Which Linux distro would be best for this crappy laptop? I'm open for suggestions!

[david]

Hello Neowinians! I need your help!

 

I have a Windows 7 laptop that runs like crap. I've done my research and it looks like there really isn't any hardware upgrades I can do to this thing that will give it a boost so it's even some-what usable. So, I need some help finding a Linux distro that would run very well that is also intuitive.

 

This device came with Windows 7 Home Premium and I have upgraded it to Windows 8; followed by the 8.1 update. That was a mistake. It had been running 8.1 for 6+ months while tucked away in my closet. I just recently downgraded it back to the OEM Windows 7 that it came with and it is still extremely slow and unusable -- initial Windows update took 7 hours for 187 updates to install completely! So I'm trying one last thing... Linux.

 

Thoughts on these:

• Elementary OS: thing looks amazing. But it also looks power hungry. Will that OS run well on this device? No?
• Ubuntu: I've used it before, but is there anything better? Would this be the best option?

The Device

• Product page: Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5518
• Spec sheet: PDF

Any recommendations guys?

[+Warwagon MVC]

LOL ... Ah the good ole e-series CPU. You aren't kidding. What a piece of crap!!!

 

That being said... Seeing how it's really a cheap PC they probably also skimped and put in a really ###### hard drive. So maybe put an SSD in it?

 

I made an entire topic about the ###### E-series CPUs. Everyone blamed crapware. I'm like... uh no simple tasks take 90% cpu.

 

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1210705-are-oems-giving-amd-a-bad-name/

[Max Norris]

Probably something like Xubuntu (or Lubuntu even, if you're wanting to stick with the 'buntus) would be better suited for that device.  Ubuntu's Unity, KDE, etc probably won't fare that much better on that hardware.. the others will run (just like Windows will), but you probably wouldn't be too thrilled with the performance.. all those background features/bling/etc comes at a cost.   Just keep in mind it's still pretty weak hardware, nothing's going to change that. 

[simonlang]

the cpu is the real weakness here. while you can run KDE and unity with 3 GB of ram, considering your cpu, i would opt for either xfce or even lxde based distro.

 

personally: i would go for lubuntu 14.04 x64, get the latest kernel all updates and see it flying compared to anything else.

[Anibal P]

I would say that something along the lines of Arch with a minimal DE might do the trick and make it sorta usable 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

I'd go for Crunchbang, but that's me. If you don't like OpenBox, can always load XFCE on top of that, as I am now.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

The CPU is not good, but whack up the RAM and install a SSD and it will have a discernable impact on performance.

[willyeckerslike]

You've probably never heard of this one. q4os. I have it running on an old netbook and while it's not as snappy as I'd like it's definitely better than any MS os.

 

http://q4os.org/

[Tidosho]

Which CPU do you have installed at the moment? The Athlon or Sempron? The Semprons really are awful, they're AMD's answer to Intel's Celeron, it's only single core, whereas the Duron is dual. I suspect you have the Sempron as you mention it runs like crap. A CPU upgrade to the Duron would boost it significantly, I just upgraded a similar eMachines to a similar CPU, it's like a whole new machine!

 

The only caveat is, being Toshiba, the boards are installed upside down with no easy access to the CPU, so the whole mainboard's gotta come out and be flipped over to get at the heatsink bolts and CPU socket, I've literally done hundreds of these this year, they sold them in droves at PC World, with the basic Sempron CPU at rip-off prices which misleads customers into thinking they're getting a deal!

[PGHammer]

LOL ... Ah the good ole e-series CPU. You aren't kidding. What a piece of crap!!!

 

That being said... Seeing how it's really a cheap PC they probably also skimped and put in a really ###### hard drive. So maybe put an SSD in it?

 

I made an entire topic about the ###### E-series CPUs. Everyone blamed crapware. I'm like... uh no simple tasks take 90% cpu.

 

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1210705-are-oems-giving-amd-a-bad-name/

The AMD E-series CPU, in and of itself, is NOT crap; I've seen plenty of laptops and notebooks (mostly from Acer) with them.

 

What we forget about the E is that it was designed to target the Celeron and lowest-end Pentiums as an alternative, and they are quite successful in that space.  (Unlike those same Pentiums in particular, the E supports not just VT-x, but Hyper-V (due to support of Extended Processor Tables) - no Pentium would fix that until Haswell; specifically the G3258.)  Intel countered by pumping i3s into the space occupied by AMD's E (which Intel could afford to due because i3s weren't - and still aren't - selling all that well in the desktop space).  

Neither the i3 OR the AMD E is really a gaming CPU - that space is still primarily occupied by AMD FX (which is not present all that much in the mobile space) or the i5 (which is).

