Running Modern Linux on Older Computers - The Dell Latitude E6430

This is a fun idea for a series I decided to try out - finding older laptops and seeing how well they run modern Linux distros! The goal is to find good laptops that can be purchased used for less than $350 (preferably, less than $300). In this video, I try out a few distributions on the Dell Latitude E6430 laptop, which is certainly an odd machine...
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[@Allocated_Brain]

This is the exact machine I am using atm. I bought it used back in 2015 (Grade A $220 newegg) and it is still going strong. I used arch for a number of years on it before switching to Ubuntu MATE back in ~'18.

[@mehmetkaraman3710]

i really liked the idea of such a "salvaged computers" series. it feels good to see those machines revived. i have 2 "old" laptops that still rocks with linux. please keep up the good work!

[@FurikuriYugi]

I collect laptops and computers from people that don't want them anymore ie really old ones and GNU/Linux saves them all. I also setup OS's on SD cards and flash drives because, why not and it's a great way to take your work with you. So don't be afraid to try on your own old hardware.

[@medleysa]

I got one of these 4 years ago for free from a friend. This was the golden year for laptops - upgradeable CPUs, decent battery life, and more. I put a quad core i7, a SATA SSD, and 16 GB of RAM in it a year after getting it, and it’s faster than most sub $800 laptops out there now. Last week the battery finally gave out, so I bought the extended 96 Wh battery for $25 and got a backlit keyboard too. All upgrades are crazy easy. Mine is running Win 10 and I boot into Mankato every once in a while. Both are great, and I get 4-6 hours of battery life. The weakest point, as you mentioned, is the screen. The 768p TN panel is awful. It’s usable but really bad for media or gaming.

[@rmcellig]

All of my business class desktop computers are from around 2008 with 4GB of RAM and they work very well. I record all! my podcasts and radio shows on them using Debian as well as the excellent fossapup. Please keep this series going!!!!

[@LearnLinuxTV]

Looking at the view count, I think it's safe to say I'll be doing more. I already have the next laptop model in my possession, and I'm testing it now :)

[@rmcellig]

@@LearnLinuxTV excellent! One distro that works very well is puppy Linux (fossapup, bionicpup, xenialpup or tahrpup. I have fossapup installed on all of my computers. It has so many features that no other distro has and it's fast s heck.

[@pietschreuder5047]

I have the same machine here. I use it for all kinds of purposes and it still serves me well! Tried it as a Hackintosh and it works. I got it new from my employer, but now i'm retired and he let me keep it as farewell present. Runs Windows 10 very useful!

[@mt_kegan512]

Ya, keep doing it man. I'm a big fan of buying ~6 year old laptops and spritzing them up a bit. Crazy what some memory, ssd, and a new keyboard & battery can do! They're almost as good as a brand new unit. I work with laptops for a living and they are really quite a bargain when just running an environment and not worried about connectivity options or running specialized applications. Wonderful to know how compatible they are with Linux, thx mang!

[@davidsmith7208]

My wife and I have latitude e6540 and e6520 respectively. We're both running kubuntu and the performance is phenomenal. Highly recommend either system. Only caveat being that at the moment her biometrics aren't recognized by the kernel. But it's hard to miss something you've never had.

[@derekr54]

A great video Jay,I have a Dell Latitude 6410 with a 500gb ssd and 8gb ram,running Manjaro KDE at present.I am using 529mb of ram at idle and find it works great exept for the Broadcom Wireless card.Please keep the series going as I enjoy trying Linux out on older hardware.

[@agent-8699]

I'm about two years behind you doing the exact project. I haven't gotten the WiFi running yet and I need to solve the jittery pointer problem...not easy tasks as I am a 100% noob on linux. Your video has renewed my determination.

[@Agustin-ri1ih]

Love to see videos about Linux running on old hardware.

[@bobwright8000]

Interesting. I have several Lenovo laptops: X220, T420, T520. I bought them used and boosted the ram. They work great with Linux or BSD.

[@TOMinPDX]

All my Linux machines have been used Thinkpads. I see no reason to buy a new laptop. My current machine is a T460 which I dual boot with EndeavorOS (xfce) being my main distro. Works like a charm. 👍

[@cameronbosch1213]

​@TOMinPDX I somehow found a ThinkPad T25 (the 25th anniversary ThinkPad, aka, the last ThinkPad with the old style keyboard, aka, a modified T470) on eBay, met the seller, a nice guy whose partner worked at IBM/Lenovo in a coffee shop, and it is great as a Linux test machine.

