LINUX, OPENBOX

The Fastest, Baddest Linux with a GUI

I got a cool system for free

The screenshot above is not from a KDE Desktop.

Yes, those are all KDE applications, including Krunner, at the top of the screen. It is all running on a 15-year-old laptop with a 2-core Intel Celeron processor and 1.8 GB RAM.

I’m writing this directly on Medium now, using the Falkon web browser, and everything is using, let me check… 963 MB of RAM.

I found this laptop less than a month ago, along with the carcasses of two others, which were all gutted out (not by me), in an unused room at home.

The machine looks pristine, like it has been barely used. Maybe that’s because it has never been very powerful. Apparently, it used to have Windows 8 or 10, and I can only imagine how slow it ran. But now, putting it to work has a special charm. I think it is a feeling like the one a car enthusiast gets when restoring an old VW Bug.

Or maybe, like building a hotrod (ZZ Top’s Gimme All Your Lovin’ sounding now).

From my experience with another machine about the same age but with a four-core processor, topping the memory and stuffing an SSD under the hood can make these little things fly.