 

Throw a decent space-for-price SSD in it and then pour in either Windows 8.1 or even the Technical Preview of Windows 10 (9879 or 9901 x64) and add Steam and/or Origin for your gaming jones - and Hyper-V for virtualization.

[PGHammer]

Which CPU do you have installed at the moment? The Athlon or Sempron? The Semprons really are awful, they're AMD's answer to Intel's Celeron, it's only single core, whereas the Duron is dual. I suspect you have the Sempron as you mention it runs like crap. A CPU upgrade to the Duron would boost it significantly, I just upgraded a similar eMachines to a similar CPU, it's like a whole new machine!

 

The only caveat is, being Toshiba, the boards are installed upside down with no easy access to the CPU, so the whole mainboard's gotta come out and be flipped over to get at the heatsink bolts and CPU socket, I've literally done hundreds of these this year, they sold them in droves at PC World, with the basic Sempron CPU at rip-off prices which misleads customers into thinking they're getting a deal!

I have an even older AMD Turion64-based HP dv9000 notebook with the Technical Preview on it, and it runs swimmingly, despite the older nVidia chipset (it's so old it's running a legacy 179-series Forceware driver).

 

The E replaced the Sempron, and is either single-core or dual-core - however, unlike the Intel Celeron (or even most Pentiums) of the same vintage, it also supports Hyper-V in addition to VT-x; with the exception of the G3258, no non-i-series Intel CPU since Core 2 supports EPT.  (That is, in fact, the ONLY reason I went with G3258 for my own upgrade - the Hyper-V support.)   This is not my first virtualization-driven upgrade - way back in the days of Windows 7, I moved from Celeron E1200 - which lacked VT-x support, to E3400 - which included it.  However, how many folks care about virtualization, even today?

[Tidosho]

The E replaced the Sempron, and is either single-core or dual-core - however, unlike the Intel Celeron (or even most Pentiums) of the same vintage, it also supports Hyper-V in addition to VT-x; with the exception of the G3258, no non-i-series Intel CPU since Core 2 supports EPT.  (That is, in fact, the ONLY reason I went with G3258 for my own upgrade - the Hyper-V support.)   This is not my first virtualization-driven upgrade - way back in the days of Windows 7, I moved from Celeron E1200 - which lacked VT-x support, to E3400 - which included it.  However, how many folks care about virtualization, even today?

 

I realized my mistake after I'd posted, I was looking at the service manual for an older C655 from 2010 not 2012, whoops! I hate Toshiba's model numbering scheme with the option codes after the model number, it makes it harder for me finding the exact maintenance manual in my massive collection. You're right, most normal people, i.e consumers, will never use virtualization or even know what it is, only guys like us here would, and probably enterprise guys.

 

Thanks for not slamming me down for my silly mistake, I appreciate it, and like you for it, most Neowinians could learn a lesson from you :)

[simplezz]

Download a fresh copy of Windows 7 with SP1 off Heidoc and do a clean install and just install the OEM drivers.

 

Trust me, its the OEM junk that is making it slow, not Windows 7.

Pretty sure he asked for a Linux distro, not a reinstallation of a poorly performing OS like Windows 7. I can say with certainty, Windows 7 is extremely bloated.

As to the OP's question, there are numerous low resource and fast distros. Here's a few:

a) Lubuntu.

b) Xubuntu.

c) Mint MATE edition.

Anything that comes with LXDE, XFCE, or MATE, OOTB will be fast and efficient usually.

Note: Before installing, have a play with the livecd and make sure all your hardware is working (wifi, etc). If that's all good, once you're installed, check for any proprietary firmware via the drivers program (available through the menu usually). Many laptops have firmware which enables certain features.

[simplezz]

This thread needs cleaning. Someone comes in asking for a lightweight Linux distro, and is bombarded by comments to reinstall Windows or upgrade hardware.

[StunningSuits]

lubuntu is the way I'd go, I have a laptop with roughly the same passmark score, and it flys with lubuntu, it will slow down with too many tabs open, or more then one 720p youtube video going but it works just fine for basic stuff

[chrisj1968]

Download a fresh copy of Windows 7 with SP1 off Heidoc and do a clean install and just install the OEM drivers.

 

Trust me, its the OEM junk that is making it slow, not Windows 7.

 

Here here! I couldn't agree more. first thing one needs to do when one buys a new OEM system, uninstall the bloatware immediately. I unload ALL norton junk mighty fast

[Shiranui]

If you are going to ditch windows, just stick Linux Mint (MATE) on it.

[simonlang]

@david

 

you might want to try out sparky-linux

debian based distro, with lxde available and also mate

 

here is a screen of the lxde version, does look quite nice if you ask me  :)

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Linux Mint 17.1 MATE should serve your needs nicely. It's very fast, very stable.

