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> ...Old laptops without [RAM+SSD] upgrades aren’t really viable these days unless you work all day in a terminal. Huh, I don't think this is correct. A lightw
by 0815test 8y ago
> ...Old laptops without [RAM+SSD] upgrades aren’t really viable these days unless you work all day in a terminal.
Huh, I don't think this is correct. A lightweight Linux distribution such as Debian can make very good use of even a spinning-rust HDD, as long as it has enough available RAM that it's not hitting disk all the time. As I've mentioned in a different comment, even 512MB RAM can be more than enough _if_ you have no need for a web browser.
- alkonaut 8y agoYeah hence my caveat “unless you work in a terminal all day”. Could be rephrased as “I’m assuming you are using a fat IDE or equivalent such as any big commercial content creation software”. But let’s call at least a modern browser par for the course for professionals. For using 10 year old apps, or apps that haven’t been made a lot heavier in the past 10 years, obviously you won’t need more than a 10 year old computer.
- dingaling 8y agoI have some Dell D430 ultralights that max out at 2GB. Usually once a day the OOM Killer slaughters the file manager or GIMP or sometimes X itself. It really is too chancy now for serious use, I'd suggest 4GB minimum.
- 0815test 8y agoSounds like a software problem to me. Put Debian on them with a Xfce/LXDE/i3wm session, and 2GB should be more than enough. 4GB is outright plentiful.