[@timo4379]

Yes definitely keep it going Jay , I have an old Dell Latitude D630 and run Antix Linux on it and it works just fine.

[@florentinosantana4444]

Hi, Jay I am 82 years old, interesting computing. I have been reading about linux and last night, last night following your video installing linux on a old laptop I was able to install Linux Mint 19.3. Now I am going to try to learn how to use it. Keep this series going it is very interesting. If I run into a problem learning linux I hope you do not mind if I get in touch with you.

[@BloodAsp]

Join the desktop revolution! Linux runs all the servers out there, why have greedysoft's hands in your home desktop? I'm impressed, most people your senior aren't so adventurous, mind if I ask what made you different? I just started linux around Christmas and am loving it. If I can help, I'd gladly do so!

[@mt_kegan512]

Great work! Just remembered any help u need can be found on Google/KZbin!

[@habituallearner7680]

Please continue this series! This is exactly what I'm looking for right now.

[@GinjouArmy]

Wow cool I have 2 of these laying around. Worked for years even when the battery and fan died. Good times looking to use them for Linux practice.

[@XxDr3wsk33xX]

I can't recommend the Thinkpad t430's enough, they're great laptops with an amazing community, and very modable. Well within the price range.

[@jackmclane1826]

I'm still using my W530 from the same generation. Really great machines. I replaced 2 keyboards and a fractured bezel here and there. It took heavy use and even some abuse like a champ. They don't built them like this any more...

[@mitchellmeyerhoeffer733]

I was JUST thinking of buying an old project laptop, either a Dell like this or a ThinkPad, to experiment with Linux. This video was perfect for me!! Thanks Jay

[@LearnLinuxTV]

A Thinkpad video is coming next :)

[@RandyHanley]

Flashbacks! I used to work for a large credit union in Michigan that deployed those! They were rock-solid!

[@panjackson4876]

I got this exact laptop a few years back and it's running like a champ. I just added Ubuntu since it's starting to have a hard time running Windows 10, and it's already running a lot better. I fully agree with your review.

[@PedroMosqueda]

I brought that laptop in 2019 refubrisehd from amazon. 16 ram, ssd 240, intel wifi, intel i7, nvidia, screen 1900x600 and works amazing. I have tested with ubuntu, debian, mint, arch linux, open suse, rhel, fedora... all working out of the box except for debian wifi if not installing from non-free image. I got some caddy to expand my storage and i need now a new battery to have laptop for some more time. XDD. Thanks for this review.

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Brilliant! My Latitude D630 has just broken its hinge and I've been researching replacements to run Arch, so really pleased to find this review on my favourite Linux channel. A replacement with a slight upgrade would be just ideal.

[@elyzsabethahne2116]

I have Ubuntu Budgie 20.04 64-bit on mine. I've already upgraded and maxed out the RAM to 16 GB, plus swapped out the old internal hard drive for SSD. Works well!

[@BillyNoMates1974]

good review. I have the exact the same laptop running UbuntuDDE. I didnt think it would run on my Core I3 variant of this laptop. works sweet

[@BillyNoMates1974]

to add in UbuntuDDE, the laptop WILL play youtube 1080p video (that down scales to its resolution) without frame drop. The only other linux distro that played 1080p video from youtube without frame drops was Neverware CloudOS (on this laptop)

[@fooledbyrandom991]

Really interesting thank you!!! Do you think you could look at some of the cheaper Acer or Thinkpads next?

[@Siskiyous6]

Great subject matter, I hope to see more of them. Funny you mention kids, I have a Latitude, with no other designations, that I leave running Windows for my grandson, and yes it is heavy as a tank. I have put Linux on laptops for some time, it is the newer ones that are challenging. my latest is a Dell Inspiron 15 3000, I replaced the drive with a SSD without booting it. I have Linux Mint 20 running - and successfully, but it will not recognize the built in speakers, Bluetooth came to the rescue, but it shows the little foibles you run into because of Microsoft's and Intel's anti competitive urges. That SSD really gives it exceptional battery life.

[@kuropixeljp]

This is such a great idea. Love this potential new series.

[@seths1997]

I still have my E6520 from 2011. When the original SSD failed, I replaced it and installed Fedora and worked fine. Have since installed Ubuntu and still works great with 20.10

[@jgarbo3541]

Running MX21 Plasma on Dell E4310 & E5420. Pretty fast, no problems. Great keyboards (old journalist). MX21 finds the Broadcom wifi driver during install, and Bluetooth too.

