Need any Desktop-based Linux for old Laptop

[staubgame]

So, a friend of me "gifted" me his old laptop, an old Toshiba Satellite P10-874.

So my goal is to sell it, so I wanted to install a Linux on it since it's still running an old (virus-infested) Windows XP.

 

Any suggestions? Should I do a clean install of Win XP (key is on the bottom) or simply put a linux on it?

If Linux, which one?

To sell it, I'd like one with a desktop (Been a while since I checked into Linux distributions, I think Mint was good some time ago?)

Any help is appreciated.

[Drak3]

Mint is fairly Windows like in UI. Debian, Lubuntu, and Kubuntu are all fairly light weight.

[staubgame]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Mint is fairly Windows like in UI. Debian, Lubuntu, and Kubuntu are all fairly light weight.

Hmm might have to cancel the whole idea, screen won't show any image. ^^

Turns on (backlight) but no other life sign.

 

If I get it running, is Mint lightweight enough or should I go with any oth the others?

[Drak3]

I find Mint to be fairly lightweight, but you can try a few by just downloading the ISOs and making live install USBs

[staubgame]

Hmm lots of weird symbols and dots on an external monitor trying to tell me of some failure...

Whelp, seems like dead GPU...

 

Then there's no saving it.

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

I find Mint to be fairly lightweight, but you can try a few by just downloading the ISOs and making live install USBs

 

Thanks anyway for answering, I'll keep it in mind for next time.

[Dat Guy]

Older hardware works great with OpenBSD. It is more lightweight than any Linux can be.

[noahdvs]

54 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Older hardware works great with OpenBSD. It is more lightweight than any Linux can be.

Even Alpine Linux?

[Dat Guy]

Even Alpine Linux.

[noahdvs]

Just now, Dat Guy said:

Even Alpine Linux.

Any stats? Alpine is pretty small and light.

[Dat Guy]

Use top.

[noahdvs]

5 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

Use top.

So I guess you don't actually know.

[Dat Guy]

Feel free to prove me wrong.

[Dat Guy]

22 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Mint is fairly Windows like in UI. Debian, Lubuntu, and Kubuntu are all fairly light weight.

 

Also, this ^ is really funny. Kubuntu, the most heavyweight desktop running on the second-most heavyweight distro (behind openSUSE), is "fairly light weight"?

[noahdvs]

3 minutes ago, Dat Guy said:

 

Also, this ^ is really funny. Kubuntu, the most heavyweight desktop running on the second-most heavyweight distro (behind openSUSE), is "fairly light weight"?

Gnome is actually heavier and more sluggish than KDE now. However, I would not recommend Kubuntu for an old PC either. KDE is great for new PCs though.

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, Dat Guy said:

 

Also, this ^ is really funny. Kubuntu, the most heavyweight desktop running on the second-most heavyweight distro (behind openSUSE), is "fairly light weight"?

Kubuntu has been extremely lightweight on every system I've tried it on. I've been running systems from 2001 and Kubuntu hasn't had any issues. One of my friends used to run it on a netbook as well.

[noahdvs]

2 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

Feel free to prove me wrong.

Turns out it was pretty easy. I even got a display manager going on Alpine and it's still much, much lighter. The install process for both isn't for inexperienced Linux/Unix users though.

[dosmoney]

I just installed mate on my 4-5 year old laptop. It isn't a pig, at the time it was really nice, but boy what a speed difference from Win10 to Mate. (i7-2760qm, 12 gb ram, 1 tb, integrated GPU). Looking forward to using it as a secondary device.