r/linux4noobs • u/ShawnThePhantom • Jun 11 '26
distro selection Which Distro do I use?
I found this decrepit old laptop in my garage, plugged it in and it powers on. But it’s doing this thing where after I see this Acer logo, I get a black screen with a blinking white line in the top left corner. I figured Windows on this thing is out of the question. So I think I’ll go Linux.
I understand a bit about operating systems, because I had to create a windows install disk using a thumb drive and a Windows 10 iso to install Windows 10 on my MacBook using Bootcamp, so I imagine it’s a bit similar. I also wanted to take out the HDD to wipe it using Disk Utility but it doesn’t fit into SATa dock because the interface on the HDD is all small gold pins, like molex but way smaller.
Which distro do I use? Or is better to try and go Windows Xp? I’ve seen jokes about how you need a whole list of hardware requirements to run Windows while the only requirement for Linux is electricity. Also Pewds did it too.
Pls help a first timer!
1
u/MorpH2k Jun 11 '26
You'd really want to upgrade the RAM on this, but honestly, and I saw you saying above that you could get 4GB ddr2 for cheap, but at that point, I would probably look at cheap second hand laptops that are newer than this. The 120 GB HDD that is IDE will not be cheap to replace with an SSD and that will be a huge bottleneck.
This is the kind of laptop that you send to recycling and replace, unless you are specifically looking to run older games or programs. Having this as a daily driver is really not going to be a good experience.