 

Something that I found that works even better for older machines is installing Lubuntu 14.04 and then installing:

 

xubuntu-desktop

xfce4-goodies

xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin (or whatever it's called now, if it isn't installed by default)

(whatever else you want to install)

 

What you'll end up with is Xubuntu that uses around HALF the resources of a typical Xubuntu installation. Crazy but it works very well, don't ask me why it happens like it does. My information could be out of date, it's been a while since I've done it that way (about 5 months) and things can change. I still recommend going Mint 17.1 MATE though. :yes:

[Gerowen]

If resources are an issue, just pick one that has a lightweight desktop environment.  I like Ubuntu because it gets regular updates and has a pretty active and supportive community.  Unity is pretty resource hungry, so try Xubuntu (Ubuntu that defaults to XFCE desktop environment) or Lubuntu (Ubuntu that defaults to the LXDE environment).  You could also try Debian; it's rock solid stable and much less resource hungry, but it doesn't get updates nearly as fast as Ubuntu, the font rendering isn't the greatest, etc., but I used Debian for a while and it was a stable OS that didn't require too many system resources.  The reason I left was that they refused to release major new versions of software unless there was some major security flaw, so if let's say it ships with LibreOffice 3.14, (just saying, I don't know what version it actually ships with) you'll never see LibreOffice 4 until the next major Debian release, which could be years away, and it got to the point that I was having to steal newer libraries from Ubuntu or Debian unstable/testing to get things working, and it was a pain.  It's a little better if you go with Debian testing/unstable, but Ubuntu just seemed better in almost every way.  You could try Ubuntu Gnome, since Gnome 3 is a little fancier but not quite as heavy on the resources as Unity is.

 

Edit: Just saw the post from BetaguyGZT, and I'll agree, MATE would also be a good choice.  It's basically just a fork of Gnome 2 for fans of that desktop environment that didn't want to move into the world of "touch" with Gnome 3 or Unity.  I don't know how stable it is, the last time I used Gnome 2 it was actually Gnome 2 and not MATE, but it might be something to consider.  Good thing about Linux is that you can go ahead and get your base system installed, and then install a desktop environment, see how you like it, and if you don't like it just nuke it and install another one, all without having to reformat or lose your personal files.

[Unobscured Vision]

They've fixed a LOT of stuff since it was Gnome 2. Removal of a lot of redundant code that didn't work along with compiler optimizations has made file sizes a bit smaller (5% or so) but the speed improvements are fairly substantial. It's a great time for the MATE Project, and they're in a really good place from a code/dev standpoint.

 

The LXDE Project is undergoing a transition right now ... some would say a renaissance. They've merged with the Razor-QT Project after moving over to QT themselves, and all indications are that LXDE itself is now on Legacy Support status. Big things coming down the pipe next year from them, so Lubuntu itself will be changing perhaps as soon as 15.04 (but more likely 15.10).

 

If one really needs the "ultimate" in low-resource interface, there's always Openbox. Infinitely configurable, and infinitely powerful, but it requires some patience and perhaps more reading/learning than the average user is willing to invest time in. People DO want to get to work eventually.  :shifty:

 

There's plenty of options for low-end systems, if one is willing to educate themselves ... just depends on how far one is willing to go.

[Knife Party]

Manjaro XFCE 

[simonlang]

Note: Before installing, have a play with the livecd and make sure all your hardware is working (wifi, etc). If that's all good, once you're installed, check for any proprietary firmware via the drivers program (available through the menu usually). Many laptops have firmware which enables certain features.

 

this is an excellent point simplezz and exactly what i also would recommand to david

 

make use of the awesome possibility to try several different linux distros via live usb or cd. it takes 5min to download, 5 to create and you can try out anything you want without having to worry too much.

as soon as you find one you really like and can work with and suits your taste, just double-click the install icon on the desktop and a few mins later you have that distro installed. 

 

further keep in mind, several stuff which consumes sys ressources heavily like an antivirus liveguard, firewall and bad implemented update manager will be all gone as soon as you move to linux. the first 2 things are not needed in linux world and the last thing is much better solved with linux, as you can chose to install all the latest updates right during the installation of the system, makes it much faster and uncomplicated.

 

let us know about your choice, i am quite sure some of the more experienced guys can help you with tweaking it further if needed.

[Aergan]

I'd recommend an SSD upgrade and a Xubuntu install. Works well on my ageing HP Core2Duo and Centrino laptops - plus TLP installed is a really good way to keep it going on battery / reduce heat output.

 

TLP is available on quite a few distributions now but very easy to get working under *buntu.

[Asharae]

Not to hijack the thread at all, but if it is running as slow as you say it is even after a fresh install, I would seriously consider running a drive test.

 

I know the E-Series are slow, but not that slow!

 

Back on-topic though: Lubuntu sounds like a decent bet.