My Windows 10 (formerly Windows 7) laptop has just started getting this popup when I boot it up. I'm definitely making plans, but those don't include Windows. I'm thinking I'll get a new SSD to replace the 10-year-old HDD currently in this thing and install some flavor of Linux, which will probably breathe tons of new life into it. Seriously, this laptop runs like ass currently, most likely because it's got a decade-old Windows install that I upgraded to 10 when 7 ended support, and it was already slow as molasses back then.

As for which Linux distribution, I'm open to suggestions. I've been messing with Anti-X for a few years now after I installed it on a positively ancient WinXP laptop from 2003 just to get some Linux experience. The thing is though, I mainly picked Anti-X since my main requirement was to just have something that would run on a 32-bit system from the early 2000s. I haven't really done much with that laptop since it's so underpowered- even browsing many modern websites is asking way too much from it and you can just forget about Youtube.

Since I actually regularly use this laptop I want something that can fully replace Windows and also do some light gaming. I'd like to try out the Linux Steam experience and run the Linux versions of the emulators I currently use. This laptop is from 2011, so it's not exactly a spring chicken either but it was my daily driver and main gaming machine from 2013 to about 2019. Specs-wise, it's got 8 gigs of RAM, a GeForce GT 540M GPU and an i5-450M CPU.

I assume I could also do the stuff I want with Anti-X, but since I'm not presumably as limited by hardware with this laptop I'm open to trying out different distributions. "Gaming/emulation friendly" + "Windows-like UI" would be at the top of my wishlist.

Edit: Thanks everyone, I already made a live Mint USB and tried it out. It seems pretty nice, will install it on a new SSD later stalin-approval

top 44 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] boiledfrog@hexbear.net 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Remember when w10 was "the last windows version"

Now they just make a w10 reskin to sell it again.

[–] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I have a feeling they will be forced to keep supporting 10 past 2025. This has happened with other editions of windows in the past.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

That'd be good news for my desktop. Really hate that I'll be forced to upgrade to 11 on it.

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago

they already have a thing where you can buy a single extra year of support for like 30 bucks lol

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

They'll probably do so for a bit but it'll still be an exodus of hardware to the trash heap when it finally goes defunct.

[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Speaking as someone who recently made the jump, Linux Mint is good. Not perfect but an easy enough on-ramp, aside from a couple of hiccups. You can run lots of (most?) Windows programs in Wine which is ~~not~~ an emulator.

If you have the opportunity I'd recommend dual-booting with windows to ease out the transition. Make Linux your default, have windows as a backup which you can resort to in moments of absolute frustration (and also to get a taste of how bad it really is on the Microsoft side of the fence), and gradually over time you'll find yourself probably relying more and more on Linux.

Dual boot works better on two separate drives for unnecessarily complicated reasons (thanks, Microsoft), so if that's at all an option then do that.

Linux gaming has come a long way in a short time, especially thanks to the Steam Deck and now Bazzite really driving Linux gaming to get up to speed. I'm not really much of a gamer so I can't tell you what it's like on Linux and I haven't had the capacity to sort out emulation as of yet but at a guess I think you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised for the most part.

Pro-tip: if you are trying out a Linux distro, consider buying a reasonably sized SD card, presuming that you've got a SD slot in your laptop. Just get a microsd card and use an adapter for the broader applicability, if possible. Load up your distro on the card and run it off of that for a little bit to get a feel for Linux in your own time. Then, as long as your SD slot is low profile that it doesn't protrude, once you switch to a more permanent dual-boot set up you can use the SD card as a makeshift shared drive (because Microsoft makes a shared Window/Linux drive kinda painful, naturally).

There are other good distros out there but Mint has been my daily for months now and I'm quite happy with it. It's not perfect but I have a strong preference for it over Windows, which is the destination I wanted to arrive at.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I would do a dual boot setup like on the WinXP machine, but the HDD I've got in this laptop is slow and already mostly eaten up by the Windows installation, and I'd rather not get an unnecessarily large SSD just to also fit the ailing old Windows install. I was thinking I'll just chuck the old HDD in a closet and use a USB SATA adapter to get files from it if need arises. Besides, I already have Windows on the desktop that is my current daily driver so I'm open to just embracing the Linux life on this laptop.

