I'm looking to dual boot a Linux distribution on my grandma's old computer, mostly for doing homework when I visit her. Windows 10 runs really slowly on it, so I'm thinking about something lightweight. I've dabbled in Linux before, so I'm familiar with it. The main use will be web browsing. Here are the computer specs: 8 GB RAM (around 7.45 usable), 1 TB HDD, and an AMD A10-8700P processor with 10 compute cores (4 CPU + 6 GPU) at 1.80 GHz. It's about 9 years old, still on Windows 10, and isn't compatible with Windows 11, so no worries about updates messing with the Linux bootloader. Also, it uses a traditional BIOS instead of UEFI, if that matters.
4 Answers
Definitely think about Lubuntu or Puppy Linux too. They’re both designed to run well on older machines and should serve you well for your browsing needs!
If you're looking for something even lighter, check out MiniOS. It’s super minimal — I’ve set it up fully on just a 32GB USB flash drive before! Perfect for older hardware.
Linux Mint is a solid choice for those specs! It's user-friendly and should run quite smoothly. If you want to boost the performance even more, consider upgrading to an SSD. They’re pretty affordable now, and it makes a *huge* difference in speed. You could get a decent one for around $30!
Linux Mint has flavors based on both Ubuntu and Debian, so it’s flexible. Between Cinnamon and XFCE, I'd suggest going with XFCE for better performance, especially since it's lighter on resources. Cinnamon looks nice but might be a bit heavier on the CPU; however, you can try both before you settle on one.
Totally agree! Just pop in a 240 GB SSD and use the HDD for extra storage. The quality of life improvements will be massive!