Installing & Exploring Linux Mint 21.3 - Saving Old Hardware

Let's take this older Dell OptiPlex SFF Desktop that was destined for the scrap bin and give it new life using Linux Mint! In this video we will show that just because something is 'old' doesn't mean it can't still be used today!
#dell #optiplex #operatingsystem #linux #linuxmint #lm #ewaste #saved #computer #cinnamon

[@irixperson]

I am now starting to feel my age when this desktop computer, which looks brand new to me, is now considered "old hardware."

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha indeed. Especially when they were going to toss it - I asked what the reason was and they said it was old lol

[@ThatOneSarv]

When i remember my childhood and how the pcs lookd back then oh boy have i got old. My first computer was a wonderful beige AMD Athlon XP 1800+. The newest pc i seen back in the days was a core 2 duo with windows 7 from dell. If i look back to that and look what pc i got nowdays we got a long way

[@MrAlhaines]

@@ThatOneSarv My first computer was a C64 with a whole 64 kb of memory. Now I have 1tb of ram and 15tb of photos and home movies! Mint handles it all so well!

[@ThatOneSarv]

@@MrAlhaines I wouldv love to have a C64! I wouldv loved 486 or 386 aswell but for my first experience i cant complain

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed!

[@hlashflahflhsjfh]

Always love seeing reactions of people trying Linux for the first time and just being surprised and delighted that it is actually easy to use and they can do pretty much whatever they want. Mint is a pretty solid choice for both novices and experienced users.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed, it was quite easy to use and left me wanting more :)

[@bryans8656]

Coincidentally, yesterday I installed Mint 21.3 on my SFF Optiplex 7010 (12 year old system with a 3rd gen i7 cpu and 16GB of RAM). I'm really liking Mint, very user friendly, and it runs great on my old PC.

[@giovaanflores7019]

Zorin 17 is another good one. Especially for those who migrate from Windows.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha good timing!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'll add it to the list to check out, thank you!

[@bryans8656]

@@giovaanflores7019 I'll take a look at it. I've been exploring Windows alternatives because my Dell can't be upgraded to Windows 11 but it's still a perfectly capable PC. I was able to install nVidia drivers for the RTX A2000 gpu, and the bluetooth adapter was plug and play, so I'm pretty impressed with Mint. I'm not put off by learning new OSs, in fact I enjoy experimenting.

[@bryans8656]

@@giovaanflores7019 Thanks, I'll check it out, but I have to say I'm very impressed with Mint.

[@thomasschuler5351]

this is what it looks like, when developers create an operating system for their daily needs, and not mainly to make money with it. pragmatic, everything there you need, but not bloated, no ads, no spyware

[@TeemarkConvair]

well stated

[@TheRetroRecall]

It really was clean and easy to use.

[@dingokidneys]

Microsofts upgrade cycle is determined by marketing and sales and not technological need. This is why they keep trying to cut off support for older hardware, to keep trying to drive a procurement cycle. Linux and other FOSS OSs like FreeBSD only drop support for old hardware when there is no old hardware to support. Even then, you can still find old versions to run that are functional if you are the only guy in the world with a functioning example of a particular assembly of hardware from the early 1990s.

[@edwarddurkin6635]

@@dingokidneysyou are correct about Microsoft. I don’t need a new computer because my Dell XPS from 10+ years ago does everything I need. Currently running Win10, but not upgradable to Win11. When support is gone I will install a Linux distro such as Mint.

[@tagesvaterpatrick8780]

Installing Linux Mint "Cinnamon" from a DVD!? My boys would ask me: what's a DVD? 😂 Great video! Love it! ❤😊

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahahaha! I know, I'm old😂😂 so happy I switched it over to a USB drive lol.

[@tagesvaterpatrick8780]

@@TheRetroRecall it speeds up the install to max 10 mins... 😉 (praise the Rufus)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol, after 23 minutes of trying to load from the DVD.... I almost jumped ship haha

[@jclosed2516]

@@TheRetroRecall I guess the 4Gb limitation played a role here. Because there was not enough room to keep all programs running (you run a virtual computer that gobbles up memory), those programs had to be loaded from that slow DVD drive every time. Of course a USB HD would speed that up considerably. Once Linux is installed on the hard disk, that 4Gb limitation is not very important any more (unless you run memory hungry programs, like a video editor or something like that).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely. Lesson learned lol

[@Pickle136]

yeah you cant go wrong with linux mint. This would be a perfect device for a light PC user. I also like to use opensuse with KDE. Most of my servers are using debian. Im using a refurb'd HP (AMD A10-6800B) as a NAS, minecraft, octoprint, pi-hole, docker server.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!

[@dotjretion]

We love to see Linux let's go Linux

[@TheRetroRecall]

My first time with a modern Linux - I quite liked it!

[@stevef6392]

There used to be a Canadian TV show called Dotto's Data Cafe that I used to watch back in the late 90s to early 2000s. Loved that show, and your presentation style & enthusiasm for the stuff you show on your channel really reminds me of Steve Dotto's. Keep up the good work man!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you and Steve is his name! I watched him all of the time. His videos are on KZbin and he still makes videos! Albeit a bit different, however it's nice to see him just the same. He's a fellow Canadian!

[@lttbriantheelectrician]

I remember that! I actually got to meet him roughly 6 years ago when I was doing some work at the townhouse complex he lived in. Great fellow to chat with! This was in Delta, BC

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes! Now I'm totally jealous lol!

[@TheVerbifaber]

I'm glad you chose Mint, it's what I'm currently running, mainly chosen because "it just works". I've been using Linux on and off for somewhere around 25 years, but recently I've made a concerted effort to just switch entirely. Well, as entirely as possible, I do have to keep Windows for Autocad.... Anyway, I've had a realization percolating in my head for a few days, and I thought this was the perfect video to share it on. I've noticed that I, at least, fear Windows "updates", what are they going to break next, while I look forward to Linux updates. With each new version of Windows they take away some extra little bit of control, while each new version of Linux just makes everything easier. With Linux it feels like its still "my" computer. Good luck to you!

[@TheRetroRecall]

It just felt really easy to use. Looking forward to exploring some more!

[@dingokidneys]

If AutoCAD doesn't require internet access, you may be able to run it in a stripped back Windows virtual machine that has updates turned off and is isolated from the network. This would protect your AutoCAD installation from harm caused by updates and allow you to go on using it as long as you need, regardless of hardware. My brother had a copy of Adobe CS on an old XP system he was keeping just for that even though the motherboard was dying. Licensing would break if he tried to move it to another Windows system. I managed to put the HDD it was installed on into another Win10 machine and set up a virtual machine that directly accessed the hard disk which meant he could continue to use it on his new machine. AutoCAD's licensing may be more deeply embedded than this was, perhaps requiring the same processor to remain functional - I don't know - but a VM may be an alternative that can help even if the hardware you are using now should die. There are also quite a few CAD programs available for Linux with varying levels of compatibility. I read good reviews about BricsCAD from people who claim to be AutoCAD users. See alternativeto.net/software/autocad/?platform=linux for other alternatives.