This laptop does actually have an SD card slot. The funny thing is that until I took it apart last year to do a deep clean and apply new thermal paste I never noticed it had one- I got this thing second hand and the person I got it from never told me. I suppose I might as well finally try to get some use out of it. I assume I'm limited to 32GB SDHC cards at most though, given the age of this laptop.

[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Sounds like you don't have much to lose. In your case, unless there is some specific programs you need to use on your laptop for work/study then you should be fine diving headlong into a Linux install tbh. Windows can be a pain to have running on a dual-boot on the same drive though. You will need to disable secure boot and the way that the different OSes manage the internal time on the device differs so you need to direct one of the two to follow the other OS' default format, I believe. Aside from that you should be alright - I've heard that some people encounter other difficulties but these either emerge when you have a shared partition on your drive and you have that open in on OS, then you suspend that OS rather than shutting down before starting the other OS as I think this will cause the partition to be locked out from the other OS until you shut the first one down. I figure nothing big will likely come of that but I've never encountered it personally so just something to be aware of.

As for the other issues that may occur from a dual-boot set up on the same drive, I'm not sure whether that's an older issue that doesn't occur anymore because the cause of it has been resolved or if it's specific to certain OSes or what. I've never encountered it personally, although after the initial week the number of times that I've booted back into windows has been less than half a dozen times.

Pro-tip: if you are pretty set on making Linux your daily driver then I'd go through the pain of allocating the majority of your drive space to Linux because you will probably want almost all of it there. If you divide it up 50/50 you're probably going to wish you had a larger partition for Linux once Windows becomes your backup "if I really have to" OS, especially if you plan to have an extensive library of games on Linux.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Does WINE work with things like Solidworks, AutoCAD etc. that I use professionally (but also for hobby 3d printing)? That and the occasional game that doesn't work on both (I mostly play indie games) are my main hesitancies

[–] hello_hello@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I haven't seen anyone actually succeed at getting proprietary enterprise graphics software to work (besides Davinci Resolve and that's a very, very painful experience and probably a form of torture). You'd most likely need to dual boot or use a virtual machine setup. The software will likely never be ported until Linux is like 10% market share because capitalism is efficient or they somehow receive web ports like Microsoft office web and such.

For gaming you can use Steam, Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher (GOG,Epic), or Bottles to set everything up. I've had more games work ootb then not and even got a fully modded Fallout New Vegas with MO2 to work so never say never (until you can't debug the WINE stack trace). The only games that will probably never work are those that require anticheat rootkits.

[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've never used Solidworks or AutoCAD so I can't speak to whether they work in WINE or if it would be suitable for 3D printing - honestly I'd be concerned about stability in WINE for 3D printing because of the risk of prints failing but this is so far outside of my wheelhouse that I really have no idea.

But it sounds like dual-booting would probably be the best solution for you, especially with the odd game that isn't compatible.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don't use the old WinXP install on the ancient laptop too often but dual booting seems to work fine on that machine. Seems like Microsoft has innovated since then windows-cool

[–] Barx@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you run into any problems with Mint, ask us for help!

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How's DualShock 4 compatibility with Linux? On Windows I use DS4Windows to use it with emulators and non-Steam games, and while Steam does have DS4 support I enjoyed having different profiles with DS4Windows for different applications.

[–] Barx@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

It may "just work" or you may need to run some command line bluetooth commands to get it to connect

[–] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamepad#PlayStation_4/5_controller

[–] glans@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I not framiliar with antiX but I looked at https://antixlinux.com/download/ and this is clearly a distro aimed at people who are already experienced Linux users. It is probably a bit too graphically minimal to get started:

antiX-full (c1.8GB) – 4 windows managers – IceWM (default), fluxbox, jwm and herbstluftwm plus full libreoffice suite. Suitable for most users. Lots of applications pre-installed and has the best hardware support

This would not be considered entry level IMHO. You should at least try something more mainstream. If you want to get into iceWM etc the option is always avilalble to you to install...

Also had a look at their forums https://www.antixforum.com/forums/forum/new-users/new-users-and-general-questions. Online support is arguably the MOST important aspect of choosing a distro for the novice user. There is some traffic but not much, and people in the "new users" section are getting answers without all the required details.

