Re-Using old laptop [Solved]

[nunol]

Slitaz is good but not really a full size distro like Mint, it's closer to Puppy.

If you can't use Plop you are limited to CD size distros. Some utility distros have Plop in the boot menu, you could try one. I use Parted Magic that has Plop and other tools.

[excollier]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but now I have this old laptop running smoothly with Mint 12 lxde, is there any point in going further an trying Mint 13? Will it be safe to keep using Mint 12 after support ends? It's running so well now, I don't want to make it slower by upgrading to 13.

[passerby]

You won't receive security updates and such, but realistically speaking I doubt any harm will come from it.
Have you considered giving LMDE a try? As a semi-rolling distro you'd never need to reinstall yet you'd keep getting updates.

[excollier]

Image (LMDE) is dvd size and this old laptop only works with cd (won't boot from dvd or usb), so I'll leave it at Mint 12 lxde, job done. (I did get the stripped down Mint 13 cd image linked earlier in the thread)
Now to teach my mother about the basics of using a computer.....
Thanks for all the help and tips, I've learned a lot.

[excollier]

Well, I couldn't resist it, I had to install the stripped down Mint 13 Mate from cd. (Thanks to Gutknecht).
Seems to run ok, but I'm going to up the ram to it's 1GB max to speed it up a little. Only thing is Firefox won't play flash (youtube etc) but that's not a real problem, my mum won't be too interested in that. So finally, thanks one and all.