I want to install Puppy Linux on an old laptop that is otherwise useless. Will uninstalling Windows make it faster?

Asked by yuengling1829 (27

) December 28th, 2012

It’s an old Dell with 256.0 MB RAM and it’s been sitting around unused for a few years. I’m getting ready to install Linux, (I’m not really sure what I’m doing but I’m figuring it out. So far I’ve just been booting Linux from a disk, and it’s much faster than windows.) My question is this: if I get rid of Windows completely, will it make the computer faster, or will it not effect the speed when Linux is running? I really have no need for Windows on this machine…

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7 Answers

Did you actually install it to the hard drive or are you running it from a CD/DVD?

jrpowell (40562

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I’m running it from a CD now.

yuengling1829 (27

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It will be significantly faster if you nuke windows and install it on the hard drive.

jrpowell (40562

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Then that’s what I’ll do. Thanks!

yuengling1829 (27

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+1 for puppy linux on old laptop. It is very compact and its hardware discovery is better than a lot of other distributions.
You don’t actually have to do anything to the windows installation if you pick a puppy installation that formats the hard drive.

dabbler (18896

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Installing it will make it faster (at least to start up, I’m not sure if running will be faster since everything is in your RAM from CD), but you do not need to uninstall Windows for that. Having it installed will not affect performance, unless you run out of hard drive space.

(Of course, if you don’t mind uninstalling, just do it :)

Vincentt (8094

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