[@bertnijhof5413]

That is NOT OLD! Here in the Caribbean we use ancient computers. I use every week a 2003 HP d530 motherboard with: Pentium 4 (3.0GHz); 2 GB DDR (400 MHz); PCI; IDE and SATA-1 in an old Compaq Evo tower with Win 98SE stickers. It has 4 disks in total 1.21 TB (IDE & SATA-1; 2.5" & 3.5"). I use it for ~1 hour/week as backup server since June 2019. It runs FreeBSD 12.2 on ZFS. My laptop is a 2011 HP Elitebook 8460p 14" laptop with; I5-2520M; 8 GB DDR3 (1333 MHz); 1 TB SSHD. My wife has a 2010 HP Elitebook 8540p 15.6" with a i5-560M; 4 GB DDR3 (1066 MHz); Nvidia nvs5100 (1080p) and 250 GB HDD (7200 rpm). Both run Ubuntu 20.04 on ZFS easily and mine also e.g Win 10 in a Virtualbox VM. Her battery is dead. This year my brother in law bought a Pentium 4 HT PC too for DOP 500 say $10, but it was missing some parts, so I helped with 1280 MB DDR (400 MHz); two 40 GB IDE HDDs and a Wifi card 56 Mbps. It is running Peppermint 10 on btrfs, both disks are striped (Raid-0). He is using it for watching old cowboy movies. Boot times are just below 60 seconds :) I used a 2008 HP dc5850 as main desktop till Apr 2019 with: Phenom II (4 x 3.2GHz); maxed out 8GB DDR2 (800MHz); PCIe 2.0 and SATA-2 :) Even my May 2019 desktop is within your budget of $350. It has a Ryzen 3 2200G; Asrock B450 HDV Rel 4.0; 16 GB DDR4 (3000 Mhz); 512 GB Silicon Power nvme SSD (3200/2300 MB/s) and local Midi Tower including Power-supply for DOP 1500; in 2019 say $30. I reused two HDDs (500 and 1000 GB). It is running Ubuntu 20.04 on ZFS and a ton of virtual machines.

[@Jotainkivaa123]

Yep, this wasn't cheap and easy enough for me either! :D I bought a used 120$ laptop with i5-560M several years ago, slapped two 4 gig ram sticks and a 128 GB SSD to it and upgraded to Windows 10 for free. And turned off all the Windows bloat and telemetry. It's fine. I use it for watching Netflix and browsing the internet and it's fine. I could get a newer one, but I have no reason to. I guess with Linux I could've skipped the RAM upgrade. I wonder what he does with the 16 GB he installed.

[@gerarddelapatefeuilletee4063]

Great to hear that. I also still use my MSI Wind (which was shipped with the worst GNU/Linux distro I ever worked with - Suse) with Debian and then Devuan (much better for old computers, without the systemd stuff). Concerning the dead battery: just dare to open it by cutting the plastic; then just replace the cells by some new ones that you can purchase easily, and you'll have a new battery in no time!

[@Basbeukt]

I bought this laptop refurbished with an Intel i5 a few months ago. I later upgraded the SSD to a 256 GB SSD with approx 50/50 partitioning Linux/Win10. After installing Linux Mint Ullysa and dual boot option, it ran flawless. Wifi worked right away! Last week I tried a used Dell Pro2X docking station and a third screen and today I've tested a Dell D6000 docking station. It all works fine :) Keep up the good work, Jay!

[@EricBowersTrekkie]

I bought a Dell E6430 back in Jan. of 2020 for $75. It had no hard drive, no charger, and no battery. I managed to get an SSD, charger, and battery and still stay well under $350. I had no issues with Wi-Fi - it just worked. I ran Ubuntu on it for a while and later switched to MX-Linux. MX is great on this machine. The only disappointment is that it had no built-in webcam - something I did not notice when buying. I got it on eBay.

[@LearnLinuxTV]

I think it's very possible that the E6430 I purchased for this series would've been cheaper normally, I keep forgetting there's a "COVID-tax" on everything nowadays - things are costing more than before, for no apparent reason.

[@skug978]

Your Pro and Con list at the end - I feel there are multiple other Pros that this machine does give: (1) Easy battery replacement [unlike modern ultrabooks], (2) Easy access to hard drive [unlike modern ultrabooks], (3) Lots of peripheral ports [unlike modern ultrabooks], (4) Built-in ethernet port [UMU]. Basically this is a device that is built with traditional values, i.e. Right to Repair, as opposed to the enforced obsolescence that modern hardware has been designed to give you.

