Linux For Laptop with Single Core CPU

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

I apologize if this is the wrong area to post in, not used to posting in forums.

My question is what distro would be good to run on an older laptop with a single core CPU that i can let my 5 yr old son use as his first computer.

i tried running kubuntu on it for myself but it had way to many problems.

the distros that i was thinking about using were: elementary OS, Porteus or LXLE.
of those i only have limited knowledge of Porteus.

does anyone have any other recommendations or knowledge of the other two distros that would be easy to help a 5yr old learn to use i would appreciate it. Thanks

2

Can you post the full specs? Especially the amount of RAM.

3

I would look into Linux Lite its a very good starting point when getting into Linux and uses the lxde desktop environment.
https://www.linuxliteos.com/

If that is still to heavy you could try bunsinlabs it uses openbox so it should be even lighter.

4

puppy linux

2 Likes
5

the specs are

Intel CPU 585 @ 2.16 GHZ

2GB of ram

and a 150GB HDD (but i can change that out with a larger one)

Intel integrated video (mobile intel 45 chipset family)

6

You could start loading http://lubuntu.net/ on an USB stick and try it live. If it's not responsive you can step a bit down. LinuxLite based on Lxde like lubuntu and puppy linux are good alternatives or Xubuntu. If you feel brave enough you can even try plain Ubuntu, from the live USB.

Load some distros on an USB stick and try them out.

EDIT: A guy on reddit is succesfully running Ubuntu on the same laptop: https://www.reddit.com/r/TechnologyProTips/comments/3al7tt/tpt_repurpose_your_older_computers_by_installing/

7

You can also give Ubuntu mate a whirl. I setup a raspberry pi for a friend and that's what she's currently running.

8

I would suggest mint I had a laptop with much lower specs and it ran beautifully.

9

mint / puppy linux

10

i think that Lubuntu or LXLE should work fine.

11

Ubuntu Mate or Mint will probably run fine, but run it live once before installing, just to make sure.

12

I was in the same boat with an emachines 1300 single core amd chip at around 1 ghz.
2 diferent puppy Linux would freeze
Kolabri would freeze
Lxle ran great.
The best thin IMHO is try out several from the cd to see what works best with your hardware.
Distrowatch is a great site to choose distros.
150 gb is plenty of HD space
youtube would not work in browser (choppy,unwatchabel) so I installed a youtube player and it worked great. Easy install from the software installer

13

Arch or Manjaro Linux with kde desktop run much faster than kubuntu.
So if you already have a great deal of experience I'd recommend arch Linux. Otherwise take Manjaro. It's an arch derivative but simple to install and maintain.
Don't worry about the size of your hard drive. Linux is super tiny compared to Windows.

14

You can run basically anything. A lot of people flip out about not having 8 gigs of ram. Doesn't really matter.

Give Xubuntu a shot as I used that a lot. If you're a seasoned linux user I would say arch. Ubuntu mate is also worth a shot as well as Suse.