OS for Old Computers

[2oa]

Anything that's just enough to make anything before 2007 bearable today.

[BugadinhoGamers]

Lubuntu, Xubuntu or even Debian will do the job.

[2oa]

Just now, BugadinhoGamers said:

Lubuntu, Xubuntu or even Debian will do the job.

Are there any minimal ones? I'm trying to save space, and not to burden old hardware.

[BugadinhoGamers]

1 minute ago, 2oa said:

Are there any minimal ones? I'm trying to save space, and not to burden old hardware.

You could use Anarchy Linux, you choose what you want to install in it.

[2oa]

Thanks.

[2oa]

2 minutes ago, Alexsolo said:

What are you running on? Specs of the PC

It's not for something I use at the moment. Just though of turning old computers into something useful today. If you really need to know, there are 2 COMPAQ Presario laptops from or before 2007, and a HP G62 from or before 2009. 

Edited October 17, 2017 by 2oa

[TheRandomness]

Just now, 2oa said:

It's not for something I have at the moment. Just though of turning old computers into something useful today. If you really need to know, there are 2 COMPAQ Presario laptops from or before 2007, and a HP G62 from or before 2009. 

Knowing the CPU and RAM amount would be useful though. I mean, both those machines sound like they have the potential of running Windows 7, albeit badly. I mean, Windows XP might work.

[2oa]

2 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Knowing the CPU and RAM amount would be useful though. I mean, both those machines sound like they have the potential of running Windows 7, albeit badly. I mean, Windows XP might work.

 

2 minutes ago, Alexsolo said:

Add more RAM (4-6GB preferably) if they're not there already.

I would try out Windows 7, should run fine on those machines. 

Alright, thanks.

[ProjectBox153]

Those machines aren't too old. Just put in a small SSD and Windows 7. 

[Faugh]

I have just recently installed WIndows 7 on a machine from ~2001. Pentium 4 2533Mhz, 2GB of DDR1 RAM, Radeon 9500 PRO GPU. And let me tell you, it is actually fairly usable for light office tasks or occasional web browsing. For things like YouTube you have to dial back to 360p though, since there is no hardware acceleration for the new codecs at all...

But back to topic, I don't see any problem with machines from 2007. They should probably already have 64 Bit capable CPUs, maybe even dual cores. As long as the machines have at least 2GB or better 4GB of RAM, you should be fine with Windows 7 and I agree with @Alexsolo and @Jamiec1130 that an SSD should be a very noticeable performance boost.

[Cbuay]

You should check out Linux Lite .. I use it on older hardware, actually had it running on an older IBM Think-pad T40 (forgot the exact model but it was from back in the early days of XP) that a friend was looking to keep alive for his kids.

https://www.linuxliteos.com/

[Froody129]

I like Linux Mint personally, but there are very very many that serve the same function. Linux Mint feels like Windows and the transition wasn’t too hard

[Dat Guy]

On 18.10.2017 at 1:18 AM, 2oa said:

Anything that's just enough to make anything before 2007 bearable today.

OpenBSD.

[NelizMastr]

On 3-11-2017 at 7:51 PM, Faugh said:

I have just recently installed WIndows 7 on a machine from ~2001 2004. Pentium 4 2533Mhz....

FTFY  

 

On 15-12-2017 at 6:59 AM, Froody129 said:

I like Linux Mint personally, but there are very very many that serve the same function. Linux Mint feels like Windows and the transition wasn’t too hard

Especially with Cinnamon. You'll need supported graphics, though, otherwise it's a slow nightmare. For limited graphics support, I'd recommend Xubuntu or Lubuntu as their interfaces aren't 3D accelerated.

 

On 18-10-2017 at 1:33 AM, Alexsolo said:

I think Windows 7 has a decent chance at running well, especially if it were a 32bit version, 4gb of Ram.

Win7 runs great with 2GB of RAM and higher. 3-4GB would be ideal, yes, but 2GB is still usable for browsing and doing Office work.