Distro for an old Netbook?

BigBoy · 3 Jul 2022 at 22:50

I have on old Duel core Atom netbook (Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 1.6ghz x2 2Gb DDR3 128GB SSD) its been running pure Debian for the last 5 years and been running a Pi-Hole for all that time with a couple of docker containers here and there as needed.

Its now surplus to requirements and would like to pop a distro on it so my son can learn to code without having to fire up a desktop PC to do so.

Any distro recommendations for a 6 year old on a very decrepit old netbook Please!

BigBoy · 3 Jul 2022 at 23:56

Trying out EndlessOS at the moment will see how that goes.

BigBoy · 20 Jul 2022 at 21:50

Thanks @Rainmaker I will take a look at this, I do love Debian but this driver situation always left this netbook with no wifi, was fine as its last roll was to run my pihole and a couple of limited use docker containers. will see how this gets on when I get around to installing it.

BigBoy · 22 Jul 2022 at 09:01

B1ng said:
You should be able to get the WiFi to work on vanilla Debian by enabling the 'nonfree' repository in the software centre, then installing the firmware package for the WiFi card manufacturer (e.g. firmware-atheros). The alternative is to install a different card that runs without nonfree binaries. Good luck with whichever you choose to go with!

Yeah I know been running Linux for 20+years in different formats. The binaries are flakey at best for the netbook, other distros and some based on Debian don't have any issues.