[@GGigabiteM]

Linux isn't as trouble-free as you make it out to be. Updates aren't always good, and features aren't guaranteed. The Linux community isn't some singular monolith, and is quite fragmented with lots of tribalism, which is one of the reasons its always had trouble with wider acceptance. If there's some particular feature that you like about Linux, and said feature isn't widely popular, it will be in perpetual danger of being depreciated or removed. You can of course pick the torch up yourself and keep it going, but that can be an enormous amount of work. I know from experience, because I maintain my own fork of an XFCE theme that was discontinued eons ago. I had to port it forward several times, and port it across several different distros that never originally had it. Then there's the SystemD cancer that is perpetually spreading. There are of course still a tiny number of distros that can use SysVInit or another init daemon, but that's increasingly difficult as SystemD cancer keeps putting its tendrils in places where it doesn't belong. It was originally supposed to **just** be an Init daemon, but has ballooned in scope to include virtually every facet of Linux, it's essentially a second Linux kernel at this point with the number of things that it controls and other things that now rely upon it. I've been using Linux since 1999, and I still don't recommend it to everyone because you're just trading problems for different problems. It is of course far better than Windows, but if something breaks (and it will), be prepared for the very steep learning curve.

[@TheVerbifaber]

@@dingokidneys Sorry for the late reply, but this is exactly what I actually do. The windows "machine" has been virtual for years now and works transparently.

[@ianhenshaw2930]

I think my first ever experience of Linux Mint was version 18. Apart from that your first experience practically mirrored my 'wow' factor back in the day. Needless to say I've kept Mint to this day. Excellent video. Thoroughly enjoyed it.👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you and yes, it was all genuine haha. I'm looking forward to trying it out some more!

[@SinaFarhat]

It's nice to see that an older computer gets a new chance with Linux!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely!

[@dingokidneys]

So much 'obsolete' hardware is actually perfectly usable for many people when using a more efficient operating system. So much can be saved from e-waste or landfill and people who haven't the means to buy current hardware could have equipment that provides access to resources they otherwise couldn't access.

[@BilisNegra]

@@dingokidneys The thing is this system is not obsolete: it was manufactured a year after Windows 10 came out, and most probably came with it installed. It may be not enough for some power uses, but it's not obsolete. There are brand new computers with a Celeron CPU in them that will perform on a similar level as this Dell, or even worse.

[@dingokidneys]

@@BilisNegra As he said in the video, the owner was literally going to e-waste or landfill this thing. To them, it was obsolete.

[@BilisNegra]

@@dingokidneys I know, and that was shocking. I doubt systems of this age get tossed that often. After all you can still sell them and get a few bucks, unlike Core2Duos and the like, which is really the stuff nobody wants today.

[@MrAlhaines]

I enjoyed your video! I have used Mint for over 10 years and have thought of making just such a video, Great Job! Everybody can use Mint from 10 to 100 years old. It is just that simple to use.

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%, it was a fun experience and as you said so simple to use, it just works! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@MindCaged]

If you're talking launching firefox or libreoffice and just using them, absolutely. If you want to edit any config option that doesn't have a GUI control panel somewhere it becomes more difficult. Not /every/ change to the system automatically asks you for the password to proceed, if you didn't launch it with admin permission from the start it might silently fail. I've literally spent hours wrestling with it trying to get a driver installed, or have it automatically mount a drive with the correct permissions, or having to restore a backup of the desktop config because apparently trying to use certain remote desktop software to login remotely causes the configs to reset making me lose all my panel settings, or fixing an audio problem. And then when I /did/ figure out how to fix something, the right commands to type, then I had to fight with it to keep those changes persistent across reboots.

[@BWGPEI]

Linux Mint Debian Edition happens to be available in 32-bit, which is really useful with some of the older systems - one of my friends is using one I set up that way.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I was wondering about that. I checked to make sure that 64 bit would work, but as you noted, the older systems may require 32bit. Thanks for the info!

[@alphamx13]

You made a mistake on your dvd, you named it Mint 23.1 which hasn't been released yet. I love that Mint runs on older machines! Thank U for this video.

[@georgekalantzis33]

Whoooaoi mint 23.1 You are years ahead

[@TheRetroRecall]

First time :)

[@nadtz]

I just had the 'old hardware is e-waste' conversation and was pretty annoyed how adamant they were about it. So many people would be perfectly fine with machines like this for day to day tasks with a lightweight OS. I threw Mint on my 8 year old laptop (after trying a couple other distros) and have been pretty happy with it, definitely runs much better than windows 11 did.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes I completely agree.

[@rmcdudmk212]

Linux is a great way to breath some new life into and old machine. But it also adds love to newer systems like this one. 👍

[@irixperson]

Indeed, many distributions using the Linux kernel succeed in making computers more performant. It goes to show that mainstream systems such as Windows, among others, make poor use of the hardware as evidenced by increasingly high 'minimum' system specifications, and the overall size of the software package. I fail to see anything which justifies this increase in specifications and file size other than an increase in so-called "features," most of which rely on Internet services and are fundamentally useless to the consumer. Perhaps this will instigate a mass migration over to the Linux kernel, or perhaps another *NIX system like macOS, since the death of Microsoft Windows has been long past due.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed! It was a fun experience.

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%, well said.

[@erie910]

The correct word is "breathe. "

[@dingokidneys]

So much of the code and processing power of Win10/11 goes into making sure that you are not using a copy you didn't pay for, not using a version they don't want to support anymore, on trying to sell you a new OS, other software or new hardware, and on trying to sell you a heap of other stuff that it limits the code space and processing power that can be applied to doing the things *you* want to do with your machine. Then you have the 'new features' that no one asked for and very few people actually want, like the XBox stuff, CandyCrush and the other cruft that comes installed, and the telemetry, Copilot and Recall that are designed to harvest data from users for Microsoft's benefit. It's no wonder that if an OS doesn't have to keep doing all of this, it can get down to what you do want to do in a more efficient and satisfying way.

[@CCJ1998]

Simple computing Linux is there. When you get into using proprietary stuff and online gaming that's when you run into brick walls. But if Grandma wants a computer to watch some KZbin and check her email this is the perfect solution. It also wouldn't be bad as a hand me down to a kid starting out using a desktop PC. They would learn far more with a Linux distro than just sticking them with Windows.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I've been reading that in some of the comments. It may be more challenging however I think it would help to teach how to overcome those challenges.

[@brocka.6479]

While online gaming isn't perfect by any means, the amount of progress made in the past few years thanks to Valve is absolutely insane. I remember installing the official linux release of Unreal Tournament, and the whole thing was via a fiddly shell script, and if it worked you were *really* lucky.

[@dingokidneys]

@@brocka.6479 Problems with gaming are these days more the exception than the rule. The Linux community knows how important gaming is to people as most of them are gamers too and so a lot of effort has gone into solving the issues with it. The remaining issues come down most often to things like anti-cheat systems that refuse to even countenance Linux systems. As the gaming community keeps pushing for that better performance, more and more of them will be using Linux and put additional pressure on the game development houses to support it. It will be an economic imperative at some point.