[@ezulueta1]

I have the same laptop. Wife's company sold their off lease laptops and we picked it up for $30. We got a few laptops and they all had 4GB ram. But this one had 16G installed. I guess their IT staff did not check installed hardware. $30 for a laptop with 16GB of ram, I say that was a steal. What I love most about older business laptops is upgradeablity. Well, since we bought it i have done a few. Did not come with webcam, backlit keyboard or bluetooth, so installed those. installed SSD and moved old spinner to hard drive tray replacing CD/DVD drive. Upgraded CPU to quad core I7-3610QM. Replaced Screen with 1600x900 res one. All other upgrades were pretty much drop in or swap, but the screen upgrade was not. You have to change the video cable as well, which is not trivial. The upgrade was worth it, though. Been running linux mint and windows 10 in dual boot since I got it. It can rival pretty much any modern laptop in the sub $500 mark in performance, just not looks and weight. :). If you can get over appearances and do a little tinkering you can have a great laptop for very little money. With the dock It is a great desktop replacement as well.

[@allandacasin9041]

I've also bought that laptop (model) last year for about $90 (including shipping fee) for my kids, installed MX Linux on it.

[@pascalvorbach6829]

Great Video Jay 👍🏻, I just bought a Dell venue pro 7130 tablet, because I wanted a gnu/linux tablet... I tried Manjaro with gnome and pop OS... I stick with Pop OS, everything works flawlessly, the onscreen keyboard pops up right, ui scaling is easy changeable. I am pretty happy with it 👌🏻

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Jay. I used to exclusively use crappy refurbished laptops (and excellent old Thinkpads).

[@filipefigueiredo8271]

This is also actually a really good way to also create a homelab I am currently using my 2 old hp laptops as servers both running Linux, one with proxmox and the other with Ubuntu, I just had do buy 16gb of ram and an SSD for my proxmox laptop and I've been running it 24/7 for the past 6 months without any issues I just make sure that I don't run more than 10vms so that I don't have an high load on the server, best part of these solutions is that many of these laptops also have the possibility to upgrade CPUs besides ram and storage

[@thebusinessfirm9862]

Great video, mate. Would love to see you do reviews on cheap netbooks running Linux.

[@migueljimenez9060]

WOW, I have Dell Latitude E6330, but I use Centos and Ubuntu Linux in a VM., but this is a great video, thank you for share it

[@Angryjenkinsdigital]

A topic near and dear to me. Dell Latitudes are nice machines, especially for Linux. Had a handful of e7240s before the TROUBLES began. I've sold/lent all but one for work from home. This model only has a 12.5" screen but has room for TWO (m.2 SATA) ssds and a half-width wifi/bluetooth card. It has a great CPU (4th gen i7 Haswell). The keys are backlit - a necessity for me. RAM and SSD upgrades are only 2 screws away. It also doesn't have the weird Thinkpad nub, which I never use when on Thinkpads. With a good aftermarket battery I get 4-8 hours of battery life while writing code/surfing/streaming. Yes the major weakness is the screen. I have the 1366x768 screen, but it is also available with a FHD touchscreen.Maybe it's my bad vision but 1080p on smaller screens doesn't work for me. I wind up tweaking accessibility options to blow up the text and cursors. No matter, it is functional enough, and I'm usually plugged into my 32" QHD monitor. And as all Dells, I have not had an issue running Linux on them - granted, I have stayed away from any NVidia models to avoid driver issues. Currently I have OpenSUSE TW (Gnome) on mine, but I've run many Debian derivatives, including various Ubuntu flavors, Linux Mint and BunsenLabs. Upgraded recently with an Intel 7260HMW for better wifi/bluetooth performance. The difference is major, especially on the bluetooth end. Picked my first one up on eBay for $160 three years ago. It is still my main laptop and has traveled with me to many hack-a-thons, meetups and lectures. The TROUBLES has these well over $250 now. Still a great machine for general work and entertainment. I even emulate Nintendo/SNES on it with Lutris. Tips: 1. Buy a battery. If you care about battery life, do NOT skimp on this. This should be one of the first upgrades you do on any used laptop. Install "tlp" on Linux to monitor battery life. It can inform of the max charge of the battery on release as well as the current max charge, to see how badly the battery has degraded. I've bought batteries form Amazon that I saw degraded 20% over the first month and got refunds. You get what you pay for. Luckily, aftermarket batteries are easy to find for Del machines. 2. Have a Linux-friendly USB dongle if you plan to play with old laptops often. Plug and Play is key so that you aren't prevented from getting online by driver issues. Look for Atheros or Qualcomm chips, not Broadcom. TP-Link offers ~$5 options that have worked for me - the small ones that look like dongles. The newer more expensive ones with antennae tend to need driver support. 3. DO NOT CUT EXTRA WIRES! When received this model came with an old wifi/bluetooth card with 3 connections for main, aux and bluetooth. Newer cards will use the two "extra" longer main/aux wires that are taped or dangling inside. If you plan to upgrade wifi as I did you will need these wires. 4. If you plan to distro-hop a lot, look into installing Linux with a separate /home partition. This will allow you to reinstall Linux distros with all of your /home settings intact - themes, cursors, .bashrc, .ssh keys, .xbindkeys, etc.

