Good day

I would please like to ask for suggestions for first time installation of linux on an old pc that has recently come into my possession

It is

Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (2 cpu) 2 Gb Ram 1Tb hardrive Onboard graphics 128 mb

I have been looking at Mint and I am assuming that the Xfce Edition would probably be the smarter choice, but I am curious to know if I could use something like Cinnamon Edition and will it run smoothly hitting at the minimum spec of 2Gb RAM. Is their other alternatives that provide a good exprience for the limited resources as I decide to take the plunge?

  • @JayEchoRayOPEnglish
    8•7 months ago

    Hello, writing this from the recently installed Mint Xfce install. so far the only thing I am still a bit confused with is some of the keyboard input is swapped around like " is @ and a couple other keys. Also not too sure where the check if a headset I have has microphone drivers, but that is something I think I need to read up on

    • @KISSmyOSFedditEnglish
      6•7 months ago

      Sounds like you have the English keyboard layout set and expect German.
      This should be changeable somewhere in Xfce’s settings.

      • @JayEchoRayOPEnglish
        6•7 months ago

        Thanks I will have a look at it

        Edit Exactly as you said, the language prompt that I thought as default language was the prompt for “keyboard language” during installation

        Thanks again for the help

        • @KISSmyOSFedditEnglish
          3•7 months ago

          The language you set during installation sets the environment variable LANG which is picked up by the desktop environment to set keyboard language, date format and a few other things.

          • @JayEchoRayOPEnglish
            2•7 months ago

            The more I know, did throw me off though and changed the keyboard setting to US and haven’t had issues. At least all the other information will be to my liking so that is a happy accident at least.

            Appreciate the information, thank you

    • @[email protected]English
      3•7 months ago

      Hey, looks good! The sound panel (Menu - Sound & Video or simply type “sound”) should let you choose and test your headset. Let us know how it goes!

      • @JayEchoRayOPEnglish
        4•7 months ago

        Thanks, and in regards to the sound I think it might be a failure of the mic itself and not a software thing ( seems to not pick up audio on two different devices - tried on one before and now again on the new install seems to be the case - audio just picks up a popping sound and not voice at all) . I probably need to look at a cheap one-off microphone to get me by. 2 Browser stuff is a bit harsh with only 2Gb - need to look at maybe getting firefox lite or something lightweight, but I can get used to 1 tab at a time, can think of it as an opportunity to try work towards something more, but overall pretty impressed by what it is able to accomplish with the old tech.

        I feel I have been converted away from microsoft and like what I am seeing with Linux systems so far. I will likely consider it for future systems if I am able to get something more capable later down the line