My mom has a laptop she never uses and i was thinking about taking out the hard drive and putting it into my first build. It has windows 7, I THINK 32 bit, not sure. I was wondering since i really want to go linux and this drive has 160gb of storage is it worth it to buy the other hard drive to throw ubuntu on there (LINUX HIPSTERS STFU). So whats the best option?
If you're just browsing the web then you'll want to get a distro that's stable and supports codecs so you can watch youtube and movies and stuff. Something based on ubuntu 14.04 LTS like Linux Mint 17 or ZorinOS. If you prefer the window 7 desktop. If you like more of a tablety looking desktop then I'd suggest Ubuntu Gnome3 or Ubuntu 14.04. All are free.
You can even try them out in a virtual box or wubi and not even have to install them. Wubi is just like read only from your DVD or USB.
If you game then you can download wine to play your windows games, but Linux does also have native support for Steam now so there's also that.
If it's your first time using linux, I wouldn't go through all that trouble of swapping and removing hard drives. Download the ubuntu iso from here Download UUI (pen drive linux) from here and install it on your windows machine. Then grab a 8GB flash drive or larger. Run through the UUI wizard and bam you have a bootable live version of ubuntu on a usb drive. You can also check the box to enable persistent storage. That way you can reboot and it will keep your settings.
Meh, I don't want to be confined to such a small space, plus the hard drive that is running windows is 160gb so thats pretty shitty, and i have had some experience with ubuntu so i'm not a complete NOOB
actually that is the first way i got unbuntu on to a computer
Is it a mechanical hard drive or and ssd? You may want to see what to check the model number of that hard drive. If it's a 5400 rpm mechanical, I personally wouldn't use it in "my first build". Get a decent ssd or even a hybrid hard drive.
No ssd, to expensive
Wait and save your money. I ran linux on an old laptop hard drive just as you were explaining. It took forever to install and update. It may have felt slightly faster than a flash drive. Good luck!
Thanks, I'm just going to buy the hard drive and take the one out of my moms laptop