[@brocka.6479]

@@dingokidneys Fully agreed, single player gaming is mostly a solved problem, I was specifically thinking of issues with anti-cheat and the like. I didn't realize just how good things have gotten until I bought a steam deck though.

[@williamjones4483]

I'm downloading Linux Mint as I watch this. My holdback has always been the availability of drivers for my installed sound and gpu, plus my printer. I'm encouraged by watching this and am going to give it a shot.

[@MindCaged]

You can probably test out most of that with a live usb basically run it from the usb like he showed here, but instead of immediately clicking on install, test out your hardware first, load up a browser, play a video to check that network and audio/video is working right, try printing something, etc. If you have a nVidia card, you probably won't be able to test the proprietary driver on the live usb, I found that out the hard way after banging my head against a wall for a few hours, it seems somewhat obvious in hindsight. Also, if you don't want to have to reinstall the current OS from scratch it's probably best if possible to create a disk image backup that you can restore. I think I used Clonezilla from a flash drive, and saved it to an external HDD. Otherwise if the install goes wrong you'll need a windows installation disk/usb and reinstall from scratch. You can also try dual booting, but that has it's own problems, and I'm personally not sure how to go from a dual boot setup completely back to a single installation without a full wipe/reinstall. Of course you'll obviously lose any files you don't have backed up if you wipe/install. Also, he didn't do it in this video, but when he setup timeshift he might not have realized he needed to manually create a restore point after setting it up or it'd only do a backup the next scheduled time. I /highly/ recommend doing it, because I foolishly didn't and I kept breaking my install because I didn't fully understand what I was doing and had to reinstall from scratch and re-setup everything all over again multiple times.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's amazing and good luck - make sure you report back!! :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for helping out on this, I have a lot to learn and this helps.

[@thepenguinbird]

Welcome to Antarctica where penguins eat a window for breakfast and are too slow to eat ice

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol!

[@krisjonson7987]

This was so interesting to see, and hope for more Linux adventures in the future.

[@TheRetroRecall]

As do I! So much to explore!

[@406Steven]

How do you know someone uses Linux? Don't worry, they'll tell you.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha!

[@georgeprice4212]

Yeaup. And I make no bones about it either.

[@Dutch-linux]

I am glad you like Linux there are so many distro's to explore each with their own flavor... welcome to the linux community

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha it was very fun and got me hooked to learn more.

[@tridens6708]

What coincidence I installed LM yesterday on my Toshiba laptop from 2015 great video 😊

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!! Yeah it was fun to do and explore :)

[@Trylen]

Not yet 10 years, 8 nearly 9. I started laughing after I saw the shape and intel stick and saw the attempt with the non-DD3L. I ran into this road block myself. Was setting a a machine for an employee at the company I work at. Was an i3, but I popped in an i7-6700T. As for Mint, Welcome! I'm actually watching this on Mint, have been a Mint user since v7 or so. Good to know this system is now in "Mint Condition"

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha indeed! I could edit all of this stuff out, but here's the fun in that lol

[@patpopov]

Linux Mint runs like a champ on my Dell Latitude E6430 from 2012 and Void Linux likewise on my 32 bit Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 from 2006!!! And I use them both every day. Linux makes old hardware young at heart.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I can definitely see that! A Panasonic tough book - I've been looking for one of those.

[@johncherish7610]

The installation is very simple and straightforward. It is the best linux distro out there in my opinion. You can't go wrong with this distro

[@TheRetroRecall]

It was super easy, and just worked when the installation was complete. I'll definitely be exploring this a lot more.

[@Otakunopodcast]

My daily driver PC is an HP EliteDesk 800 G1. Intel Core i7 4th gen with 16 GB RAM. I believe it was manufactured and sold in 2014, which would make it 10 years old at this time. Bought it from a seller who I guess sources their inventory from government surplus sales (it had "something something Federal Prison System" or something to that effect set in the BIOS splash screen message) and paid next to nothing for it, I think it was only around $100. Maybe $150. It came with a hard drive (either the seller wiped it or they put in an already-wiped drive, either way it was clean so no user data leakage occurred) but I replaced that with an SSD. Since it only came with the intel built-in graphics, I wanted to find a dedicated GPU for it. Finding one was a bit challenging because it is a small form factor machine, so it uses half height PCIe cards. But eventually I found a half height GeForce GTX 1650. This machine performs beautifully, and I can even game on it. (It was perfectly usable with the Intel graphics, I just wanted a dedicated GPU so that I could do some gaming on it.) I'll need to replace it soon unfortunately, because Windows 10 will soon hit its end-of-life and it's not compatible with Windows 11 (yes I know you can hack 11 onto older machines but I'd rather not.) But even after I replace it with a new Win11 capable desktop, I still intend to keep it for use as a Linux workstation. These recent-vintage older PCs are indeed very serviceable and usable for modern tasks, within reason.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice build and great use case. I have never really had any desire to upgrade my systems when these systems can run without any issues.

[@thomasschuler5351]

the 'we don't care if you need a new PC, we're stopping the support for your 12 week old and therefor fully outdated model' attitude that made me stop using Windows. I never regretted it

[@robertcartier5088]

​@@thomasschuler5351 12 weeks. eh?! Let's see... Win XP supported 13 yrs Win Vista supported 10yrs Win 7 supported 11 yrs Win 10 (which was a free upgrade on any Win 7/8/8.1 systems) supported 10 yrs (next Oct.), with paid extensions available for an extra 3 yrs! Now, given that each subsequent version was launched about 3 yrs before end-of-support for the previous version, tell us, Thomas, at which point exactly did you buy a new machine that needed replacement 12 weeks later? ;-]

[@MrEmmanuelle007]

Bro I have the exact same pc and I installed Debian on it and it runs great

[@juliancurtis4071]

been a mint user for several years now. I think Mint is super user friendly for windows users.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It definitely felt that way - it was refreshing.

[@MSmith-Photography]

I've got a couple of the 3040s that were intended to be e-waste and I just felt like they needed to be saved as they're still good PCs. There's a supplementary caddy that you can use specifically for 2.5" hard drives (without an adapter) that clips into the hard drive caddy. DDR3L is a lower voltage (1.35V vs. 1.5V for standard RAM). The Dell SFFs hate non-L RAM, hence the blinking lights sequence.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes as I found out lol. It's a really nice well rounded system with lots of potential. Way too much to just throw out for sure.

[@kopspijker3515]

Jus in case someone's looks for this info: DDR3L sticks can be used in place of DDR3 sticks. They are backwards compatible. Just not the other way around as mentiond.

[@MarkTheMorose]

This was a refreshing watch, me being a long-time Linux Mint user.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It genuinely was fun going through this experience. Especially for someone that has never seen this before and being a long time windows user.

[@SGTMacBC]

I don't consider anything that came with Windows 10 as being old. There is plenty of life left in that Dell. The Optiplex 7040 (the next model up from the one in your video) from the same year came with M.2 support, DDR4. They make great Media Centers for some of us old timers that have been ripping DVD's the last 20+ years.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha agreed. I was shocked when I got this and when I asked why they were throwing it out - it was too old!

