Need reccomendations for distro. Old laptop from like '10 (shipped with windows 8, not even 8.1), touchscreen needed so no Mint unfortunately. No linux experience whatsoever beyond using tails and I know what the terminal is but have NO clue how to use it.
Need a daily driver for light tasks (just gimp, handbrake, internet, qbittorrent, and libreoffice type stuff, no games), would prefer security and privacy, but idk if Whonix can run on my old machine and with my nonexistent linux exp idk if it is a good one for me yet, may need exp with something else first? Idk, y’all tell me!
Was reccomended Fedora, has touch support and supposedly good for the light tasks and will run in my old laptop, but figured I’d ask what y’all think because you guys seem knowledgeable.
It is my only computer besides my phone so I can’t afford the time to fuck around lol.
Hmm, so a bit of terminology to get you started: On Linux, there’s the concept of “desktop environments”, which is basically each a collection of programs to show you a graphical desktop UI. Basically, you can transform a server OS (which has only a terminal interface) into a desktop OS by installing a DE.
And there’s various DEs available, which provide different user experiences. Among the most popular are:
Now, GNOME has the best touchscreen support. KDE is in second place. The others don’t really support touch input to my knowledge.
However, GNOME is also among the most heavyweight. KDE is definitely lighter, but also not the lightest.
I still think GNOME is lighter than Windows 8, so migrating will probably improve things, but if you’ve been told that Linux can revive old hardware, then yeah, your touchscreen requirement kind of torpedoes that…
Thanks for the info, I guess I know I can run Gnome since that same laptop will run tails, so that is good. It is less about reviving old hardware (windows still works on whatever version I’m on and I’m getting updates and whatnot), it is more about getting away from windows entirely. I degoogled my phone for the same reasons, it only stands to reason that I need to do it there too, hence my desire to use Whonix if it’ll be a good fit for a new guy. I know I can’t run qubes but might be able to run Whonix if it isn’t too intensive to do so. Also taking other reccomendations for distros I am unaware of that would be secure and private (or have tutorials on how to make them that way) and frankly any “daily driver” os should be able to handle all my other uses with ease I’d imagine.
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OH you can live boot fedora?! With persistent memory? That is the ticket for trials then for sure! I only use the touch minimally so I could conceivably lose it, but it has gotten me out of jams where my mouse was shitting out, though who knows, that may be an issue with windows and I won’t need it! No clue as to RAM without booting up and going to system specs but this here little sticker says “intel inside core i5” so maybe? To give a more accurate picture of time and therefore possibly it’s components, usb 3.0 was still fairly new and it boasted it had one port for it! Haha.
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Hell yeah! I’m sure I can run it fine then! And on a hunch I just called my mom to see if she held on to her old laptop from a few years later and she did, so looks like I have a backup instead of fiddling with live boot beyond function checks! She has her work pc she uses so she doesn’t need it! Love it when a plan comes together lol, I will be trying Fedora as soon as my 2 weeks seeding these last few torrents are over!
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For sure, that was always the worst part, thinking “what am I going to do if it doesn’t work, then I have nothing but a phone” well problem solved! Haha.