RE: Digital Archaeology: Gateway M-1629
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I have a Vista-era laptop with a 32-bit processor. Unfortunately, no mainstream Linux distros support it anymore. Anyone looking for a cheap Linux machine nowadays needs to be sure it has a 64-bit processor unless they're already familiar with digging into the world of more obscure Debian releases or compiling their own. But 4 GB RAM and a 2 Ghz 64-bit is plenty for basic computing.
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The mainstream Debian release still supports 32-bit CPUs and Debian itself is one of the most well known distributions: https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/
There's also a Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) that still supports 32-bit: https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=308
There are probably others but those are likely the biggest/most well known. Of course, who knows how long these distributions will be around. I suspect not all that much longer. Looking for something with a 64-bit CPU is probably still good advice. Even beyond that, I would recommend something that supports more than 4 GB. A lot of older 64-bit machines, particularly laptops, don't. This laptop is a perfect example. While it has a 64-bit CPU the motherboard/chipset is limited to 4GB which negates much of the advantage of having a 64-bit CPU in the first place.
But for now, 32-bit Core Duo based machines with 4 GB are definitely still good enough for basic computing and you can get by with less.
Have you given Zorin OS a try?
I have not tried Zorin yet. However, like Mint, it is based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian so the capabilities and requirements are more or less the same. The differences come down to the default GUI and default applications included with the distribution.
Zorin uses Gnome as its default desktop (GUI) or the "lite" version uses XFCE. Typically I run Xubuntu which is Ubuntu with XFCE so it would look more or less the same as Zorin lite. More recently I have been using Mint with XFCE or Cinnamon desktops or if I want Linux on a 32-bit system I'll install Debian.
Because Zorin uses Ubuntu as its base, it also does not (at least the newest versions don't) support 32-bit CPUs.
Yes, you are right.
Zorin only supports 64-bit machines like the one I'm using now.
Sorry for not being much of a help, anyway.