[@ianab]

The hardware is still useful, it's the OS that's becoming obsolete. Hence the idea of loading a new OS to keep the box usable.

[@TheRetroRecall]

And this has given it a much deserved 2nd chance.

[@ParticularSky]

Thats phased out business hardware. And we will get plenty of that with win 10 eol october 2025.

[@williamnessanbaum7464]

I love Linux Mint: MATE Edition for breathing new life into slightly older systems. Congratulations on deciding to dive into the fascinating world of GNU/Linux. Definitely take the time to read to read up on Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, will do!

[@EscimoGamer]

Truth. I also downloaded Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon and burned it on a CD, it's terribly slow when booting to install, but when finally after 10 minutes everything appears and loads, then when the installer starts there are no problems, everything goes as it should. As for Mint itself, it is incredible how much this miracle of sortware can be customized, from the tool bar to the appearance itself, and it probably has some additional tools, but what I saw in the settings is that you can download extensions and add-ons for various things from related to the appearance itself to auxiliary tools. It's really great. 🐧

[@TheRetroRecall]

I completely agree, there is quite a bit for me to learn still but that will come in time :). I love the control it gives you over the environment.

[@user-hc6uo5fp8n]

Welcome to the world of Linux have fun. I been using Linux for 10 years and love it yes you will have problems sometime but most can be fixed.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It was a great experience so far and will be fun to continue to explore.

[@lttbriantheelectrician]

When I use Linux, mint is definitely my favorite. It runs well on much older hardware as well and to be honest, with a ram upgrade and an ssd windows 10 would still run great on that system. Mint is very easy though, and specifically I use it to wipe hard disks with the disk utility as you can use it to write 0s to the entire drive.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I didn't know that, that would be handy thank you!

[@ominoussage]

Very happy with your experience with Linux. Perfect choice for using Linux Mint too on your PC. It's pretty much the golden standard for reviving older PCs. Hope you explore more in the Software Manager. There are some Linux-exclusive apps that I can't live without that are not available on Windows :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Oh I'm excited as you can probably twll in the video. I'm really looking forward to exploring!

[@artemius130]

Welcome to Linux mint) I've been using it for 3 years now and I've extended the life of a 2010 laptop. And I understand your first impressions) Because they are almost identical. What I love about the Linux system is its ease of use, accessibility, nothing superfluous, and at the same time it can all be customized. A wonderful system!)

[@dingokidneys]

Some people talk about Linux Mint as if it were just a system for noobs. This is totally wrong. It is a fully featured Linux system with access to all the power user features one could want and that you can customise exactly as you like. It just starts out with a desktop environment that looks and works in ways that are familiar to many coming from Windows. It's a brilliant system that I keep coming back to for various purposes though I've been using Linux since the mid 1990s.

[@artemius130]

@@dingokidneys To tell the truth, most people who don't know Linux said that this system is complicated and more suitable for programmers, but not for ordinary users. This is a myth. I was also doubtful at first, but then after reading the reviews on the Internet, I put a Mint on various articles. And I was very pleasantly surprised. Now I myself am trying to prove to my friends by examples that Linux is not difficult, but on the contrary easy.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It was very refreshing that it just worked. It also felt very intuitive to use.

[@erichkohl9317]

I like Linux Mint. Got it installed on my "old" gaming rig that has a 4th-gen Core i5.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice! My understanding is that you can install these distros on even older hardware without any issues and use it in today's internet world. Pretty cool.

[@erichkohl9317]

@@TheRetroRecall Yeah I think that's true in a lot of cases, although there was this one time I installed Tiny Linux on this digital signage PC that I brought home from work, and even that struggled a little. But then again it wasn't a very powerful machine. As you proved in this video, slap an SSD in there and Linux runs fine on a 10-year-old PC.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Exactly! It was quite snappy even with 4gb of ram haha.

[@dingokidneys]

I had LInux Mint XFCE edition running fine on a Dell Inspiron Core 2 Duo from 2008 after I replaced the spinning rust with an SSD. I only swapped it out because I wanted to test out FreeBSD which also works fine on it as does Kali Linux. These latter two also use XFCE which is a very lightweight but functional desktop environment.

[@colindevaux4476]

my daily driver laptop that im using to watch you is a 1st gen i 3 2009 vintage and still going strong :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

That warms my heart! I'm so happy to hear this tech is still being used today and Linux helps out just a bit more enabling us to do so!

[@dingokidneys]

I just moved my 67 year old brother over to Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon as showcased here. He's loving it because it works the way he's used to from older Windows versions and the software he likes to use either just works (Chrome & Thunderbird) or there's a drop-in work-alike replacement (LibreOffice). He's always had problems with Win10 and Win11 because the UI was not the same as he was used to and the constant slow updates frustrated him no end. His 3rd gen i5 Win10 desktop primary machine was failing and the 10th gen i5 Win11 laptop he had from work would not stop updating and wouldn't give him a usable desktop. The HDD was part of the problem but by no means the whole problem. I dropped a spare SSD into the laptop, spun up Mint, installed Chrome and moved all his data over, connected his old screen, keyboard and mouse and he was off and running. It's so responsive compared to everything he had before. I'm currently running Debian 12.5 on my 3rd gen i5 desktop machine that I had built in 2013. It's my daily driver and still goes fine, so well in fact that I can't bring myself to upgrade. Yes I could run a few more VMs concurrently if I did but it now qualifies I'd guess as 'vintage' so that's cool.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha that's pretty cool! I can totally see that from my perspective - especially as a new user!

[@Laziter73]

Linux Mint is a fantastic distro, easy to set up and use. I've been using it for years and over the last couple of years it has really matured to a go to point when picking a Linux distro for the novice user.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Coming from windows and installing this, just felt natural.

[@TheFandangio]

Thank you for this great video. I've been a Linux user for many years and once a Mint user too. Despite knowing the OS quite well your commentary was still informative and interesting. I could go on and on about the benefits of Linux but wont ;) That said I'd love to see more Linux content!

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure! It seems to be a very sought after request. I will learn some more and do more content. Thank you for watching!!

[@michaelwood9866]

yeah i put mint cinnamon on a lenovo laptop a few years ago and it worked great......going to do it with one of my desktops soon

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!

[@BWGPEI]

Might I suggest that you now have the best setup possible, in that you have this "test box" system that you can use to try out Linux distributions until you find one that suits you. Hardware tests show you reality much better than Virtual Machines do.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate that! I'm definitely going to try a few out as I have been recommended several. Not going to lie, I did enjoy mint so far!

[@MechaFenris]

I have been a huge fan of Mint for quite a few years (I did dip back into Ubuntu at 20.04, but I came back to Mint and my latest machine I built just this Spring is a Mint install.) I put it on my dad's PC and he loves it. He isn't a computer nerd by any stretch, but he has no troubles using it, and it's rock solid on his Staples store bought PC :-) I squeeze every drop out of my PCs... I retired a Dell Insprion after 12 years. :) It had a video card upgrade (and more RAM/SSD). I tend to get my money's worth... unless it's a lemon (HP, I'm looking at you...) :P

[@TheRetroRecall]

Lol!!! Poor HP! So glad to hear you keep these systems running. It's a great hobby and fun to see just how much you can get out of them.