According to Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions AntiX is debian-based so information found on forums for ubuntu, mint and Debian itself will probably be useful most of the time.

here is the equivilant forum for Mint https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=90 there's a larger volume of Qs and As which you can search through as first line. The people answering are giving through responses more of the time. There are also other forums people are talking about Mint.

At the end of the day, try out whatever you feel like, it isn't a lifetime commitment. I just beg you that if anti x doesnt work out to at least try something mainstream before giving up.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Like I said, I mainly picked Anti-X for my old WinXP laptop because it had great compatibility with really old systems. That said, I did actually manage to get kind of used to it. From what I tried, Mint definitely seems more slick, modern and user-friendly though and I'll be trying that out on the Win10 laptop.

[–] sexywheat@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

All Linux distros are compatible with really old systems :)

[–] WasteTime@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I haven't really done much with that laptop since it's so underpowered- even browsing many modern websites is asking way too much from it and you can just forget about Youtube.

To watch videos you can use the terminal, write "mpv [URL of the video]" and configure the player to a lower resolution if 1080 or 720p is too much for your hardware. That's what I do in my old laptop with antix, along with a lightweight browser like w3m or falkon. Sometimes I don't even use web browsers, I just check the channels I am subscribed to via the terminal with the application Newsboat to get the video links.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Anti-X comes with several workarounds to watch Youtube videos but they get regularly broken by changes to Youtube :google-cool:

[–] WasteTime@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yep yea

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Windows has been the biggest driver of E waste if it isn't iOS or android. I know Linux is a bit of a meme but it's currently the only commercial and mainstream hope we have to avoid dumping endless tonnes of hardware into landfill indefinitely.

BSD gets a shout-out but Ur on thin fucking ice.

[–] x87_floatingpoint@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

BSD gets a shout-out but Ur on thin fucking ice.

What's wrong with BSD? Wouldn't exactly recommend it to someone who is new to Unix-likes, but I haven't heard any bad things about it...

[–] NewOldGuard@hexbear.net 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I think the easiest option is Mint, as it has all of the advantages of Ubuntu (lots of first party packages, tons of support documentation, automated driver and codec installation if needed, etc) but without the major disadvantages Ubuntu has developed over the years (mainly snaps). The Cinnamon desktop environment will probably remind you of Windows 7 but modernized and customizable; I personally think it’s excellent.

If that’s not up your alley then I’d say try a distro with KDE for a more windows like experience. Kubuntu, Fedora KDE (remember to install codecs from rpmfusion if you go this route), or even Debian with KDE would probably all be excellent for you.

Whatever you go with, if you can’t find a program you need in your distro’s repositories, try looking for it on flathub. I think Mint installs Flatpak with flathub by default, but if you choose another distro without it just go here and follow the instructions for your system. Flathub offers tons of applications in a universally compatible sandbox so it’s a lovely complement to your standard software repo. All the apps from your repo and flathub will show up in the software center of your desktop environment so once installed you never really need to think about it again. Just a helpful tip in case you can’t find the software you’re looking for

[–] glans@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You can install KDE on any distro tho.

I don't understand choosing a distro based on desktop environment it happens to have as default. The distro is such a more important decision because it determines what package manager and software sources you'll have available, the availability of community support, and all kinds of technical stuff that's over my head.

[–] NewOldGuard@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

I mean yeah u can, but if it’s not the default on whatever distro or spin you’re using then that’s not a good recommendation for somebody new to Linux. That’s why I recommended three separate distros all from solid families for KDE options. Ubuntu has the benefits of being the ‘default’ distro so it has lots of support, Fedora has an expansive repo and is more up to date, and Debian is just generally rock solid with no frills. Just as somebody using windows doesn’t think about installing a DE, somebody migrating from windows to Linux likely isn’t prepared to do that themselves. Just giving them solid recs that have what they want by default

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Windows 7 but modernized and customizable

Please tell me I can customize accent colors as I never got color customization to work with Anti-X- I like my operating systems brightly colored. Can I make a live USB with Mint like you can with Anti-X? It would make it easier to try it out before committing to an install.

[–] hello_hello@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yes, Mint supports a set of accent colors you can choose from the settings menu. You can't choose your own custom color though because it's connected to the icon theme and those are hard-coded.