[@KwanLowe]

Looking forward to a series about older hardware. I picked up a bunch of Thinkpad 440p laptops for about $150 apiece. On a few of them I replaced the screens with 1920x1080 panels (about 80$ apiece, unfortunately). I had a ton of RAM and SSDs available to upgrade to 16G and 256G SSDs. Total price was about $250 apiece. Great machines and super reliable, if a bit heavy.

[@dirtyparis1948]

Nice video. Bought my Latitude 6440 with i5-4310M for 160€ around 185$; best tech purchase ever ! (not kidding) Instead of Ubuntu, Mint was installed and still running like the wind. So don't hesitate, buy and go Linux.

[@mikiethebikie]

Thanks , I am thinking of ditching my old desktop for and old laptop to runs Linux, as I do now. This presentation was timely.

[@jb888888888]

I used to volunteer at my local Free Geek, where they would refurbish laptops and desktops and install Linux. It's where I got converted. Worked great. Once lockdown hit I stopped going there to volunteer. I went back to look for some hardware and apparently they've switched to installing Windows 10 on all the machines (except Macs obv).

[@marinoceccotti9155]

I'm watching this video on my Dell Latitude e5520 with its Intel i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz × 4 (upgraded to 8 Go RAM and a 800 Go SSD) running Linux Mint Mate. It rocks ! 11 years old and still kicking. Never had any issue with Wifi.

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

So Jay, that is funny, "This is a secure place to store the Broadcom cards!" The Trash can... :-) I have 6 Dell E6400 laptops that I use for various thing. Two are for webcams I have sitting in windows so I can watch the dogs when they are outside. Yes I have USB cables ran to the windows and I use FFMpeg so load the webcams. Works great! I run these on EndeavourOS on USB sticks... Works great! Two others are Hal & Sal. Those are my 9000 computers that I use as my on the go computers. The last two are for testing Linux Distros. I figure that if the Disteo run on these old laptops it will run on anything.. LOL I help Eznix with his project by testing for him and the Dells are in the testing mix and they are the only Intel stuff I have... :-) They are all Intel CPU & GPUs, all are 4 gig of ram as I bought them. The CPUs all vary in speed a bit some are faster. I updated the bios from Dell's last one made which is A32. Most of them had A19 & A25... This has to be done with a DOS boot disk or in windows and I had neither so I found a way (on the web) to make a bootable USB DOS stick to update the bios. This might be a thing for everyone that buys a used laptop, update to the last bios update... They all have the Trash Can Network cards... Lol I did replace Hai & Sal's with a Intel network card that also has Bluetooth on it too. Bluetooth is also a pain with Dell as the one that came with them were also Broadcom cards. They need to be treated the same as the network cards... Lol While being 2 core CPUs I have done some video processing on them. Yes it is sloooow but does work with 4gig of ram. They can go to 8gig but at $65 bucks each I don't see the need as they work just fine with 4gigs for testing and surfing the web and the like. This bring me to the speakers. You need a good set of USB speakers like Jay said..O Bluetooth in you have a card. LOL The E6400's have a real good screen on them but are old now so if you need to replace plan on $80 buck to do that. I have 1 that I just use a old flat panel monitor I for one the Dog laptop. I bought all of mine off of eBay as lots of 2 at a time, some had batteries most did not and none had power adaptors or hard drives, (Add $50 for that) but they are cheap now days. So I agree yes, old laptops atr worth buying and using Linux on if you not a gamer that is... I use all kinds of Linux on them with not issues. Just load and boot. MY broadcom cards were always found on the E6400 but your mileage may vary... Lol Thanks for the video and sorry about the book! :-D LLAP

[@rockyraab8290]

I bought one of those from the online auction place for under $100. It came with a good battery, but the machine would not charge. I have to keep it plugged in. No problem, because it is my Linux OS test-drive machine and it doesn't travel. I'm currently exploring MX on it - which it runs perfectly.

