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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Trying to rescue a 1GB RAM laptop (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

65 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I had an Aspire One D270 laptop with a 32-bit Intel Atom CPU and 1 gigabyte of RAM, so I installed Debian with Xfce on it, but even then it's running way too slow.

Is there anything I can do to make the laptop faster and more responsive given its limited memory?

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[–] pastermil 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Hopefully it got standard SATA connector.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can buy IDE m.2 converter. There are usb to floppy converters, usb drive shows up as floppy drive. You can attach modern peripherals to old computers, this kind of retro world with modern and old parts mixed is funny.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Would it worth, though? I mean, is there a significant difference on IDE between HDD or SSD? With an adapter, SATA speeds on the long run would be bottlenecked by IDE if I'm correct.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Still worth it, for the latency elimination alone. But also I expect a SSD would saturate the IDE connection whereas a HDD rarely would.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I can speak from experience that it is worth it. It won't be a super speed demon, but it will make it somewhat more usable. I've done so with my Asus Eee PC 901 netbook which has the two PATA SSDs. Those SSDs are SUPER slow compared to the cheapest mSATA SSD you can find with more than double the space, and all you need is a MiniPCI-to-mSATA adapter (the Eee PC 901's drive slots are MiniPCI). I documented all about it here: https://claudiomiranda.wordpress.com/2020/10/04/my-geeeky-experiment-part-3/

I'm running OpenBSD/i386 on mine which isn't as fast as something like Linux, but it definitely felt faster even with OpenBSD after the hardware upgrade. I also increased the RAM to 2 GB which is the maximum amount supported.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, it's not quick, there is no noticeable difference in speed. Random read should be much quicker. But you can't really buy ide hdds anymore and they will die sooner or later, and the price of small m.2 sata ssds are falling.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

without any checking of course, I assumed that machine is "new enough" to have some form of SATA in it, but good point

[–] pastermil 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah the machine is 32-bit, so it's a question worth asking.