this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Humm, I installed Windows 11 on a really old Dell laptop (clean install). I'm sure it was not HW supported but it installed fine. I may have had to click something like, " Yeah I know it doesn't meet the specs"; but otherwise fine.

No, I don't like Windows but it's what my partner needed at the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As long as it is 8th gen Intel or newer it is officially supported. It depends on what you mean by "really old." I have hardware from the early 2000s that runs Debian.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Finally got around to looking up the info on it.

It's a Dell Latitude D630 (model PP18L according to the label). CPU is: Intel Core 2 T7250, 2.00GHz, 800MHz, 2M L2 Cache, Dual Core Built: 27 MAR 2008 (actually newer than I thought) Last OS to have support from Dell was: Windows Vista 32/64 bit RAM is: 2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM

Per this page it doesn't meet the specs: Windows 11 requirements But that page also states:

you may not be able to install Windows 11

so it's more of a soft spec than an actual hard minimum.

I have systems from before 2000 that I'm sure would run x86 Linux (especially DSL Linux: [DamnSmallLinux.Org](https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ and such). Can't wait to browse using Lynx again :-)

edit: formatting

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can run a bunch of of things on that hardware. The limiting factor is the ram so if you can upgrade it there will be a massive improvement. Also look into getting a SSD.

I would go Debian with Firefox ESR and ublock origin. You can apply the Firefox privacy patches if you want.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I can't see investing upgrades into HW that old (I know I could, just doesn't seem like the best use of money in the long run).

Also, my partner's SW is only available for Windows and I don't feel like teaching them enough Linux to run Wine under it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well that hardware isn't going to run a supported version of Windows anyway.

2 GB of ram should be enough

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That was my original point: it is running Windows 11 right now. A bit slow, but it runs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Windows 11 requires 4 GB of memory and a newer CPU. There is no way that's officially supported by Microsoft.

However, somehow I think you know that. Just keep in mind it probably will have issues and updates may not apply. (No security patches potentially)