[@markwiehenstroer2831]

Very interesting and instructive. I just subscribed to your channel and would like to see a continuation of the series. What surprised me is the wifi card was able to be changed out here on this Dell but not so or questionable on other brands such as HP.

[@remixedcat]

Hp whitelists while Dell doesn't :)

[@cameronbosch1213]

​@@remixedcatThat really should be illegal! 😡

Thank you, this series is great, I bought a cheap Intel N4100 computer to start learning Linux. If you can test Lenovo ThinkPad with the same value. I'm thinking of selling this and purchase a used ThinkPad.

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

I have a Latitude E6440 running Linux Mint which has been a workhorse for years. With 16 GB of RAM and an SSD it can do everything I need it to, save running modern games that need 3D acceleration. Off-lease business laptops are your best Linux computing value :)

[@jwmurrayjr]

My daily laptop is a Latitude 6510 (eBay $40 + $10 PS + $20 SSD + $12 battery) running Mint 20 Cinnamon. Runs great, no issues. Tell us more!!

[@bave_]

if you buy this laptop, make sure to check for excessive hinge friction. I owned this in college, through normal use the hinge got gummed up but then broke away from the laptop's chassis

[@blueperrymuffin]

Love the new idea!!! Im currently running kubuntu on my 2009 Sony Vaio VGN-CS110E, runs pretty good with an SSD upgrade.

[@TradersTradingEdge]

lol, very save place for the BCM card :) Nice job Jay, thanks.

[@LearnLinuxTV]

You bet

[@Oldman_toby]

I want to thank you because I just put ubuntu on my latitude e5500 and could not get the wifi to work after watching your video I was able to correct the issue and get the wifi to work like it should.

[@ralph1bart]

More please. So many laptops. Good to know which ones just work and which ones need a little work.

[@davidtindell950]

Yes, Please More “Old Laptop” Vids ! I own a Dell E6430s with i7 and 16Gb Memory And it still runs fast today ! Also, We can add SSD for even better performance ! . . .

[@UsrSpace]

i use this as my Main Linux and school laptop. used to have Arch on it but rn i use Ubuntu for sheer simplicity and Just works.

[@billziegenhagen]

I'm running Mint Cinnamon on a Dell E5470 and everything works. Have also used straight Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with no problems. Yes, I would love to have a 1080p screen but the 760 screen works for what I am using it for.

[@JosephFallon]

Very informative. And funny :) Do keep the old laptop reviews coming.

[@LearnLinuxTV]

Expect it. I don't know how often, but there's going to be another one in about two weeks or so, and then more whenever I can get my hands on more hardware.

[@mt_kegan512]

Jay dropping jokes! Love the trash can cut!

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

Loved the video. A couple of random thoughts: 1) Upgrading to a backlit keyboard is easy (easier than replacing display). 2) As long as you're going to be replacing the WiFI card, an upgrade to an 802.11AC card is a good idea (this model probably shipped with an N adapter).

[@RedBearAK]

I tried looking at a lot of used laptops, but then I realized you can get a new Acer Aspire 5 Slim Ryzen for as low as $365 on Amazon these days. Brand new, with lots of internal upgrade options for storage and up to 32GB of RAM, and a very decent IPS Full HD 15-inch screen. I managed to snag the quad-core Ryzen 5 version one day for $520. Even the Ryzen 7 variant with a 512GB SSD is usually just $675. I feel like 99% of these old used laptops are very overpriced and just not worth the trouble. Worn out batteries, worn out TFT screens, wifi cards need to be upgraded, storage often needs to be replaced with an SSD so it won’t be dog slow, etc. Machines this old should be priced closer to $100-150 at this point or they just end up being a very unsatisfying money pit.

[@aldntn]

I run Lubuntu on junk laptops with great success. Wifi dongles have worked well for me.

[@JohnPamplin]

I'm using Core 2 Duo laptops with 3GB of RAM and a small SSD, and Linux Mint runs great on them.

[@nombreapellido9038]

Lol! I like your Broadcom storage bin.

[@1ccortez]

Great timing for this video. Have an older NUC from 2015 that I keep distro hopping for better performance.

[@bob-ny6kn]

Running Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon on US$100 2007 (purch 2018) Dell Latitude 620 (32 bit). Traveled the world with its older brother before it died in 2018. KZbin vids only sync up to 320. Every app is a good user experience.

[@peterjansen4826]

A screen replacement video might be interesting.

[@harryvendryes]

You're a natural at teaching. Here's my issue: I simply will not move away from the old style ThinkPad TrackPoint. Nothing else satisfies for typing long text with emacs, not even the combined TrackPad + Trackpoint. I cannot be the only one out there. Hoping something similar, possibly even a modern trackball appears one day. Anyway, the ThinkPad X200 does everything I need . I even sold my more modern ThinkPad to go back two generations. No complaints . Death to TrackPads!

