OT - What linux do you recommend for older PCs?

[Richard Gaskin]

Matthias Rebbe wrote:

 > I have here an old Asus EeePC 1000H which currently runs with Windows
 > XP and which is not used very often.
 > It has an Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB ram and a 160GB harddisk.
 >
 > What Linux OS do you recommend for this machine? Best would be, if it
 > could be used also with Livecode.

I like Ubuntu, and as the leading desktop Linux it's a good choice for 
the wide range of support materials available.

But the Atom N270 isn't exactly new, and it wasn't a serious workhorse 
when it premiered in '08.  I like the chip, and have a nettop in my 
office still running with it even now; it collates and processes the 
feeds shown in LiveNet (among many other things, including being one of 
my Nextcloud servers, remote backup manager, occasional UI stress 
tester, and more).

Old machines can be very useful, esp. with a power-miser chip like the 
Atom line.  But you'll want to consider relative performance when 
choosing a distro, looking for one with minimal graphics requirements 
and not very taxing on the CPU.

I did a lot of reading about low-resource Linux distros a while back 
when I first converted my N270 box from Windows to Linux, and again a 
couple years ago.

Bottom line: Lubuntu.

It's a lightweight flavor of Ubuntu designed specifically for modest 
hardware.  It uses a very lean window manager and desktop environment 
that's more Windows-like than Ubuntu's Unity UI may be consider 
Mac-like, but it's quite usable and very stable.

There's also Xubuntu, and outside of Ubuntu derivatives many others. 
But few can match Lubuntu's lean system requirements.

And it comes with an extra bonus for LiveCode folks: Both Alejandro and 
myself are experienced using LiveCode in Lubuntu, so if you run into any 
snags you have at least two more sources of support. :)

Have fun.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com