Hi all. I'm looking for an alternative for my All in One PC with 4GB of RAM, an atom processor and an SSD. I tried PureOS but I'm very slow, I do not know Linux I always used Windows so I ask if you can guide me with some distribution that is light and easy to use. Thank you very much in advance. Best regards.
Some integrated, PowerVR-based GPUs inside Atom processors are not supported by Linux. Maybe that is a reason why OS is so slow.
Hello, thank you very much for your reply. My processor is an Atom D525. Is it incompatible with all Linux distributions? Best regards.
SSD and 4GB should be no problem for just about any Linux distro. Atoms do tend to be slow, especially with lots of processes active, but not that slow. If no Linux distro works, maybe try TrueOS which is based on FreeBSD. You could also try one of the tiny Linux distros, such as http://damnsmalllinux.org/.
Light and easy to use are inversely proportional. Linux Mint with the XFCE desktop is what I use and recommend for old hardware. Lubuntu, often recommended, isn't any faster, and lighter distros like Puppy are just too annoying. However, looking up the Passmark benchmark score for your processor, it's ungodly slow. To be perfectly honest I'd suggest forgetting about that machine and spending 50 bucks on a refurbished machine with something like a Core 2 Duo. A Google search on "Atom D525 Linux" (without the quotes) will get you additional information.
I've been testing out Linux Mint XFCE. It's on a 40GB 7,200rpm, old IDE HDD on a core2Duo 4GB RAM. It's a little laggy loading programs and booting is a bit slow, but it's certainly not terrible. An SSD should be much much better.
Hello thank you very much. I really do not understand why any Linux distribution that I tried did not work on my machine, I had to install Windows Starter, which is what the PC originally came from. Thank you. Regards.
It could be something the Linux kernel needs that the Atom D525 CPU doesn't provide. Or at least, doesn't provide without running stuff in a virtual CPU. If you want to know for sure, install something like http://damnsmalllinux.org/. It uses so little RAM that only a kernel-CPU incompatibility would make it slow.
Sometimes there is no driver for hardware available or driver is buggy and not complete. I am Linux enthusiast, but provided that your computer works well with Windows I recommend staying with Windows. Of course I encourage to try Linux on some other hardware in the future.
Could be a safe boot issue, often manifests as unable to write new paritions during installation (even though can see the drives and existing paritions fine)>
MX Linux, I've used it on a 10-year-old eeePC with great success and a different, similarly aged laptop, and in both cases, the results are excellent. Mrk
I test Linux systems on a variety of hardware including a Samsung RV-415 with an AMD E-350. There’s very little real world difference between this and the D525 but suffice to say pretty much everyone I’ve ever met with a machine of this level has been disappointed with the performance. I’ve encountered several D525 notebook users running Linux so I agree with NGRhodes this is likely to be a secure boot issue so check your BIOS settings match the system requirements for the Linux distros you are trying to install. Asking for recommendations always opens the floodgates and everyone has their own favorite from the hundreds available. Puppy is always towards the top of the list but novice users will struggle with this when there are easier alternatives. This won’t give you the best speed by any means but the one distro I’ve found to install consistently across a variety of hardware is ROSA Fresh (KDE5). My recommendation before you start messing with your BIOS is to download both versions (uefi & non-uefi) using the torrent links and try them individually. http://mirror.rosalab.ru/rosa/rosa2016.1/iso/ROSA.Fresh.R11/ In spite of the above I have one contact running ROSA KDE on the same notebook as my low end test machine and they are perfectly happy with it. You can even install the Windows 10 icon theme from the settings panel.
Does it mean PureOS boot? If it booted then it is not secure boot issue. Actually processor debuted in 2010, so computer built on it probably does not have UEFI and Secure Boot.
Hi, thank you very much. In my BIOS as it is old does not have secure boot only has quick start and has the option activated. Will that be the problem? I'll try MX to see how it goes. Thank you. Best regards. Yes, PureOS was installed and started correctly. Thank you very much. Regards.
See here for instructions to disable Fast Startup. https://www.eightforums.com/threads/fast-startup-turn-on-or-off-in-windows-8.6320/
