Old Laptop....

[ElEdwards]

I first started in Linux using Ubuntu 8.04 (I think) on my old Presario 2170us laptop. It worked very well, was quick and I enjoyed it.

It seems that I've gotten into a cycle of "Here's a new distro....hmmm, my laptop can't handle it...let's go back to something older." just to keep my laptop working. ;)

Does anyone else get into a cycle like that? I'm always concerned that I'll miss something wonderful because my hardware is older.

I guess the real question is:
If any older distro works, do I miss anything by not being able to use the 'latest-and-greatest'?

I'll get another laptop when my house finally sells....but that could be a while.

Thoughts? :)

El

[mamamia88]

Define latest and greatest? I use a netbook but 99% of the time all i have running is chrome and gpodder and maybe transmission. with 2gb ram runs great with xfce. The way i look at it the os is just a place to run your apps and if the apps you use work don't bother upgrading. Unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket.

[Sealbhach]

Have you tried Lubuntu? You could probably run the latest release of Lubuntu on most old laptops.

.

[c2tarun]

I first started in Linux using Ubuntu 8.04 (I think) on my old Presario 2170us laptop. It worked very well, was quick and I enjoyed it.

It seems that I've gotten into a cycle of "Here's a new distro....hmmm, my laptop can't handle it...let's go back to something older." just to keep my laptop working. ;)

Does anyone else get into a cycle like that? I'm always concerned that I'll miss something wonderful because my hardware is older.

I guess the real question is:
If any older distro works, do I miss anything by not being able to use the 'latest-and-greatest'?

I'll get another laptop when my house finally sells....but that could be a while.

Thoughts? :)

El

I dont think you are missing much. The only major visible drastic change is Unity. There are certainly some graphics improvement. But I really dont think you are missing much. I started with 10.04 (I have to install LAN driver and wifi driver manually as my Laptop was pretty new)
then 10.10 (I have to install only wifi driver manually :) )
then 11.04(Not much difference as I hated Unity in beginning, though they included my wifi driver, but it was freezing my machine on Kubuntu :( so I have to switch back to Ubuntu. )
then 11.10(I reverted back to 11.04, I really didn't go well with October versions)
then 12.04(they really improved Unity and I have to admit it, I am loving it) :)

but believe me you are not missing much, excluding 12.04 I can't say I really gained much from switching to latest versions.

[mips]

Why don;t you use the latest version of Xubuntu or Lubuntu?

[VE6EFR]

It's probably not as big of a deal as you are thinking it is. As long as it is working for you and you are able to get security updates you are good to go.

That being said, I agree with the others about trying a lighter weight distro if you want to continue to get the newest version that your computer can handle. This may help to keep yourself satisfied with new gadgets and gizmos for a while until you decide to upgrade your computer.

[kurt18947]

I have a 2002 vintage Thinkpad that didn't want to load the latest Lubuntu. Linux Mint 11 ran okay on it so I'm not sure why neither Lubuntu 12.04 or Mint 13 would boot; it may have had something to do with the graphics chipset which has a reputation as a problem child. I downloaded a live CD (No USB boot on that machine) of PCLinuxOS Xfce. That booted and installed fine so PCLinuxOS what is currently on that machine. I know there are other lighter distros as well.

[MadmanRB]

Puppy linux is a good option for such an old machine

[drawkcab]

Yeah, find a recent distro that scales to your hardware. There are a lot of great choices that are smaller and use fewer resources than Ubuntu.

[luismgl]

I tried jolicloud on an old computer and was pretty impressed with the performance and the simplicity of it, so much that I installed it on a toshiba nb200, a netbook, and was even more impressed with the improved battery time and overall quickness.