[@lawrencecavens5760]

The two greatest things about Linux is 1 You are in control of the OS, Linux will notify you of updates and won't install them until you give the go ahead. 2 the system doesn't become bog down like windows does - say like every update that microsoft does and slower and slower and slower it becomes after added features that you don't know what they are adding where Linux you are in complete control of what features you want. If there is a feature that you want and don't know how to get it - Some one will have done a video on you tube and or some where on Linux mint posts there will be code to follow and instructions on how to install things via terminal. So! there are no worries, and You can add to the posts with things that you can do to help someone else. Try that with windows, 3 out of 4 times you can't...

[@TheRetroRecall]

Great overview, thank you! I'm learning quite a bit from these comments, it's great!

[@FireFlux73]

Old machines are still good for everyday use and even some gaming. For Linux Mint I have been usin it for about 4 years now and no more Windows for me. I have Mint Mate installed. I can do everything same as in Windows, buti'm not being spied on. Keep up the great work and take care.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!!

[@dozer4981]

Great viedo, nice job!! I switched to Linux Mint about 6 months ago on my main rig, I run a 5800x and a 3060. I love it and will never have a windows system again, wine is a virtual box to run windows apps, I prefer bottles tho much simpler for my needs

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you and thanks for that info. I can see myself making the switch.

[@zeroturn7091]

Had a bad experience with Mint on one of those cheap HP laptops that had 32GB of storage soldered onto the board. Decided to triple boot my Optiplex, and give Mint another try.

[@MindCaged]

HP Stream? I have one of those and it doesn't seem to matter /what/ OS I put on it it's still a potato. Though I will say that Mint has less compatibility problems with the audio than a different smaller/lighter distro that I tried, while still being more usable than windows seeing as after updating to the latest there's like /no/ room left on the drive at all, and I don't think it's worth doing the jury-rigging trick with replacing the onboard wifi/bt adapter with a M.2 drive adapter, which would also require a linux compatible wifi/ethernet usb dongle for networking. On top of that it I'm pretty sure it would still be something of a potato even with a faster/bigger drive. You can't squeeze blood out of a stone and that cpu wants to keep maxing out while doing just about anything. I will admit the hardware video decoding at least is decent and allows surprisingly smooth youtube playback despite everything else lagging a bit.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Interesting.

[@DigbertDayZ]

I run Linux mint on my 2012 MacBook Pro, it's brilliant, no issues encountered . I fitted an SSD and it is very quick. I also have it installed on my 11 inch MacBook Air 2015 model. Wonderful..!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I never thought about it running on MAC hardware! Neat.

[@laurencejohnson4106]

An enjoyable video!👍👍 I'm glad that you enjoyed the installation process and yes, I concur that it's an improvement over installing Windows. That PC., was a fine gift and after a good clean and new thermal paste and installing 16 gig of ram., it will fly! Today, I have installed Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 / LMDE 6 on 3 computers, it's currently only offered with the cinnamon desktop, but that may change through time, it's based on the stable edition of Debian so there are less updates than there are with a rolling edition and it uses a newer kernel than the Ubuntu based versions of LM.. My method of installation is as follows, after the first reboot I enable the firewall and then check the notifications and install the ones which I want, the notifications icon is shown in the taskbar near to the updates icon, then I install the updates. PS., I mostly use the Opera and Vivaldi web browsers, Opera comes with a free advert and tracker blocker and a free VPN., and the browser can be configured to one's preferences in the full browser settings, Vivaldi comes with a free advert and tracker blocker.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank's for this info, much appreciated!! Yes, I love opera!!

[@Grandpaproduction1]

Linux can keep very old computers running I have a very old IBM think pad that I keep running with a LM 32 bit! But the truth is that I use Linux on my new machines due to its lower resource use and the fact that I can get things done and formatted to work with all other machines Mac, Windows, BSD, other Linux distros. Smooths out the work flow!!!!! and my games run better than ever using Steam! Linux is the most used system in the world when you look at embedded use ,super computers , Etc. Etc.! Love seeing a new user first look . Nice video!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! It was definitely a fun experience and there's a lot to learn but just felt easy! It won't be my last time using it that's for sure.

[@danteblake9701]

I've been using Linux for almost 15 years. I have never installed from Optical media. I've been using Linux Mint since the ubuntu 16.04 era. I usually use Linux Mint Xfce instead of Cinnamon. Peppermint 10 based on Ubuntu 18.04 is still my favorite distro even with the flaws that will never be fixed. RIP Mark Greaves Newer versions 11 & 12 are Debian based. I still can't use all the software of the older version.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha I learned my lesson very quickly lol

[@hugosimoes5119]

Nice video. 6th gen still usable for many tasks. That pc could perform a little faster with a second memory module installed. LG wide screen lcd monitors... It brings me back memories. I used to work in a place where they had a LG W1942s. It worked fine for a while and then.. it simply stopped working. The blue led power on button comes on, the screen came on and then all off. My boss asked a man that usually goes visit him but he couldn't help fixing. The lcd got the bezzel cracked at top right and it was sitting gathering dust. Then I asked if I could fix it. I also had trouble fixing it. I had to watch youtube about disassemble a similar model. It happens we needed to unscrew some screen at back and use our fingers between the lcd and the bezzel and slowly pry the bezzle off. The bezzle was fixed by using super glue and a bit of soldering iron. Then after we removed the lcd panel... we found 2 bloated caps. We still wonder why 105c caps died so soon.... maybe they are leftovers from cap plague era. After replacing them AND added one more to a placeholder, the LG lcd monitor still works as-of today. We had to dim the lcd down a bit to make the panel last longer by decreasing the brightness a bit. Less brightness, less heat. So... if a lcd simply refuses to work.. it's probably a cap problem, fuse problem, or a dead ccfl blob or led diode.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed, more ram will definitely help with more demanding applications. So much to discover, I don't know much about Linux. Thabks for the info on the LCD. I have yet to have one fail - knock on wood lol.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I love linux mint because for new users it "just works" you can just plonk it on a system and reasonably expect a new user to get a grip on what's going on within a few minutes. helps that it clones the best OS ever made in recent years, windows 7

[@TheRetroRecall]

Maybe that's why it just felt to easy to use!

[@onceagain77]

I switched to Mint in 2016. Did some distro hopping but I always came back to Mint. Anyone who has only ever used Windows or OSX can install mint and figure out how to use it in no time. Enjoy the freedom of Mint.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!

[@user-eu8cd6dx4p]

Great video, nice cpu, first class operating system.= new subscriber.🇬🇧 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you and welcome aboard!!! Hopefully you enjoy the content. Stay tuned for more!

[@user-eu8cd6dx4p]

@@TheRetroRecall God bless & good luck.

