Good OS for Dell Lattitude D610.

[88keys]

So my buddy has a pretty old laptop that has XP and he really can't afford anything newer.

It has a 1.6GHz Pentium M with 1GB of ram so I think it's gonna run like a dog with 7 on it.

It's basically an internet box so I figure I was going to try some easy to use OSes.

I heard some good things about Zorin OS (Ubuntu Based) so I thought that I would try that first. It seems really nice and fast. The layout is actually very similar to XP and you could almost imagine that you're running XP with a fancy space age theme.

The only issue is that it doesn't seem to want to run his screen at full resolution (which is higher than normal) without crashing.

Other than that it's really nice. I just wish they would have picked a different name. "Zorin" sounds like a prescription anti-depressant.


My next try is Linux Mint unless anyone has better ideas.


Whatever the OS is. It just needs to be easy to use, clean (non bloated interface), and optimized for older hardware.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd use Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Crunchbang for something light and "classic".

 

[denis280]

I'd use Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Crunchbang for something light and "classic".

+1

 

[HOSED]

I have a D610 and am very pleased with Bodhi Linux - By default there is very little installed but the developers provide superb support on their forum, and "packages" are available for the standard applications (video playback, office, etc.) NOTE if you try it out use a 1 GB USB stick (or more) some seem to have issues running it from optical media.
(It is based on 12.04 LTS UBUNTU and the Enlightenment desktop is awesome)

 

[lxskllr]

I have a D610 and am very pleased with Bodhi Linux - By default there is very little installed but the developers provide superb support on their forum, and "packages" are available for the standard applications (video playback, office, etc.) NOTE if you try it out use a 1 GB USB stick (or more) some seem to have issues running it from optical media.
(It is based on 12.04 LTS UBUNTU and the Enlightenment desktop is awesome)

Bodhi is great, as is E17, but I'd be very reluctant to give it to someone that isn't especially technical. The menus are pretty arcane when you want to change a setting or behavior. It's also a little more crashy than other desktops. It generally recovers nicely, but not always.

It might be worth demoing it for the friend, but I wouldn't be comfortable saying "here ya go", and walking out. That could lead to frustration and disappointment.

 

[ninaholic37]

I have a Dell Inspiration 1300 (Pentium M 1.7Ghz, 2GB RAM) with XP, and am using Slacko Puppy Linux 5.6 (non-PAE version). I mostly just browse the internet, chat, watch videos, and listen to music and it works well for my needs. 1GB RAM should be ok.

 

[Away]

Peppermint.

 

[hhhd1]

Linux mint xfce would be my choice.

 

[escrow4]

Neither of the choices here. Run Debian netinst and strip out everything you don't need. Then again I'd just buy my buddy a chromebook or cheapo Win 8.1 laptop.

 

[ninaholic37]

Then again I'd just buy my buddy a chromebook or cheapo Win 8.1 laptop.

You can buy me both if you want. I'll just sell them and keep using my Dell though.

 

[Towermax]

I've got Windows 7 running fine on a D600 and on a D610. Both have 2GHZ or faster Dothans and 2GB of ram each. The ram is obviously the most important item . . .

These laptops are easy and cheap to upgrade. You can get a couple of 1GB sticks of ram for $10 or less on eBay or various forums. Same for 2GHz CPUs.

 

[r0n]

Just installed Linux Mint for my nephew on an old Dell 6400 runs great!