[ale] Linux on 6GB Dell notebook?

[DJPfulio at jdpfu.com]

On 11/15/21 6:19 PM, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> It's pretty amazing the hardware ability $300 buys in a desktop device. Even a 3-4 year old cheap desktop is faster than a 5-7 laptop of the same price. Portable horsepower is expensive.

I never plan to buy a "new" laptop again after buying a "used" eBay special that was off-lease a few years ago.  I saved 40% off the "new" price because it had a tiny superficial flaw that I couldn't see, but only could feel.  It was 1 generation behind - Core i5-8250 w/ 8G of RAM and 1TB HDD, which I swapped out for a 500G Samsung SATA SSD.  1080p, HDMI, USBc and USB3 ports. It lacked a GigE NIC port, but $20-ish for a USB3 to GigE adapter (including 3 USB3 ports) solved that. The iGPU (intel) is fine for anything I need. At the time, it was my fastest system - faster than any desktop I had.  $305 shipped.

That laptop replaced a more expensive 13inch Chromebook with an i3 CPU, 1080 screen, and 4G of RAM. I loved that chromebook ... when it was running Linux (not ChromeOS), but it was always tight on RAM.

I'm a huge believer in getting a "fast enough" laptop with remote access into my LAN to access much faster desktops.  About a month ago, I built a Ryzen 5600G system (20K passmarks) for about $410 - reused storage, case, psu. Just bought new MB, CPU and RAM. I have to say, the AMD iGPU is really nice compared to both Intel and nVidia. I did need to start using a newer kernel than the distro OS provided to get the iGPU supported, but I'm running an OS from 2018 still, probably for another 18 months.  Personal issues. I have lots of those. ;)