[@arianaponytail]

i have a pc like that one , few years newer i think, your video inspired me to try mint on it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome to hear!!! Good luck, have fun and glad you enjoyed :)

[@maxtornogood]

My longest lasting daily driver was a 3rd Gen Intel Lenovo Thinkpad & Linux Mint ran fine the last time I used it, I set it as a dual boot. Doesn't have the "latest" Linux KerneI since the focus is on stability rather than bleeding edge hardware, great for older rigs like this! I'm using Fedora Linux (Cinnamon) which is more bleeding edge. So glad to see you sounding happy & giddy over Mint, it definitely has a Windows feel to it. Maybe it can convert you over? 😉

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha I genuinely enjoyed it :). Excited to explore it more.

[@Raistlinm69]

Love the old hardware videos. I am using some very old Dells for the main portions of my network equipment. Two Dell Optiplex 755's, dual core, running pi hole instances and another running pfsense. I can get my full 1Gpbs Inet through this equipment and it works without hiccups or hitches. It handles the traffic of 30 devices with no problem. Thought I would share since everyone here likes old hardware.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I love this use case, great work! Especially when you are using the older equipment!

[@kopspijker3515]

Still have a couple of 3040's chugging along at work. Though they are micro versions and run Windows 10 LTSB. One did bite the dust earlier this week and is now dead. My annoyances with this current gen Dell SFF pc's is the placement of the 16x PCIe slot. The put it near the PSU thereby excluding dual slot graphics cards. A Optiplex 3010 I still have sitting beneath my TV has the slot on the other side(plus upgraded from a 3rd gen i5 to an i7, PC and processor where free😁). Also took home a couple of 3060's home as those are officially supported with Windows 11. Mint also works perfectly fine on those. And those micro's have an m.2 SATA SSD installed and room plus caddy for a 2.5" SSD. (Did not check if the M.2 slot accepts PCIe SSD's).

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for this added info - I think I saw a newer micro Dell with the dual drive mounting support - this could be quite handy. Also now that you mention it, I completely agree that the pcie slot placement doesn't make sense :)

[@gregghernandez2714]

I'm always on the lookout for great deals on eBay for older PCs. I tell people all the time that as long as they are not using proprietary applications use Linux. My favorite is Linux Mint Mate. No one has ever asked me to remove it. Oh yeah, and most (with very few exceptions) Linux distos are totally FREE!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome!!!

[@rockyraab8290]

It is absolutely thrilling to watch the excitement of a new Mint convert. (Watching this on a Dell small form factor machine running Mint 21.3!) I also use and recommend Linux Zorin Core for beginners, and Linux MX for those with a bit more Linux experience - mostly because MX has so many tools and options that it can be intimidating. But MX runs on even lower-power and older machines.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha the excitement was genuine!

[@OfficialiGamer]

these are definitely still usable today! I have an HP Micro PC I got for $20 with an i3 6100T, and it can mostly play Crysis at 720p, and that's on integrated graphics

[@TheRetroRecall]

Of course, it all depends on the use case.

[@Kasey9801]

I love Linux Mint and I enjoyed watching you experience it for the first time. I hope you consider making a follow-up video sometime once you've gotten to know Linux Mint a little more. I'd love to be able to see you use the terminal, install and run Windows programs via Wine (do note that not all Windows programs will work), and run games via Steam with Proton (which is a feature that works similarly to Wine). Also, if you're looking for more Linux distro recommendations for older PCs, I'd have to recommend antiX (pronounced like antics). It's very light on resources on computers made in the last 20 years or so.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely - I will be making a follow up to this video once I get my feet wet a bit. Learning the terminal will be fun lol.

[@Kasey9801]

@@TheRetroRecall One website I'd recommend for learning the terminal would be Linux Journey. You can learn some other useful things about Linux there as well.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Appreciate it!

[@Redant751]

Nice video.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@johnnys25s]

Great video! Keep it going! I think that MoBo has a M.2 slot under the HDD caddy. Please check it up! You can dual boot, but I recommend to use 2 drives, first Windows then Mint. You don't need to disconnect Windows drive. Mint will recognize it. Good luck!

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

My mom has Optiplex too, pretty much same looking but older model. Core i3-2120 and 8GB of RAM as far as I remember, also has 120GB SSD. For just basic web browsing and listening music it is very good machine still, maybe changing it to Linux as Windows 10 support ends.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Also I think that Linux may make it work faster. With only 4gb of memory this system was working perfectly!

[@ianab]

You can probably slip an I5 or i7 chip into that box to give it a bit more grunt

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

@@ianab Yup, it is Dell Optiplex 7010 to be exact, and Core i7-3770S should be fastest supported chip.

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

@@TheRetroRecall Linux really does wonders to older machines! ChromeOS Flex is also worth trying, I once installed it onto a crappy Compaq laptop which couldn't even handle Windows 10 and with ChromeOS Flex you could even watch KZbin!

[@PiercedJedi]

I loved working with/on these SFF systems from Dell (specifically this 30xx series)

[@TheRetroRecall]

It really wasn't a bad little system! Powerful for what it is and can be upgraded. As long as you find a low profile decent graphics card - you are good to go!

[@danw1955]

LOL, I love seeing someone getting excited with playing around with Linux-Mint!🤣 It is, without a doubt, one of the easiest Linux systems to work with for someone coming from Windows. My next door neighbor is in her 70's and used Windows since ver. 3.11 for Workgroups, and she learned pretty much everything within a few days, and she LOVES it! - With the 'desklets', if you run the little updater within the available desklets window, it gives you a lot more to choose from.😉 I usually have an analog clock, CPU usage, and desklets for the capacity of whatever drives I have on the machine, just to keep tabs on storage space and whatnot. You just right-click on them once they're on the desktop, and you can configure them accordingly. You'll find that things move considerably quicker with 8 gb. of memory as well, since the GUI uses quite a bit of memory. I have it on an old 2009 HP Z400 workstation with 24 gb. of RAM, and a 1 tb. SSD, and it flies for an old machine! A good GPU is a big help on older machines, especially with an Nvidia chipset. AMD is supported, but not as well as Nvidia.😊👍👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes it truly was easy to use for what I experienced and there will be more to come!! Thanks for the tips!

[@michaelphillips3170]

I like mint the best but I have an old Laptop that came with Vista that tell you the age I run Zorin on it as it verry lite os Love what you do keep it up

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you! I think someone else also suggested Zorin, I'll check it out!

[@brendlowert5772]

Kinda baffling how straight forward and easy the install process is compared to modern Windows with all its pestering about creating a Microsoft online account. Telling someone that Linux is easier to install than Windows was a sick joke just a few years ago, but here we are now. Really liked the enthusiasm of you exploring a new operating system for the first time with an open mindset. 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

It completely shocked me as well! The enthusiasm is genuine. I'm looking forward to more exploring and testing out different apps!

[@MotownBatman]

Linux Mint User Since the Beginning... Im Old I forget what I used at first, I think they Finally made a Nice GNOME DE, when that Disappeared I went to MATE for a while. I'm always fond of Cinnamon on the USB Keychain, but Lately Just to speed up whatever Im trying to do Ive been going XFCE

[@MotownBatman]

I cant even Have DuckDuckGo Security Enabled on My Browser, for the love of all that is Holy!

