Hey everyone! Okay today we’re doing something a little articles for best linux for old laptop. Of course we all know that tech education is important but I take a different direction than “everyone should learn to code”.
Installing Linux Mint on a Used Thinkpad
I think everyone should try and be a bit more technically proficient to not be at the mercy of their tech Look at is this way, not everyone needs to be able to build a bicycle from the ground up but really if you own a bicycle you should know how to adjust the seat and fill a flat tire without going to the store And if you don’t, you’re going to end up stuck someplace in a bad situation I think there’s a car analogy there too I don’t have a car but if I did, I would learn enough to keep me out of trouble.
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Tech is the same way, 90% of what you need to know you can learn in an hour or two. Today we’re going to talk about general purpose computers best linux distro for old laptop- like a laptop. General purpose as opposed to a cellphone, or a tablet, or a single board computer like the Raspberry Pi. I’m going to teach you to take an old used computer, and turn it into something useful perfect for learning to code or most business and personal use. Gaming is a whole other issue and something other channels will teach you about. This is also a perfect setup for kids and teenagers who need a computer and if you teach them to install linux themselves you’ve pretty much taught them to fix any problem they might have themselves just tell them to keep their files on a USB stick until they get the hang of things.
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Although as I said not really a gaming setup. But, I’m Chinese enough I think that’s a feature – no distractions from studying! When I learned to code online I was in college and just had my cafeteria pass for meals and a bit of Chinese New Year money. Choosing a laptop to buy was a really stressful experience because it took all my savings If I knew then what I know now, I could have just bought a used laptop and done fine. So I want to share this with you in case you are in a similar situation. If you’re going to buy a used laptop I recommend the Thinkpad x220 like this.
This one has an i5 25-20 processor, 4 gigs of RAM, 120 gigabyte solid state hard disk. If you can find it 8 gigs instead of 4 is worth it but not a huge deal. Some people like something a little faster or newer, but for our purposes I’d like to keep it under $200 so no reason to get more computer than we need. I bought this one for 1220rmb on TaoBao or about $178 and you can find a similar one for about the same on Ebay if you look around. Today We’re going to install Linux on this used laptop. “Oh my god linux is so difficult!” Nah, not really anymore, they work really hard on making it user friendly. Once you know how to install it, you can bring new life into pretty much any old PC you have lying around.
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We’re going to be using a version of Linux called Mint and it has a few flavors but I like XFCE because it’s very lightweight. Lightweight in this case means it only uses a little bit of the computer’s power so it will run pretty quickly on any PC made in the last 8-10 years. We’ll need a USB stick with the Linux Mint installer I’m going to show you how to make one but if your computer does not have an operating system when you get it you can also buy one online best linux for old laptop.
I am going to put the URL in the description box. Okay we’re going to go to linux mint .com and click download. The version we want is XFCE. And then were going to go to etcher.io and download for whatever your computer is that you’re doing this on. Windows or Mac or Linux. And then you’re going to select that ISO of linux mint that we just downloaded. And we’re going to put in a USB drive and make sure there’s nothing on that USB drive that you need because it will overwrite it, it’s going to overwrite the whole drive. So put that in and then you’re going to click Flash and a couple of minutes later you’ll have what’s known as a liveUSB and you can boot the computer off that USB and you can install the linux mint operating system or you can just try it out to see if you’re going to like linux mint. and anytime you want to overwrite your computer and just completely reinstall the operating system just use that USB and you’re good to go.
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Now I’m going to start up the computer. And it’s going to go to something called the BIOS you don’t need to worry about that, you don’t have to worry about all these acronym. And then I’m going to keep pressing F1 so that I go into the BIOS. And I’m going to set the configuration to USB So that it start off from a USB and look for a system from there.
Now we are in a Thinkpad setup for best linux for old laptop. So in ThinkPad you press F1, you can go into the BIOS. But for different laptops, you press different keys. So if you don’t know just google it. And I am sure people will tell you which one to press. Now we are going into startup bootand press ENTER. and we are going to move USB HDD to the number one place. Now I am going to press ctrl and +. Oh, sorry. It’s shift and +. Now it is at the first place so we press F10, save and exit.
Save configuration changes andexit now?
Yes And now let’s put in our USB. So now we restart again and it is looking for somthing on the USB. And we just inserted the Linux Mint installer in. So now won’t be Windows that’s going to show up. So it boots right off the USB. And on the USB it has install Linux mint. It’s like the same thing I showed you last time in another video. But this time I didn’t use the SSD, instead I use a USB. Welcome! Install in English, Continue. English(US), Keyboard layout. And connecting this computer to a WiFi network allows you to install third party software. Intsall third party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware, Flash, MP3 and other media. This computer currently has Windows 7 on it.
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what would you like to do?
Install best linux distro for old laptop alongside Windows 7, continue. Select drive, install now. Continue Restart now. So now we are going to press Linux Mint19 XFCE. and then I’m going to TaoBao. Compared to Windows 7, I feel like this is much more quicker, much more responsive. I prefer to use Linux. In any case, in any circumstances. Okay, after this we are going to application menu and take a look at what they have. Let’s go to the LibreOffice. This one is just a chart. Write documents. Really that’s it. It’s a really short video but I just want to show you if anything happens you can just use a USB and reinstall Linux. It’s safe, it’s fast, it’s modern. And if you want to learn to code and do anything on it you could. I am going to shoot more videos on this $180 laptop. This is a used laptop, just to show you youdon’t need those fancy, expensive equipment. And remember if I can do it, anyone can do it! Please subscribe and thanks a lot for watching. I’ll see you all next time.