Can I make a live USB with Mint like you can with Anti-X?

You can make a live environment USB with pretty much any free operating system, it's only MacOS and Windows that are inferior and don't think this basic feature is important.

[–] glans@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Here is a website for downloading themes in linux https://www.pling.com/browse?cat=148&page=7&ord=latest. each one is only compatible with certain desktop environments but you get the picture that there is a lot available and ultimately everything can be customized.

You can make a USB of any Linux distribution. You can even make a USB with multiple distros using software called Ventoy but its 1 or 2 extra steps which not everyone wants to do. My USB has 2 dozen linuxes and I even threw Windows in just for good measure because once I needed it.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

Probably going to go that way if I do a rebuild next year.

[–] hello_hello@hexbear.net 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

GeForce GT 540M GPU and an i5-450M CPU.

desolate nvidia optimus laptop with a "legacy" card torvalds-nvidia (directed at nvidia not you). Use Linux Mint since I know Ubuntu/Mint packages the legacy proprietary drivers (390 series etc). But the battery life is going to suck shit if the optimus stuff doesn't work and your graphics card is on all the time so be prepared to do some troubleshooting.

Linux versions of the emulators I currently use.

You can install the flatpak versions of most emulators from Flathub from the graphical software manager in Mint, it's really easy, you can even install Steam as a flatpak.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

But the battery life is going to suck shit

Don't worry, the battery is already so busted I have the laptop always plugged in. It will seriously last about 5 minutes agony-soviet I'd get a new one but they're kind of expensive and I don't really need to use it on the train, etc anyway.

[–] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

Would definitely recommend Zorin if you want a drop in Windows replacement. It's a highly modified Ubuntu distro with a skin that emulates Windows XP, 7, 10, 11, and OSx.

It also has KDE connect running in their own little wrapper.

You can also just use KDE Plasma for bleeding edge KDE stuff, then spend a year tweaking your settings to get your computer looking exactly how you want.

[–] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

hell yeah mint

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Seriously just install ubuntu. You will not miss windows

[–] lil_tank@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Just don't use snaps, ever

I tried to use snap Steam, ended up with a game breaking bug on a game that was solved the moment I used another package manager

Tried to use snap Inkscape, wouldn't even start lmao

And then I tried to uninstall the snap version it wouldn't, it always gets stuck midway or something, took 3 hours of fiddling with the snap config to finally remove the programs from my system

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Couldn't agree more, never use snaps

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Ubuntu and Mint seem to be the most commonly recommended ones for newcomers.

[–] Owl@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you're willing to spend an extra couple hours fiddling around, you can try both of them out on live USB and see which you like better.

[–] TheronGuard@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I guess that answers my question about live USBs. I'm fine with fiddling with those- an Anti-X live USB has come handy when fixing problems with my Windows desktop bean

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

They are very easy to use and install while being similar enough to windows

[–] D61@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've had decent experiences with Linux Mint over the last few years, a couple of laptops that were getting the same "upgrade your computer to use the latest version of Windows... OR ELSE!!!" messages. Finally let myself get bullied into moving my PC from Windowns 7 to Linux a few months ago.

Biggest "issues" so far are that some of the old programs I had running on an ancient Windows 7 PC behave differently on Linux. Notably, my VPN service used to work fine with seeding/leeching torrents in Windows but I haven't figured out if there's a way to seed with the same service running its Linux version. I think the VPN itself is blocking the ports for incoming connections and accidently finding a P2P server on the connections list doesn't seem to fix the issue.

Linux Steam seems to be okay for me. Though i've only installed two games and one of them... I think... doesn't like my graphics card or something. Also, for the one online Steam game I've been playing recently, I've had to turn off the VPN or else the game will just freeze/crash every 15~30 minutes.

Lutrix seems okay as a general Windows installation emulator. Only got two games installed since I switched from Windows to Mint, Transformers: Devastation (installed from downloaded files) and the original Space Rangers (installed from a physical CD I've got). Took a bit of fiddling with the many, MANY, settings to get things working like I wanted but it seems fine.

[–] tombruzzo@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

If you want super light and basic you can go Debian and XFCE. It looks alright in Dark mode but feels like using an old Mac.

Uses less than a gig of ram when you have nothing open though