I recently revived an old laptop with an Intel i3, 4 GB RAM, and a standard disk drive by installing Debian. The motivation was simple: Windows had become unbearably slow on this machine, and I wanted to see how a modern Linux distribution would perform on limited hardware.
From Windows to Xubuntu—and Beyond
Initially, I replaced Windows with Xubuntu. The experience did improve, but not enough for my son to actually start using the laptop. After checking the hardware, I found that upgrading the RAM to 8 GB and replacing the hard drive with an SSD would cost under PKR 10,000. That seemed reasonable.
Around the same time, I remembered a comment I had read somewhere: Debian tends to perform better on limited hardware. With that in mind, I decided to try Debian.
First Impressions of Debian
The boot time on this old machine is not great, but it is acceptable—at least to me. In practice, if you do not shut the laptop down and instead just close the lid, resume time is fairly quick.
Initially, I ran into an issue where the system would hang on the lid close. A quick Google search led me to a simple configuration change, and after that, the problem was resolved.
Despite this, my son still does not use the laptop. To be fair, his primary machine is a desktop with a 4K screen and significantly better specifications, so his reluctance is understandable.
Realistic Workloads on Old Hardware
My workload on this laptop was not computationally intensive. Most of the time, I was simply following instructions from video tutorials. One of the videos suggested running Python inside a devcontainer, which I deliberately avoided—I am fairly certain that would have pushed this system beyond its limits.
That said, for light development tasks, browsing, and instructional work, the experience has been manageable so far.
Linux Has Saved Me Before
This is not the first time Linux has saved me.
- University days: During a formal methods course, we needed to use BToolkit, which only ran on Linux. The university had only 20 BToolkit licenses for over 100 students. My friends and I installed Linux at home, completed the assignments there, and submitted them without any issues.
- An aging desktop: At one point, my desktop simply refused to install Windows (I no longer remember the exact reason). Ubuntu installed without complaint and kept that machine running for another 4–5 years. It had just 3 GB RAM and a consumer-grade Xeon processor.
- An old Dell laptop: The third time, I did not even bother trying Windows. I installed Ubuntu directly, and that laptop lasted around four more years until I eventually switched to a Mac.
Is It Worth It?
Today, I have other machines for more demanding tasks. This experiment was mainly about seeing how performant newer Linux versions are on old hardware. So far, the experience has been acceptable.
I also checked prices from various used laptop sellers; most decent options start around PKR 45,000 or more. At that point, it may actually make more sense to buy a new entry-level i3 machine, install Linux, and comfortably use it for the next five years, but it costs double the old one.
As always, do your own research—but if you have old hardware lying around, Debian is absolutely worth a try.