Installing Linux on an old computer?

[Rainfire]

My dad has an old Lenovo J Series 3000 computer lying around and I want to make some use of it instead of just having it there. I got rid of the old hard drive and just bought a new 80GB HDD to install Linux on it.

My question is: will the computer work if I were to just add the HDD and Linux? or would I have to do more, I presume that the OEM windows XP OS is tied to MOBO but I'm not completely sure.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Well, if there's no more hard drive containing XP then why would it still matter?

You can add the new hard drive and install Linux to it with no issue.

 

[DOSlover]

Firstly, what amount of RAM is installed on the computer?
This will determine what you can run comfortably. Once you know that, check with the web sites of the various distributions as to their minimum and recommended hardware spec. On a machine of that age I would suggest you use a distro with the XFCE GUI. Quite light on the hardware and responds well on older hardware. Having had a quick look at the Lenovo site, I would advise against spending money on the computer (unless you can get some cheap DDR2 RAM) as it would appear to have been a budget end machine at the time it was released.
Download a 'live' image of linux and try it out. Cost nothing other than your time!?

 

[Scottray]

A good linux distro to try in MINT. If you're a little more familiar with linux, then try ubuntu. In either case, just follow the instructions to make a bootable usb drive. Then, boot it up and install linux on the new drive.

 

[DOSlover]

A good linux distro to try in MINT. If you're a little more familiar with linux, then try ubuntu. In either case, just follow the instructions to make a bootable usb drive. Then, boot it up and install linux on the new drive.

Mint is a functionally rich distro out of the box and an excellent base to work from. I have found it a bit slower to respond on old hardware when compared with Ubuntu Studio, the catch there being Ubuntu Studio is only available as a 64 bit release. Unless you have a specific need, try as many as you can to see what suits you best.

 

[Rainfire]

Firstly, what amount of RAM is installed on the computer?
This will determine what you can run comfortably. Once you know that, check with the web sites of the various distributions as to their minimum and recommended hardware spec. On a machine of that age I would suggest you use a distro with the XFCE GUI. Quite light on the hardware and responds well on older hardware. Having had a quick look at the Lenovo site, I would advise against spending money on the computer (unless you can get some cheap DDR2 RAM) as it would appear to have been a budget end machine at the time it was released.
Download a 'live' image of linux and try it out. Cost nothing other than your time!?

The computer has 1GB Ram (2 x 512mb). New to Linux so I wouldn't know any of the distros but I will try and find one with the XFCE GUI. Thanks again!

 

[DOSlover]

Given you have only a Gig of RAM, you would do well to go with a 32 bit variant of Linux. Stay in that specification unless you can install 4GB or more of RAM.

Good luck and enjoy!