i thought something FOSS and a tad more lightweight would be a better solution for him. also concerned what happens when W10 updates farther and he reaches EOL on it.

This bit would have been good to include in the OP. My recommendation would have changed but its all good. 😉 

 

13 minutes ago, Kazlehoff said:

I'd ask him, but i kind of want to keep it a surprise. he's an amazing guy. he's never had a lot in the time I've known him but he helps everyone, even to his own detriment. he was living out of his grandmothers basement for a while, and was still giving money to family to help the kids, and sent me a care package of homemade jams, tea, delicious dried wild mushrooms, and even some homemade brandies (seriously they were so strong I'm pretty sure they were just straight up shine), but they were really tasty. i want to do something to help this guy back if i can. 🙂

Sounds like an awesome guy, you are doing well to do this for him 👍

Good luck with your gift, looks like you have several others helping you out here so I'll leave the conversation to all of you.

COMMUNITY STANDARDS   |   TECH NEWS POSTING GUIDELINES   |   FORUM STAFF

LTT Folding Users Tips, Tricks and FAQ   |   F@H & BOINC Badge Request   |   F@H Contribution   |   My Rig   |   Project Steamroller

I am a Moderator, but I am fallible. Discuss or debate with me as you will but please do not argue with me as that will get us nowhere.

 

Spoiler

† † †

 

Character is like a Tree and Reputation like its Shadow. The Shadow is what we think of it; The Tree is the Real thing.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Reputation is a Lifetime to create but seconds to destroy.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.  ~ Winston Churchill

Docendo discimus - "to teach is to learn"

 

† CHRISTIAN MEMBER †

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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-> Moved to Operating Systems

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

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