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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux is amazing on my old Thinkpad (lemdro.id)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have an old ThinkPad SL-400 with a Core 2 Duo processor and 4 gigabytes of RAM.

I used to think it was completely useless and it ended up gathering dust for years.

But recently, my sister started learning to code, and I decided to give her this laptop.

So I installed Debian 12 with the KDE desktop, and to my surprise it handles things surprisingly well. I didn't even feel the need to install something lighter like LXDE or XFCE.

It's amazing how well it multitasks with only 4 gigabytes of RAM. Just to test its limits, I opened vscode, multiple tabs in Chrome, Chromium, and Firefox all at once (including a YouTube video). I even opened Shotcut and edited a video while the browsers were running. Sure, it's not the fastest system I've ever seen, but it seems impossible to make it hang or freeze.

I'm using the Xanmod kernel and zswap, which might be helping to squeeze out more performance from this machine.

Overall it's amazing that to see how linux can breathe life into older hardware. I hope more people knew this and could save mony while using the latest software.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago

It's an inconceivably large amount of memory and also nothing. It really depends on your perspective.

Gaming PC? Doesn't even qualify because we need the space for those graphics. A wireless router? Huge. Definitely overkill.

Memory is pretty cheap these days but what constitutes a large amount of it depends on the job. Because I mainly do embedded development where memory is measured in 4k pages most everything seems like a lot.