I have an HP Stream 11 that I want to use for word processing and some light web browsing - I’m a writer and it’s a lightweight laptop to bring to the library or coffee shop to write on. Right now it’s got Windows and it’s unusable due to lack of hard drive space for updates. Someone had luck with Xubuntu, but it’s been a few years and it seems like Xubuntu is no longer trying to be a lightweight distro for use cases like this.
My experience with Linux is very limited - I played around with Peppermint Linux a bit back when it was a Lubuntu fork and I used Ubuntu on the lab computers in college. I can follow instructions to make a live boot and I can do an apt-get (so something Debian-based might be best for compatibility and familiarity) but I mostly have no idea what I’m doing, lol. I used to do DOS gaming as a kid so having to do the occasional thing via command line isn’t going to scare me off but I’m not going to pretend to have knowledge I don’t. I’m probably going to go with Mint on my gaming laptop next year but I suspect it’s not the best choice for my blue bezeled potato (although I might try it anyway).
I’d go for Mint with XFce or xlde/lxqt for this one, or Lubuntu. Basically, you need anything that uses less than 700 MB of RAM (ideally around 350, like the Raspbery Pi version of Debian, but that doesn’t exist in the x86 world unless you go really low end, like DamnSmallLinux), and then you need to be very careful to not open more than 1-2 tabs on your browser, or you will start swapping. The biggest problem on your PC is not the speed, neither the size of the drive. It’s the 2 GB RAM. It’s a strict minimum of 4 GB these days to do adequate web browsing. But it’s still possible with 2 GB if you’re very careful what you’re loading, and how many tabs you’re using. My mom’s laptop has 2 GB of RAM too, and it’s equally slow in CPU speed, but it works for her, because she doesn’t know how to use tabs (she uses the browser with a single tab), and that’s enough at 2 GB.
And I know what I’ll suggest next is an anathema in these parts, but it’s true: Chrome uses less ram (there’s even a setting for it) and it’s significantly faster on older computers than Firefox. I have put together at least 8 old computers with Linux for friends and family, and that has been my experience consistently. On newer hardware it doesn’t make much of a difference, but on old hardware (e.g. anything less than 1500 Passmark CPU points, like yours), it does, visibly so.
Other suggestions: turn off start-up services on the xfce prefs about services you don’t need. For debian xfce, you will also need to edit a text file for policy-kit (somewhere on /usr) to make the laptop sleep on its own without intervention (otherwise it will tell you that it doesn’t have permissions to do so). Finally, Chrome might not load up on debian xfce, you will need to edit the launcher to include the basic password store chrome option, to make it load. Other ways to save RAM on xfce: include only 1 panel, don’t use applets you don’t really need, and use a color instead of a picture for background (you will be amazed how much ram that takes!).
Final advice: update the bios firmware via windows before you delete it. This will allow you to disable the fwupd service on linux, to save more ram (there are not going to be any new versions for that old model anyway).
Debian-based potatoe Linux is AntiX.
IIRC antix doesn’t use systemd, right? I don’t want to argue about systemd, but it may be frustrating for a new user trying to follow tutorials that say to use systemctl.
I have a stream 11 that I use as a little testing server and used to use as a laptop with Debian.
It ran fine, was too slow to stream from but certainly worked streaming to.
Using it now headless with rhel and it’s fine as that too, but I had to to the Broadcom-wl dance to get WiFi working.
A potato? GlaDOS surely.
Start with Debian, end with Debian. Mainly as you can start with a minimal install and swap out DE’s until you find one that works best for you.
I use bunsenlabs on old PCs like this. I have a Vaio A series with 1 gb of ram and it worked perfectly. This was a single core laptop from 2004. Mind you this was 32 bit so ram consumption might have been a bit lower. The idle was like 150 mb.
Bunsenlabs is debian based and uses openbox for it’s window manager so it’s lighter.
Linux Mint Debian Edition XFCE like someone else said already.
On a second note, maybe you’ll find the program Scribus of interest to you.
Any lightweight distros(Gentoo, Arch, Void, etc…) and if you need a GUI, use Dwm
if it supports the basic hardware, there’s nothing wrong with peppermint for basic stuff like your use case. after the base system is installed, add a browser and libreoffice and you’ll have a nice little system for writing on.
if you want to keep using windows on it, you’ll probably have to ‘start over’ with a plain install of windows (without hp’s junk, and to a clean–partition table cleared–‘hard drive’), uninstall the useless crud like candy crush that comes with the base windows install, ensure compactos is enabled (it should be automatically enabled with those specs), install your browser and word processor. you shouldn’t have to do thing where you connect an external drive for ‘working’ space for updates (something i’ve only ever had to do twice on 32gb emmc models) anymore as long as updates stay relatively current.
but with only 2gb ram and a 10 year old ‘atom’ based cpu, i’d probably go straight for peppermint.
Linux Mint Debian Edition Xfce. If you want to go more minimal, try Debian.
With only 2GB of RAM, you will need a very lightweight distro. Something like antiX would probably run well. It will probably have trouble with a web browser like Firefox or chrome. There are some lighter weight browsers available, but there are usually compatibility issues with modern websites.
Yeah I think the distro is less important. Really it’s choosing a lightweight DE + web browser that will determine if a machine that old will work.
Arch + Lxqt/enlightenment is what I use on my 2GB
Someone should come up with a new distro with the name potatOS, just for cases like this .
There’s already a bunch of distros for lower-end hardware. PuppyLinux is probably what you’re looking for, and it’s actually a genre of distro that takes a typical distro like SUSE, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch etc. and packages it into a slimmer spin with some shared utilities.
Mint with XFCE or MATE
Debian and xfce, easy
I have debian 32bit running on my extremely underpowered 2009 eeepc - 1.6ghz atom, 1gig ram. Cinnamon as DE
It’s up to date as well.
Websites are pretty useless but it works well as a music server and can digitise my vinyl with several plugins without dropping any packets.
With 2gig you’ll be able to browse the web