[@TheRetroRecall]

All of these terms I have to get to know!!

[@robertcartier5088]

@@TheRetroRecall The clue was in the "DE", for Desktop Environment. As I understand it, from my novice point of view, it goes a little like this: The Windows UI that we know and love, and the nuts and bolts that make it work behind the scenes, have always been tied to a version of the OS. Each version of Windows looks and acts a certain way, and though we can tweak the looks a bit, the UI is just what it is. But in Linux, these two aspects of the system are independent, so you can get the same Linux OS but with totally different user interfaces, or Desktop Environments. They can look totally different and still be the exact same OS underneath. The variant of Linux Mint that you installed is called Cinnamon, which seems to be the one that most closely resembles Windows. The "XFCE" mentioned above is an even more lightweight UI, which is great for even older, lower spec machines, or to get the most power from a modern system. I'm sure someone will chime in to explain how it's so much more complicated than that, but for now, it should be good enough. Cheers! ;-]

[@TheRetroRecall]

I really appreciate this, thank you so much!

[@robertcartier5088]

@@TheRetroRecall Glad I could help!

[@Sunlight91]

Linux Mint 23.1 😁 That's even more advanced than Windows 12.

[@TheRetroRecall]

LOL! 21.3 :P

[@_Jadewolf_]

Welcome to Linux! 😊 I have the same version of Mint running on an even older Core i5 3570 without any issues, it uses mostly only 1.5 to 3.5 GB. If you want to do more memory intensive things like video editing, you may still have to add a bit more RAM. Pro tip: if your updates and app downloads seem slow, you can select another mirror closer to your location. The app that does that is called sth like "Software sources". Click on Main or Base to start testing the connection speeds to each mirror and select the fastest 😊 Made downloads much faster for me 👍🏻 As for the TV channels, give it a bit more time, some are slower than others, and I think some might be geoblocked😉 Oh, and when installing software, you may encounter flatpaks or system packages. The latter are much smaller, I always prefer those.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Love these tips - this is something I'm quickly learning is that the Linux community really helps each other out. You can quite easily see it in the comments on this video. Thank you!!

[@Ferg13]

Dang straight about the technology in computers were changing at a rapid rate in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Soon as you bought one. It was pretty much obsolete lol. Ty for showing us even tho the pc is almost 10 years old and still usable today. This is why I finally got off my bum bum to start upgrading my good pc 2 weeks. Was a mess. I better start cleaning it every year. My goodness lol. Just have psu and the case connectors to connect to mobo. Then hope she starts up with the new upgrades. (16 gig to 32 gig) (GTX 1050ti 4 gig to RTX 2070 super 8 gig GPU’s) Even tho my MSI Z170A Gaming M5 is 8 years old. If I’m still able to upgrade it using today’s part. To me. It’s still usable. Last thing I’ll do is get a newer cpu for it so I can get the latest Windows. i7 6700k 4.0. I did my homework and can be upgraded still. Which will be done sometime down the road. Even tho as it sits now. I think maybe it could still hang with some of the boys in gaming. But I just use it for streaming. M.2 1tb upgrade end of June. Do away with my 230 gig ssd. Then middle of July. G t another 1tb m.2. Take all my stuff off the 1tb hdd. Put it on the m.2. Do away with my hdd. Have the sad with my vista build. And my 1tb for my Xp build. Little extreme yes lmao. Everything should work out….. Just fine. Nope lolol Just hoping my lights will work this time with all connectors connected this time around. Keep ya posted lol. Going back to watch this now. :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahahaha awesome, I'll stay tuned for an update!!

[@Norfolkonsea]

Next stop, the Terminal ........ runs away screaming. 🤣 Welcome to Linux, I arrived there when I got fed up with Windows and moved to a very early Ubuntu (6.06) then Mint. Trouble is, you start "distro-hopping"! I've been using FreeBSD for 3 or 4 years now I'm retired, it suits my simple needs wonderfully. 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes, that terminal. I will learn it, I accept this mission!

[@priyojitdeb1891]

and ofc MInt can only do it! Kudos to the Linux MInt developers!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I was quite impressed with how everything just worked!

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

Ironically I just booted up my HP Pavilion 15 running Linux Mint, and am watching this on it.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah perfect!

[@jamesdye4603]

I have a couple of laptops from 2014 that were top of the line back then and they work great. Core i7 4th gen, 16GB ram, and I put in 240GB SSD drives. One has Ubuntu and the other has Win 10. I have no plans to upgrade. I use Firefox in both and I haven't run across anything that VLC Media Player can't run and both will run Amazon Prime Video content.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome!!

[@natejennings5884]

At 19:15 there are also Etcher or Ventoy. Etcher can be used with Windows, Linux, and Mac. Ventoy can be used to install Windows as well as a swath of Linux OSes. I've been a Linux Mint (17.3 then 21.1) and Pop OS user for years. I have those as alt OSes each of my PCs (three desktops and a cheap laptop), and it's the default OS on one of them.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice and thanks for the info. I love all of these tips from these comments. I feel like I'm being converted to Linux lol

[@natejennings5884]

@@TheRetroRecall If you're installing a new graphics card, Linux distros play very nice with AMD GPUs. AMD's graphics drivers are open-source and baked into the latest distros. So you won't need to download drivers from repositories like with Nvidia cards.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@GodSaveTheUnitedStates]

The system I game on is an optiplex 7010, 2 generations older than this one, mine is an MT so I have a full sided rx580 in it and I've been thinking about picking one of these up for a replacement. The MT model 7030 or 5030 has a proprietary power supply so you'd have to cut some sheet metal in the back and use an adapter for the motherboard to use a standard ATX psu, but they are surprisingly capable systems. If i had the choice, I'd try to pick up an optiplex 7050 because it would come with an 8th gen i5 or i7, which would be much faster and would be a 6 core 6 thread or a 6 core 12 thread cpu. They also made optiplexs like this with first gen ryzen pro cpus, I believe they were optiplex 5055 A-series. They came with Ryzen 3 1300 pro, Ryzen 5 1500 pro, Ruzen 7 1700 pro, Ryzen 3 pro 2200g, Ryzen 5 pro 2400g, and the Athlon pro 200GE.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for the background info. I find these systems have always been reliable and if tweaked just right, can last a very long time. Yet - I see so many thrown to the scrap pile.

[@GodSaveTheUnitedStates]

@TheRetroRecall I know, it's such a shame. They aren't flashy or full of RGB, but they are capable and can be had for CHEAP. Might be the most under-rated prebuilts next to the Lenovo professional series.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed!

[@mikes.9091]

I bought a 2nd m.2 NVMe and put it in my main PC. I installed Linux Mint on it and have not logged into the Windows side in over 4 weeks. The main apps I use worked very easily (Steam, Discord, BG3, Stellaris). I know that some windows apps won't work or may not work very well - that's why I kep the windows install on the 2nd drive - but so far i've really enjoyed using Linux Mint.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for sharing your setup! It really gives me some ideas on how to move forward.