[@LearnLinuxTV]

You're in good company - I've heard similar thoughts from others. People that enjoy trackpoints should be catered to. Although it's not for me, it's pretty well documented that there's a sizeable following in support of that. :)

[@harryvendryes]

@@LearnLinuxTV Glad to know I'm not alone.

[@georgeetherege8347]

Count me in on the "Great Idea" side. Excited as a gift a Dell Inspiron 1521from family member--gently treated. Upped the RAM to the (nose-bleed-inducing) maximum 4 GB and replaced HD with 128 GB SSD (a $20.00 hit). Runs Lubuntu just fine. Will dual boot & run Windows 10--bought the license but just use the Lubuntu. Do some more "renew reviews!"

[@alexmartinez2684]

Keep it going and testing them older computers. Thanks!

[@GamenRyder]

I would love to see what the oldest/cheapest 1080p laptop could run linux well

[@AgentJot23]

How about Panasonic Toughbook? I would love to see how those bad boys handles Linux.

[@lieftheshinigami]

I sell these things at a used computer shop locally. For what they are, they are fantastic little devices, even with bloaty windows on them. I'd love to see any device that's came out pre haswell and see how they perform with linux. I think they are vastly frowned upon due to their age, and yet a lot of sandy/ivy bridge era stuff still works surprisingly well. I have a ivy bridge i5 HP and it works phenominally with Linux and 8 hours of battery to boot, and I also have a nehalem-based i5 macbook that runs really well for being 11 years old. It runs gnome better than the HP simply due to the fact that it has an Nvidia GPU instead of the integrated graphics of the HP. This series is awesome, and I definitely would love to see more of this.

[@geoman1420]

Running Linux Mint Mate 21.1 on a MacBookPro (late 2008). Everything - including the ancient iSight camera - works fine!!!

[@Peter_Parker69]

I run mx linux on a 2011 macbook air a friend gave me. Works perfect

[@bobh5261]

i'd love to see some really light linux on really old pc's and laptops and see how they do

[@mangkukhayun7518]

I like the preview of the old laptop 👍

[@SwiatLinuksa]

Mxlinux, linux lite, Antix, puppy :) thx 4 share

[@techtipsuk]

Lol I wasn’t expecting the Broadcom storage.

[@chrisradtke]

Glad to see he's serious about a safe place to store them 😎

[@cameronbosch1213]

Broadcom Wi-Fi belongs in the trash. Intel Wi-Fi just works (as long as you don't use the Libre kernel).

[@Destide]

Literally just upgraded an e420 to run as a docker Ubuntu based server. Ubuntu's auto driver install covers the hybrid nvdida chip under the 390 driver

[@lorensims4846]

Ha! I've got that beat. I'm dual booting my 2006 first-generation white polycarbonate MacBook with Slackware -current. This old Mac has a Core Duo "Yonah" CPU that is 32-bit only. So it can't be upgraded past Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" which doesn't even know about iCloud. It's still as dandy an operating system as it ever was but the only browsers that will run on it are just barely usable on the modern web. I installed Slackware Linux for when I need to do serious work. It's a fully up-to-date release with the very latest versions of Linux software. The really great thing about Linux has always been that it runs really, really well on what is otherwise 'obsolete' systems. Snow Leopard is the new home for my old 32-bit Mac apps that won't run on modern Macs anymore. I even have a couple of old PowerPC apps still running under Rosetta. Slackware is for when I need a modern web browser or modern compiler. I was previously running an EeePC 2G Surf with a 16G high-speed SD card with a full install of Slackware as my main computer for several years (until the keyboard finally got too flaky). It was my ideal Linux busy box that fit in my jacket pocket.

[@PlymouthVoyager2000]

I have 2 slots populated with wifi cards one Broadcom and one being Intel and yes both are recognized by Linux and function correctly. Though I did have to use the Intel card to install the Broadcom drivers

[@justangvano]

I would like to see more videos in this series please. I like to purchase used laptops, especially toshiba and lenovo, as the batteries ten to last with age and they tend to be well built machines. Looking forward to what you purchase next.

[@InvaderMik]

So weird seeing people talking about my work laptop as “very old” or “salvage”... I didn’t realize how old it is! Mine is a beast, but I needed to replace windows with pop os a while ago since it slowed way down. My only problem is that it’s super heavy

[@373323]

there is plenty of old hardware, and it is hard to know how much Linux support , compatibility they have, it would be great to have a shortlist of known to work well with Linux old hardware that one can check up against

[@LearnLinuxTV]

I was thinking the same thing - I'm thinking of at least making a list of hardware that's known to be problematic, but there's just so much of it out there.

