Why do people install Linux in 10 year old machines to evaluate? Of course the experience is going to suck...
Seriously. Stop setting things up for failure.
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Try the same thing with Windows at least. Compare them.
Why would the experience suck? It usually works quite well... drivers supported, etc.
Works for me
What? Old machines run great with Linux. I install Linux and then use the machine for 10 years with no degraded experience.
Old monitor, old graphics cards which are slow, not enough memory to run a modern browser fast enough...
Then they compare the old stuff with their state of the art machine and then complain it's slower.
People compare their 4090 GPUs with a 10 year old crap and of course give up immediately.
are these people in the room with us right now?
install lynnuckz on aged machine that just expired me winblows. nothing accidental. just electronics not letting go to waste.
Linux mint xfce runs great on 10 year old computers, the higher versions of Linux mint are slow on old computers
People compare their 4090s with a 10 year old crap and of course give up immediately.
People compare their 4090s with a 10 year old crap and of course give up immediately.
😆, I almost exclusively run my Linux distros on 10 year old+ hardware and they run just peachy.
Currently using Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS on a laptop and desktop that each meet that criteria. They both run great.
Yeah, they run great. But they completely suck if people are used to a windows laptop from this year. Graphics and memory alone already make everything extremely slow in comparison.
Chimera and Steam test my hardware daily
🎧🎮🖥😀🤙
Yeah, but people are comparing with a modern computer using windows that they are currently using. Just graphics and memory alone will make it completely suck in comparison. People give up right away.
Just opening a browser takes a long time in a 10 year old machine compared to a new one. Even simple things are terribly slow in comparison. They run, but they do take forever.
Nah, I wouldn't stand using it myself. The friend that tried to installed gave up immediately and went straight back to windows 11. We need to stop lying to ourselves that Linux is somehow able to do magic with old stuff. It can't. And then myth that it does blocks more people from using it.
What machines are you using? My 10 year old i7 with 16gb of ram thinkpad still opens chromium on arch in milliseconds and the browsing experience is not that different from my 24 core m4 pro MacBook for the typical web stuff.
My 5 year old i5 8gb ram thinkpad on the other hand is painfully slow.
Ok, now that magic part, I agree with. I think the idea that it’s a magic bullet for old machines is a bit much. But for anyone who doesn’t need the fastest stuff, it works really well and can keep working computers from becoming e-waste when Apple or Microsoft stops supporting them with software updates
This case was a 8gb i7 vs a 9950x3D with a 4090 and 64gb of ddr5 ram. It's not even close.
Gotcha, I don't do anything that maxes these out so my systems generally cruise on old hardware.
I suppose use cases requiring robust compute wouldn't be served well by repurposing old hardware paired with a Linux distro.
To your original point, better to evaluate a Linux OS on hardware that matches or exceeds the demand of whatever load you put on it regularly.
Linux is more efficient than Windows but it's not magic.
Yeah, I think every person that tests on older hardware than what they are used to gets disappointed by the experience. We should simply not encourage that behavior. They need to test with their current machines.
Also an apple laptop, but I don't have the details of that one.
I’ve never had the 4090 and 64gb of ram computing experience, so I am probably just happy in my ignorance.
...all my machines are about 10 years old by now, or its tech inside is at least from that era.
But then again I've switched to Linux about 15 years ago, so I'm quite used to it by now ✌️😅
I saw your later comment about "the people" having a 1 year old Windows machine being their main, so that would be an unfair comparison.
If the experience is going to suck, depents on your expectations.
For a power user with a specific usecase Linux can not get more out of the hardware you have.
For the big part (me included): we can do things on cheap hardware in a workable and safe way.
Runs just fine on my laptops from the stone age.
Not if you're refurbishing or reviving an old, unbearably slow windows system or a road-ended Mac, and suddenly discover it's still a usable computer. Being born in a humble environment is sometimes a privilege
depends if you're evaluating Linux or the 10 year old machine.
Yeah, they run great. But they completely suck if people are used to a windows laptop or PC from this year. Graphics and memory alone already make everything extremely slow in comparison.
It doesn't matter if it is unfair. People are checking out on old stuff and giving up right away because it is so slow. Everybody told them it should be fast, but it is not. It will never get close to the speed of modern machines.
My node runs on a 13 year old i7. It also doubles up as HTPC. RUNS PERFECT
You tell me

An outdated Phenom II x6 with an SSD still works with actual browsers, and it works even better if you install Mullvad or Librefox.
I had this in the past but a different version.
Linux was marketed to me as being super light weight. I liked the idea and went with the light DE's I ended up finding very lackluster.
Then I figured that if windows was allowed to be heavy I should allow Linux to be. So I tried KDE and loved that much more. And in the end KDE was also pretty light.
I wouldn't say that Linux will make their old machines fast, I would say it make them unable again.
I didn't say this before but conversation and setting realistic expectations is what you ideally want.