The first thing I want to make clear is that my intention here is not to
attack Trisquel, the Trisquel community, or fully free distros in general. I
speak as a member of this community, committed to the cause of software
freedom, and sharing my experiences with Trisquel in the hopes that this will
be helpful.
The laptop you describe sounds very similar to the laptop I'm running. 1GB
RAM, 1.6GB Atom processor (click on my username to see ful specs of both my
laptops), originally sold with XP. Trisquel 6 with Fallback worked well on
that laptop when I first installed it, but I have been having hanging and
freezing problems for years, which were only solved when I switched to
Enlightenment. I just installed Mini today, and it's running well so far,
although there are a few issues, especially with Midori (fullscreen behaves
weirdly, no WebRTC support etc).
Obviously the age of the computer is not the only variable in performance.
Desktops often have higher specs than laptops sold the same year, and there
has been a huge increase in the range of specs being sold at any given time,
with cheaper computers having lower specs. Clearly its not only RAM size and
processor speed that affect the performance of graphical desktops either.
There are also specs like cache size and speed, the size and speed of
processors/ RAM in graphics chipsets and how well the free code driver
supports them, frontside bus speed, hard drive seek time etc etc.
My point is that an OS that will support the oldest, least powerful PC will
also support any PC that is newer or more powerful. If we want to make fully
free software a real possibility for the maximum number of users, surely this
is what we should be aiming for? Calling the PC I have a "potato" is funny,
but not particularly helpful. Imagine I was a newcomer here, with no ability
to afford any other hardware, seeking advice on how to run a fully free OS.
Supporting me to achieve that would be a win for software freedom.
Patronising me so I go looking for a more user-friendly distro and more
welcoming community, even if that distro includes non-free components, would
be a loss. Just think about it.
