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+--- Thread: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? (/showthread.php?tid=119112)
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A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - olnacl - 06-23-2011
900 MHz. Came with XP but has just 256MB RAM. Dog slow. I'm waiting for 2 -256MB sticks that I found on eBay to arrive (max Dell says it will handle). Maybe that will speed things up enough to give it to some needy kid, but, if not what free (since I'll be giving it away and I already have the RAM and time invested) OS should I try to make it more usable? Keep in mind it should be easy enough for a beginner to use.
I did STF but while I got a lot of results, nothing jumped out at me.
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - Paul F. - 06-23-2011
I'd look seriously at Kubuntu or another linux flavor...
There are some pre-rolled installs that are purpose built for minimum resource laptops.
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - cbelt3 - 06-23-2011
Leave the XP in it, add the RAM, clean it up and donate it. You do NOT want to give any 'ux variant to a kid unless he's uber geeky (like mine..)
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - decay - 06-23-2011
Linux Mint, or leave XP on it (but install ALL m$ updates)
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - SDGuy - 06-23-2011
512MB max?!!??
That's a doorstop nowadays. I can't imagine it being very useable - response times for doing anything will be very slow...
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - anonymouse1 - 06-23-2011
It will probably max out at 1 or 2GB, at most. That will work, but with a lot of slowness during start up, and randomly during use. Perfectly fine for use, but not for playing games.
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - olnacl - 06-23-2011
anonymouse1 wrote:
It will probably max out at 1 or 2GB, at most. That will work, but with a lot of slowness during start up, and randomly during use. Perfectly fine for use, but not for playing games.
Are you suggesting that larger RAM sticks will work and be recognized? Actually, too late now as I already bought two 256 chips. Bummer if what you say is true - I would have sprung for more had I known it would work in the box.
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - deckeda - 06-23-2011
A beginner can certainly use Ubuntu or whatever. The limitations of the hardware will be decently matched by the limitations of their need for Windows IMO.
XP runs OK on 512MB of RAM for one app-at-a-time stuff. However, even with all updates it's still obsolete, so you aren't doing them much of a favor by installing it, I don't think.
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - anonymouse1 - 06-23-2011
Can't tell what the max RAM is without knowing the model number--what model?
Re: A friend (?) gave me this old Dell laptop - what OS to install? - Buzz - 06-23-2011
anonymouse1 wrote:
Can't tell what the max RAM is without knowing the model number--what model?
or at least what type of RAM? PC100/133? PC2100/2700/3200?
Mrs. Buzz's [now ancient] XP laptop was a top of the line Compaq that shipped w/ 128MB RAM, and then was immediately superseded w/ the next rev shipping w/ 256MB RAM (and a lesser optical drive). We got the 128MB version w/ the better optical, for 60% off... original specs said 512MB max, and it's still humming along now w/ 2GB, and XP Pro SP3. FWIW, when the OEM hard drive crapped out, I replaced it w/ a virgin drive, and had to start from scratch w/ the OS and the myriad of updates to get it back to SP3, and it did initially bark about the RAM, so I had to take the 2 X 1GB sticks out, and put back a single 512MB stick to work through all the updates. Once it was back up to date, I put the 2 X 1GB's back in, and it has been OK ever since... well, as OK as XP can be in the grand scheme of things :-), w/ the formerly awesome 64MB discrete Radeon Mobility 7500 video, no longer being awesome. I'd be surprised if the Dell wouldn't at least take 1GB, and be a nice addition to a needy kid's family after maxing out the XP updates.
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