this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
119 points (94.1% liked)

Linux

13953 readers
44 users here now

Welcome to c/linux!

Welcome to our thriving Linux community! Whether you're a seasoned Linux enthusiast or just starting your journey, we're excited to have you here. Explore, learn, and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for open-source software and the endless possibilities it offers. Together, let's dive into the world of Linux and embrace the power of freedom, customization, and innovation. Enjoy your stay and feel free to join the vibrant discussions that await you!

Rules:

  1. Stay on topic: Posts and discussions should be related to Linux, open source software, and related technologies.

  2. Be respectful: Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.

  3. Quality over quantity: Share informative and thought-provoking content.

  4. No spam or self-promotion: Avoid excessive self-promotion or spamming.

  5. No NSFW adult content

  6. Follow general lemmy guidelines.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hi!

Someone asked me to revive their 20 year old laptop as its no longer working on their installation of windows XP.

This baby has around 512MB of Ram, 1.6 GHZ Intel Atom.

This is my first time doing something with hardware older than myself so I'd love some insight from people around.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

TinyCore (loads itself into RAM), Puppy, Proteus and Zolin Lite will all be happy with 512 MiB.

Edit: also antiX, QOS, Slax and DSL.

Archbang, Slitaz, Sparky and MX may not support x86, double-check.

Also gentoo has a full binary-only version now.

Edit2:
Interesting that Zorin says their regular flavors are now efficient enough that they'll run just fine on older hardware, so there's no need to continue Zorin Lite:

It’s now possible to run the non-Lite editions of Zorin OS on computers with as little as 2 GB of RAM and on machines as old as 15 years, with higher performance than the Lite edition in some tasks.

Emphasis mine. Wow, only 2 GiB...

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I'm gonna anti-recommend TinyCore unless you're an advanced user. The wiki is a trap full of outdated info spread across several different versions of the OS.

load more comments (1 replies)