Linux LiveCD version for 7 year old laptop and pensioner newbie

[davemurgtroyd]

Can anyone recommend a Linux LiveCD (or LiveDVD) distro for an ageing 7 year old HP laptop and a pensioner newbie to Linux and where to download an iso for it?

 

[Archive-8]

Mint is very good on low spec machines, might be worth a go.

Good luck

 

[archive10]

Mint is very good on low spec machines, might be worth a go.

Good luck

Agree. I have several laptops of that vintage, including HP ones, and they work well with Mint.
However... i have upgraded them all to max RAM (4G...

Can you share a little about processor, RAM, HDD etc?

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Processor is a dual core T4300 2.1 ghz with 3 GB RAM.
HDD is defunct at this time (Smart Drive fail) and was 250 GB but as this laptop was rescued by a friend at a late relatives house clearance minus a couple of covers (HDD and WiFi modem) I wanted to check it out with a LiveCD to make sure everything else he needs is working OK - sound, network etc. Replacing/upgrading HDD is not a problem if it is working enough to make it worth while - surfing net, playing video/music files etc

 

[Lazarus]

That's the same spec. as our Mint powered Laptop.

Goes like sh*t off a shovel.

And the beauty of Mint is that anyone who has used a Windows O/S will be able to use it instinctively, straight out of the box.

A major new release - Mint 19 - goes into public Beta tomorrow and is scheduled for release in about a month. Unlike the old days, it is upgradeable in situ, so if you get Mint 18 on the Live DVD and decide to install it, you won't have to start from scratch if you subsequently want to update.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Well I found a LiveDVD iso for Ultimate Mint (only 17.2). Everything on laptop (except HDD and missing WiFi card) checks out OK (including an HDMI output to TV I hadn't previously noticed) so now just fully charging it so I can test battery life.

 

[archive10]

Well I found a LiveDVD iso for Ultimate Mint (only 17.2). Everything on laptop (except HDD and missing WiFi card) checks out OK (including an HDMI output to TV I hadn't previously noticed) so now just fully charging it so I can test battery life.

Just get a new HDD and pop it in - there should be plenty of life in that machine w. Mint.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

I have a slight problem with it at present - trying VLC player on a video, laptop screen gives correct picture (in box or full screen) whereas TV from HDMI output merely shows Mint desktop background. Probably a configuration issue - I'm used to my Windows laptop displaying on both its screen and TV simultaneously. I can't play any more at present so will have a dig tomorrow.

 

[statalite]

The TV is like a second monitor so just click and drag the VLC window into the TV.

 

[Analoguesat]

Make a bootable flash drive with the minty image on it and you can build the laptop with that instead of the dvd drive. Its much quicker too.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

The TV is like a second monitor so just click and drag the VLC window into the TV.

Thinking about it I had to set Windows up on other laptop so have now found system settings, display, mirror screens and it is now OK.
Dragging on desktop woildn't I believe work fully as you would be unable to view full screen and frameless.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Make a bootable flash drive with the minty image on it and you can build the laptop with that instead of the dvd drive. Its much quicker too.

USB not really an option at present - only 2 USB ports and needed for WiFi dongle and his digitl cameras (used a lot) andas this is only a temporary fix for him to decide between Windows or Linux a LiveDVD (Ultimate Mint LiveDVD with Libre Office, Firefox and many other useful programs) - I will be fitting HDD and re-installing Windows 7 on it so DVD will give him easy dual boot option to try them out (and perhaps keep both). Besides that I cannot see option in BIOS to boot from USB.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

I'm so impressed with the speed of this one I am now going to try Linux on an even older laptop (2003/4) an HP Pavilion DV4000 with 1.5/1.6 GHz Pentium M CPU - not sure of RAM (max possible 2GB ) or HDD (probably 60GB at present) as I need to find a suitable PSU for it. I've read that Trisquel LiveDVD works well on this model so I now have a LiveDVD for that distro to try out.

 

[Analoguesat]

If anyone has a really really old computer they want to put back into use, have a look at these Linuxes - Peppermint & for really ancient kit Lubuntu. Ive managed to get the latter running on a right old heap of a laptop. The hardware would probably limit trying to do anything really processor intensive like watching hd videos, but it ran ok for reading forums and checking email.

 

[Lazarus]

Yep. I'm running my old Netbook on Lubuntu.

I use it as an intelligent backup drive for all my other devices.