I wish to try out Ubuntu,the Mint Cinnamon version to be precise on an older laptop after my Bro showed me it running on one of his laptops.

I understand I can install it within Windows to try it out but to be honest I may go for a full install as there is nothing on this laptop that I can't afford to lose.

The main use of this laptop is play music/movies,download files and browsing.Is this the best version to use for this?

Do I need AV/Malware protection?

Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

*Update*

I made a bootable USB stick to try it out. I'm pretty impressed. The laptop doesn't seem to struggle as it did with Windows.

Ubuuntu should have a USB Key/DVD Live Version,

You can make a DVD or USB Stick and it will boot the entire O/S into a workable state without having to install anything.

I think that's where I am now. I made a bootable USB stick with PowerISO and added the Ubuntu ISO.It just seems to boot and work with no installing or anything. On the desktop is a 'install Ubuntu now' icon,I assume if I use that it will install to the HD and boot from that?

Yep. Try it out and then install from there if you want to make it permanent.
They're fun to experiment with.

I use the Live USB as an Alternate O/S if I need to access HDDs in Offline Modes, or if a HDD Dies, While Waitin' for replacement I can boot Ubuuntu Live USB and Still browse the web and check emails. Since passwords arent saved or anything from each session, my stuff is safe.

Thanks guys

If I do a full install is it likely that I can get full driver support for an older laptop?

Some years ago I ran Ubuntu (or maybe Xubuntu) on a Dell laptop that was old at that time. Drivers to make things work were either included, or in the case of the wireless, downloadable, IIRC.

I'm just installing it on the laptop so fingers crossed. So far it looks good. I particularly like the terminal.Having started my computing career with DOS it's nice to 'type' commands again,although I know that you don't have to.

I'm struggling to find a 'device manager' to see if all the hardware is recognised. I have found 'device drivers' in the system settings but running that just gives me a 'No proprietary drivers are in use' whatever that means. It all seems to work though.

*Wow,it even installed the 4-in-1 card reader drivers which Windows has never done.I've always had to hunt them down in the past for 64 bit versions. Also,it's nice to have Firefox and VLC built in.

Hey Chucky, there are AV programs for Linux too. However, their primarily aim is to check for Windows viruses. There are only very few viruses for Linux, which is why you usually won't need an AV program for Linux.

Linux handles driver management a little different to Windows. Most drivers are already included in the kernel, which is why you don't need to install separate drivers anymore. They are also usually all open source (which means you can check the source code that is openly available). Contrary to open source there are proprietary drivers, which are closed source, licensed software. For example, AMD and nVidia offer proprietary drivers for their graphic cards. The proprietary graphic cards driver may offer better support/performance, which is why they are sometimes preferred to the open source drivers already included in the kernel.

Thanks Ojokoltsa,I did research the need for A/V and I came to that same conclusion.

As for the drivers,I think I understand now. I notice that ATI offer 64 bit drivers for Linux x86_64 but when I click on the link to download them it crashes Firefox.I tried to download them on another PC running Win 7 but the same happened.Not sure what's going on there.I'll look into it but to be honest I'm quite happy with it as it is.

If you run a system with an AMD card and it's not one of the most recent models, you have a pretty good chance that it is fully supported by the open source driver (which is called radeon; the closed source, proprietary one is called Catalyst or fglrx). It's usually said that the proprietary Catalyst driver has better 3D support. However, in my experience, the open source radeon driver 3D support is pretty good already. I use the open source driver on my little Lenovo Edge E145 laptop because I found it the most trouble-free and comfortable driver to use and I'm even playing games on that machine. Works like a charm!

As for the driver installation, I wouldn't recommend downloading and installing the driver from the web unless you absolutely have to (and know what you are doing). Instead, use the package manager for that. Not only in Ubuntu but in almost all Linux distributions software is handled and installed by a so called package manager, which is a little similar maybe to the Windows software center, only way larger and complex I'd say.

Here's some information on that subject:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

I'm not a Ubuntu user myself. But if you want to try out the proprietary AMD driver, maybe this is helpful for you:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD

And here you may find some additional information concerning the open radeon driver:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Thanks once again.Yes,this laptop is over 6 years old.I'm not too concerned about 3D performance,I'm more interested in its performance in video playback etc as this machine is used as a media centre connected to my TV.

I'll check through those links too

I'm now trying out Zorin OS,it's very nice.

I also tried Puppy Linux,a little basic looking but just shows what you can do with a small footprint. Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” Cinnamon was a 1.3 gig ISO,Puppy is just 160 MB.

I also tried Ubuntu but didn't like it too much.

If I wasn't a gamer I would ditch Windows altogether.Out of the 120+ games I have on Steam,only around 30 run in Linux.Some of those I play a lot but there are many I play that are Windows only.Ah well...

Well,after many weeks of trying various things this is the conclusion I have come to.

If you have an older laptop (or PC) that can no longer perform adequately in Windows then just rejuvenate it with Linux

My old Acer Aspire would not play movie files or play YouTube videos at any resolution in any O/S (XP,Vista or 7) smoothly and this is what I wanted to use it for.It's connected to my TV solely for that purpose.

Now it's running Zorin OS and I'm using SM Player having ditched VLC as it's no longer as good as it used to be.SM Player has an in-built YouTube viewer which plays at 1080 full screen without problems. Try that via Firefox and it's a stuttering mess.

As for movies,well I have a 10 gig one I use to check performance and this it plays faultlessly.

And the best thing of course is that Linux is free,it can look like Windows if you want and I found it easy to use.

Plus I didn't have to buy a new laptop to do what I wanted.

Chucky is a happy man

Excellent! Feels new again doesn't it?

Indeed it does. I have just been helping my Brother out tonight showing him how to put Zorin onto 3 old laptops he has that were destined for the scrap-heap.

Is there some sort of conspiracy between M$ and hardware manufacturers?

Hey Chucky, good to read that things worked out great for you.