[@arjunshinde7]

I have HP dv6 Pavilion 2nd Generation I5 Intel processor (Year 2012 model) with 8GB ram and SSD and it works fine with ubuntu desktop OS 20.04. It can open Android Studio within seconds while previously it take over 10 minutes to open completely. Ubuntu makes my life fast with such a old laptop model.

[@benjaminmelikant3460]

I got a few of these from my last job. They had all been upgraded to the max amount of RAM. Some of them were the model with the i5, some the i7. I threw cheap SSDs in them and had them around for quite a while. Ended up giving most of them away as Linux machines. They were great for the price (absolutely free).

[@annihilatorg]

I always appreciate the depth you go into for these videos. Other videos gloss over how to install non-free drivers and you go into enough detail to get it working. And yes, that is the appropriate storage location for Broadcom adapters. My "old" laptop is an e6500 that I got for just $75 which had intel wifi and a nice 1920x1200 screen. Upgraded the CPU, RAM, and SSD for another $200-ish (still need a battery). It's just a core2duo with 8gb of ram so it's not going to win any speed awards, but xubuntu is real smooth. It at least makes me laugh when looking at dell's "new" high res 16:10 screens on the XPS line knowing my 10+ year old laptop has the same pixel count.

[@LearnLinuxTV]

Great choice of laptop, and distro! I'm well familiar with that model, as well as the E6400 and E4300 (I think that was the 13" equivalent) that were released around that same time. Dell really brought their A-game with those models, and in some ways those were even better than the one I reviewed in this video.

[@krishnaprasadkn69]

I have E6430 for personal use. I was trying live booting of different linux distributions and MXlinux KDE 19.3 caught my interest because the broadcom wificard driver is preinstalled.. and the os worked just fine.. what is your opinion on installing MX linux on this device?

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

I have a E6400 4gig and MX works just fine on a spinning drive. Not a problem... :-) LLAP

[@huckleberry582]

I've had an e6320 and 6330 and both ran Linux very well. The screen issue is true, but otherwise they were great. Their build quality and materials make them not only excellent and inexpensive daily drivers, but also great for self defense! I also have a Dell xps l321x from the same era. I've had several old laptops to play with, but that one is my go-to when I just want to get some basic work done. It has an i7 and 4GB of ram, but it seems to work really well for the specs and the keyboard is great. Plus, it is extremely light weight and that is what I take as my daily carry laptop.I have tried lots of distos on it, but always come back to MX Linux. The xfce flavor flies on that thing. There isn't much in the way of ports but it is excellent for basic email, browsing, video watching and document creation.

[@remixedcat]

I got one of these and thankfully came with intel wireless so it worked right out of the box

[@staceygrove5976]

These are sturdily built in the main, but the weak point is the top of the lid, which is some kind of lightweight aluminium. You see an awful lot of neglected E6420 and E6430 models with badly scratched and/or dented lids.

[@skywz]

My dad used to have a 2012 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, but he eventually upgraded. While it was no slouch in terms of power, it had a 2012 CPU and GPU, the 256GB SSD was old and full, and worst of those, the screen (a pretty decent one, especially for the time) had some serious issues (probably with the diffuser). However, my younger brother had just recently had his laptop die on him and needed one for school (this was during C0vid), so I went and installed Feren OS on it and it worked almost as fast as if it were new, aside from the screen.

[@brennenraines51]

Zorin LTS runs well on this machine, i have this exact one and it runs well no issues with the wifi

[@Theashutoshv89]

worth watching your videos always

[@shawty_ds]

The DELL M4800 has a rubberized palm rest, and like the one in the video is also built like a tank, but is a very modern machine. I have one, it's one of the best LT's I've bought

[@RickRomig]

I have a couple Dell Latitude E6500 and Lattiude E5500 laptops and they run Linux just fine. I'm currently running Debian 10 with Cinnamon, but I've run Mint on them with no problems.

[@remixedcat]

I've bee looking for one of those under 60 and those are so hard to find :(

[@RickRomig]

@@remixedcat I have 2 Dell Latitude E5500 laptops if you're interested.

[@CoasterMan13Official]

I have a laptop from 2007! Let the average person try to beat THAT! BTW, it's easier to resolve the driver conflict with a few commands rather than opening up your laptop and risking destroying it.