I decided to do some work on my old Acer Aspire lap top. I installed a new SSD and put Windows 7 on it. After the hassle of installing Windows 7, I decided that I missed the old Linux Mint 17.2. and reinstalled it. Being somewhat bored, I decided to up date to Mint 18.2. I tried the KDE version and discovered that I certainly didn't like it. I then downloaded the Cinnamon version. That's more like it. I didn't know that there was such a huge difference. Everything seems to be working properly. The laptop is certainly no speed demon but it is useable. I must admit that I know very little about Linux and I'm not sure I want to spend the time to learn. The word processor works fine and other small apps and some games are also fine. I mainly use it for surfing the Internet and email. I really have no use for all the tweaking that serious users need.

KDE is very resource heavy.

 

You may also want to check out XFCE or LXDE. Those are 2 of the lightest environments out there and they keep the classic Windows feel to them.

15 hours ago, dave_boo said:

KDE is very resource heavy.

 

You may also want to check out XFCE or LXDE. Those are 2 of the lightest environments out there and they keep the classic Windows feel to them.

 

I had just about given up on my old HP netbook. I have an Intel 120GB SSD that I was using for backups. I went ahead and put it in the netbook and installed Lubuntu. I'm not crazy about Lubuntu but the netbook is now usable and fairly fast.

18 hours ago, Gary A said:

I must admit that I know very little about Linux and I'm not sure I want to spend the time to learn. The word processor works fine and other small apps and some games are also fine. I mainly use it for surfing the Internet and email. I really have no use for all the tweaking that serious users need.

That's why I have Linux Mint on the Acer desktops in the house that the wife and kids use. It's easy to use, it does all they need, I can set it up in Thai, and they can't break it.

Even with the new Samsung 850 Pro SSD, the Acer Aspire laptop was still too slow to suit me while running Mint 18.2. Since I was happy with the Lubuntu OS on my netbook, I went ahead and also installed it on the Acer laptop. This Linux version is by no means perfect and it has some glitches but I'm going to stick with it. You can never expect an old computer to perform like a modern unit. My Dell Precision desk top with an SSD is very fast compared to the netbook and the laptop. I wasted some time with a version called Solus. Trying to install that version gave me all sorts of problems and it never did install. Somehow Solus wrecked the SSD partitions. 

I have changed Linux versions like people change clothes. I did like a couple of the Cinnamon Mint versions but was never satisfied with the speed. After a lot more surfing, I stumbled across Zorin. After nearly a month, Zorin is the best of the best for me. Fast and very easy to use. Even my low powered HP Mini Netbook runs quite well. The Acer Aspire laptop 4253 is like a new machine. I can finally give up on finding the best Linux for my use. For those trying to wean themselves off Windows, give Zorin a try. Wine is pre installed. I particularly appreciate the ease of updates and software installations. 

Been using Linux since 1994, about a year after it first debuted.

 

The good thing about Linux is that there's a distribution for just about any purpose or machine, including running on old slow computers (slow until you put Linux on, but deadly slow with Windows).

 

Many standard Linux variants are built for modern machines, so they *can* run slow on old machines, but unlike Windows you can either tweak standard distros to run a lot faster by using lighter software (as suggest above), or install a distro especially designed and configured for older machines.