[@ddgyt50]

This video convinced me to take the plunge.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I will tell you - I have no regrets! Hopefully you enjoy as much as I did! :)

[@1990chrism]

Im watching this after last week buying an optiplex 790 which is a few years older than this and cost £14 from ebay. Its now sitting on my home network as a pretty decent plex media server.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome! So much hardware that is considered 'old' can be saved! Such a waste. Glad to hear you have resurrected / saved one!

[@bellshooter]

For older systems Peppermint OS can be good.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@paulwarner5395]

Nicer video. I have a 10 year old HP desk top with Mint on it. Still use Win 11 as my daily driver because I use Outlook 365 on multiple email accounts . If Microsloth would port Office 365 to Linux I'd be gone tomorrow.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think many others share your view based on the comments I've read.

[@Straycatstrat10]

I started toying with Linux back in 2007-8, and fully switched using Ubuntu (then Debian, then Arch) in 2010-ish. I ran Arch for about 4 years, and had a nasty breakup with a girlfriend, losing a lot of stuff. Fast forward to 2021, and I started toying with the idea of using Linux again. I had an old laptop kicking around, that came with Windows 7 when it was new. I dropped Linux Mint on it and used it as a quick PC for quick online stuff, but had my main PC running Windows 10. In 2022, I bought a new laptop that had 10, but upgraded to 11. I HATED 11 with a passion! I happy I built me a new PC for Christmas, and that computer hasn't, and won't, see Windows. It's running Arch LInux, and I LOVE it! I have a computer in my truck that is also running Arch. Most Linux distros are very easy on RAM consumption, or even CPU usage. Games generally run smoother, and with Steam making progress with Proton, games will continue to improve.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for this insight, I love the detail! I am learning a lot from these comments.

[@robertcartier5088]

Mint looks awesome! I find it works well on systems of that age or newer. I've been installing Zorin OS (Lite) on older laptops for family and friends. It was said to be very close to the Windows experience, and they are not wrong. But I see little difference with Mint other than that Mint seems to require more resources. Anyway, so far, they love it! I've been experimenting with a new/old distro... it is Wubuntu (from Windows Ubuntu). Basically it's Ubuntu with a Windows 10/11 skin over it. They even copied the icons! They use Wine under the hood to claim it can run Windows programs, which it does. I can only imagine that it's just a matter of time before Microsoft sues them, particularly since they are charging for pro features, but so far it looks pretty damn good! Note: I am told that the OS is not secure, so I'd wait if anybody was thinking of switching over. ;-]

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha it's funny as I did hear about this. I believe MichaelMJD did a video on it and I agree with you, I think it's just a matter of time before MS sues them.

[@robertcartier5088]

@@TheRetroRecall Yep, saw that video. ;-]

[@HansCCT_OG]

Linux Mint is my go to Linux distro. I've already moved my PCs that don't support Windows 11 to Linux Mint LMDE6 Cinnamon Edition

[@TheRetroRecall]

It seems to be quite popular based on the comments.

[@ianab]

With Win10 going out of support next year there should be tons of "old" hardware like that that can be repurposed with Mint. I'm running it on a dual 6 core Xeon rig, with a cheap SSD and GPU. Works great.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed

[@MindCaged]

I have thought this, even now if you check the market there are /tons/ of refurbished business computers with very decent specs for basically dirt cheap because they're not win11 compatible because the cpus aren't new enough and they don't have that TPM 2.0. They're not the greatest for gaming as you'd need a low-profile graphics card that's also relatively low wattage because the power supply is limited and doesn't take a standard one, so that kinda limits you, though you could still probably play most games at a usable fps, even with a low-powered card. Well at least the games that run on Linux. The truly competitive multiplayer games where fps really matters might have trouble with Anti-Cheat.

[@kountkrackula9518]

I used to use mint, but have switched to Pop os and have never turned back, I have had nothing but success and have managed to keep playing all of my steam games with no issues.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'll check it out!

[@erie910]

Very valuable information for what when Windows 10 support ends and Windows 11 quits running because of ever-restrictuve hardware requirements. Rumor has it that update 24H2 will not allow lower-end processors to boot.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That is correct and is quite frustrating.

[@kymhaniford]

Linux Mint I have found is the best for Windows users to start on Linux.

[@TheRetroRecall]

It was definitely easy from my perspective and quite intuitive!

[@wildthing6668813]

The thing with Linux is that when an update is available you don't have to install the updates but Windows forces the updates on the user. I have a PC that requires a new HDD but bought a new cheap desktop PC and installed Ubuntu 24.04 on it as I only use it for tubi TV and discovery Plus.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! Others have mentioned that as well, it's a great feature. Gives the user more control of the system..

[@Schattennebel]

Linux Mint is a great Distro for new Linux User. I installed it on older PCs way older than this one and it runs great. For example: - AM3+ MoBo - Phenom B65 Tripple-Core - 8GB DDR3 - GTX 750 Ti - 120 GB SSD I also use Kubuntu on my X58 based PC which also runs fine.

[@TheRetroRecall]

How do you like Kubuntu?

[@Schattennebel]

​@@TheRetroRecall For me its a good daily driver, stable and reliable. Also I prefer stable releases over newer/newest packages and KDE offers great customisation. Its not as easy as Linux Mint but its still my favorits Ubuntu flavor.

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

fHmm funny enough you made this video I hate to install Ubuntu "latest version" onto another dell laptop I got from eBay. For some reason or other it refused to install windows 10, despite having drivers/support for it. Also given that windows 10 will be loosing support "unless you pay yearly until 2028" next year I can see e-waste shooting up even more. As always great video and Linux distro's as you shown have gotten far easier to install/setup with great driver support.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed and thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@MindCaged]

The potential e-waste that this Win 11 thing will probably cause is something that really burns me up as there's all those perfectly good pcs with very decent specs that could be perfectly usable for the average user for years to come are going to end up trashed. Or people will just keep using win 10 even after the updates stop and just take their chances with hackers. I mean even now there's a certain percentage of people who faithfully stick to Win 7, and just hope their antivirus/firewalls will hopefully protect them. And this whole AI/NPU business will probably make it even worse.

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

@@MindCaged indeed microsoft is going the apple with their OS now and require an account/online setup for 11 as well. While I have a couple machines with 11 "oem desktop and laptop I got for cheap" I will not be buying a licensing for it. I'll switch to a Linux distro next year for the older machines I have if I want to keep them online past Oct 2025

[@treahblade]

Funny enough my company still have several of these computers in production. Even tho its 10 years old not much as really changed as far as processor and buisness needs. Many people would be fine with something like that for a daily driver.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed, that's exactly the point.

[@JohanlastZa]

As an IT tech that works on customer computers/laptops every day, I can tell you this: only a handful of these customer are using computers newer than 3 years. The rest are all much older. I had to restore a Windows 7 laptop for a client just 2 weeks ago. She will be using this online and everyday

[@TheRetroRecall]

I've had the opposite experience where the majority of customers when reaching the 5+ year mark start to want newer systems. Especially when they walk down Costco and see a new flashy 599 system VS maintenaning their existing one. Again, just different experience :)