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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux on old School Machines? (self.linux)

submitted 5 months ago by puck to c/[email protected]

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Hi all, the private school I work at has a tonne of old windows 7/8 era desktops in a student library. The place really needs upgrades but they never seem to prioritise replacing these machines. Ive installed Linux on some older laptops of mine and was wondering if you all think it would be worth throwing a light Linux distro on the machines and making them somewhat usable for a web browsing experience for students? They’re useless as is, running ancient windows OS’s. We’re talking pre-7th gen i5’s and in some cases pentium machines here.

Might be pointless but wonder what you guys think?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is my rule of thumb and process to choose DE and distro:

Find the CPU model and do a google search with it and the word passmark. The passmark page will tell you how fast the cpu is. If it's between 500 and 1000, use XFce as your desktop environment. If it's between 1000 and 2500, you can use Cinnamon (Linux Mint). If it's more, you can use kde/gnome. If it's less than 500, use LXQT or LXDE.
How much RAM there is in there. These days, you need a minimum of 4GB of browse the internet (the DEs/distros themselves might use less than 1 GB of RAM, but the moment you open a web browser in this day and age, all hell breaks loose with memory usage). For best performance, 8+ GB is better.
Ensure that it has over 16 GB of a drive. At 16 GB (as in some old Chromebooks), only Debian fits these days (with 6 GB free space after installation). Mint and the others prefer over 24 GB (both fedora and all the ubuntu-based ones are too big to fit in 16gb without issues -- debian fits).

Using these rules, I've converted many laptops and computers for my family here in Greece, installing the most appropriate each time. The least powerful computer was my mom's old laptop, with 16 GB internal, 2 GB of RAM, 600 passmark points. As long as she's only opening 1 tab on Chrome (Debian/XFce), she fits in the 2 GB RAM without swapping (most of the time). I use Chrome and not Firefox for these older laptops because Chrome uses LESS memory than Firefox (there's an additional setting for it in the settings to help the matters more), and its youtube playback speed is much better too. I use firefox on more powerful computers, and it's my default too, just not for underpowered computers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Chrome use less memory than chromium?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think they're the same. It's FF that it's problematic with ram usage.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

whoa there them's fightin' words

I think an awful lot of people would disagree with you on that one

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do the calculations yourself, because I have.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I have, and so have many others, which is why we disagree.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But why install chromium with spyware instead just chromium?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

My mom and my family used chrome before, and they're used to its bells and whistles. I personally use firefox.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

I would think chromium would use less memory

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

passmark is not a real world application, so its scores are meaningless in the real world.

I have seen respectable communities outright ban any use or discussion of passmark or cpubenchmark type sites

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

For me, it works just fine as a decision point. And real work usage of the computers I moved to Linux was very similar to what they report, they reflected just fine. So I don't see any point to not use it, or even more so, to not suggest it to others, when the discussion warrants it.