Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

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greyowl

Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by greyowl »

greyowl wrote:
Reorx wrote:
greyowl wrote:One Question: When using Puppy Linux online, how do you download software onto your hard drive?
You said that you were running Puppy from a CD. If this is a Live session, you can not permanently install software on a Live system. You can D/L anything you like. If Puppy is like Live Mint sessions, the D/L will be in the Downloads until you end the session (shutdown) and then it will vaporize. But during a session, you can copy the file from your Downloads folder to any other location you like - including the HD on the computer or a USB flash drive.
Thanks for the instructions.
I will try to figure it out and report back.
It worked--I was able to save a download to my HD on XP.
Now, I need to see if I can access files on my HD when I am in Puppy eg to send an email attachment using Puppy.
I am having problems getting the Adobe Flash plugin for the Pale Moon browser to work. Any ideas?
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Reorx
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Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by Reorx »

I've never used Pale Moon & know nothing about it... sorry...
Full time Linux Mint user since 2011 - Currently running LM21C on multiple Dell laptops - mostly Vostro models.

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chiefjim
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Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by chiefjim »

Q4OS runs amazingly fast on my old machines. The Trinity DE it uses is like a trip back in time to Win 95 days.
Mint-21.0 Mate 64 bit / LMDE-5 64 bit
Gigabyte H370M D3H
Intel G3258
Crucial Ballistic Sport 32GB DDR4 2400
8TB HDD Seagate Baracuda 5400rpm
greyowl

Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by greyowl »

Reorx wrote:I've never used Pale Moon & know nothing about it... sorry...
Thanks for the information-- I will look into it.
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Reorx
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Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by Reorx »

chiefjim wrote:Q4OS runs amazingly fast on my old machines. The Trinity DE it uses is like a trip back in time to Win 95 days.
While LXLE ran pretty reasonably on my antique ( :lol: ) laptop, my interest was piqued by your comment... did a little research - Q4OS is a brand spankin' new distro (less than a year old - its first distribution release was v 0.5.18 in 9/2014). The main focus of Q4OS seems to be KISS and stability. It hasn't even cracked the top 200 at DistroWatch... But I went to their website and did a little reading... I thought it was interesting enough to D/L the (32 bit) ISO... it was 339 MB!!! I burned it to a CD, loaded the disk and booted my old laptop expecting a Live session - similar to other "modern" distros - WRONG! The ISO is an installation ISO - no Live session to "test drive"!... I eventually decided to dive in (leap of faith) and installed it wiping LXLE. The installer is text/character based and somewhat crude by Mint standards... but it works well. The installation itself took longer than expected (I expected it to be fast considering the ISO size) and used/required no internet connection. After the installation, I rebooted...

Q4OS is based on Debian Stable - the current version is Q4OS 1.2 "Orion" based on Debian Jessie and it is an LTS edition with 5 years of support. They call their default Desktop Environment "Trinity" and it is a streamlined (stripped down?) version of KDE. It runs with good performance considering the anemic hardware that is underlying the installation. I think the performance of Q4OS is better than LXLE on my machine. YouTube video performance is still not great ("framey" play back) but otherwise, everything is good. The interface (Trinity) is significantly different than I am accustomed to (Cinnamon/Mate) and I am still learning where everything is and how it all works... The default desktop is plain/clean/efficient and effective. I learned that the ISO is so small because there is very little included by default in the base installation. So far, I have added Google Chrome browser, Synaptic, Libre Office, and inxi. Gimp is next on the list...

The good news:
1) Everything seems to work OOTB on my old hardware - WiFi, sound, video, & touch pad are all up and running without any effort on my part other than finding where and how to input my WiFi password (interface learning curve).
2) Performance (other than video) is good - almost "crisp" on ageing hardware.
3) Adding software, while a bit different than I am accustomed to, is easy.

The not so good news:
1) "Different" DE presents a learning curve (for me). Organization/layout and interface are different requiring "exploration" to find where and figure out how to accomplish common, previously familiar tasks.
2) "Different" environment seems to be missing some of the functionality that I have grown to love although arguably, I have less than 1 hour experience with the environment so I might be mistaken...

The bad news:
- none - <other that a somewhat clumsy install routine - not exactly multiboot friendly>

Conclusion: I think that Q4OS is going to become my new favorite distro for aging hardware... I might even try to install it on my experimental (modern) laptop if I can figure out how to accomplish an EFI multiboot installation! <to be continued?>
Last edited by Reorx on Wed May 20, 2015 4:41 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Full time Linux Mint user since 2011 - Currently running LM21C on multiple Dell laptops - mostly Vostro models.

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greyowl

Re: Linux Distros for old Dell laptop

Post by greyowl »

Thanks for the research on Q4OS. Really helpful to know.
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