What should I do witht my laptop? (College Student)

[darkgiant]

Hey Guys,

So I have another question regarding my laptop, I currently have an ASUS K52F laptop that I have been using for three years, and have treated it like my baby to this day! Full specs (http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220964)

Of course, from the specs, you can see that it is a Intel Pentium processor, but my main intentions are for watching movies/videos, word processing, emails and such. I also am in college as a computer science major, and of course would rely on coding on this laptop (I will be taking a coding course once my quarter starts, it starts in one day!).

My current concerns is, I have Windows 7 loaded onto the laptop, it is kind of bogging down now (I should reinstall) but I was wondering if I should install Linux, just to prolong the performance of the hardware. I am very familiar with every single distro out there! (I have experimented with my parent's old T60 laptop) so I am not afraid of any environment, but I don't know which distro would work best with my hardware, as this is a unique Intel HD based setup. If you guys have a recommendation on which linux distro, and why I should use it (making sure it meets my needs) would be awesome! Or of course, if you think I should continue using Windows 7 on this laptop (because of hardware reasons), that is acceptable too!

Another question, my battery life is insanely horrible now (barely hit 20+ minutes unplugged), so I know I need to buy a new battery, do you guys have an recommendation essentially? For some Lenovo Thinkpads, you can buy those extension packs, do such things exist? Would it ever be possible to achieve ~4+ hours of battery life on this laptop? I am willing to spend extra on the battery!

Also, I have built my own desktop PC that I have in my dorm, so that compensates for issues in software/programs that would require more juice.

Thanks once again!

Happy New Years!

 

[someone755]

About linux, definitely! Or at least dual boot, if you need a specific Windows-only program.
My 2006 laptop runs the best on Debian Wheezy, and Lubuntu lags like hell (Intel T5500 plus GMA950 graphics). So I recommend Debian (All linux distros I've seen run great with Intel GPUs.)

About the battery, no clue. Your best bet is to search for it in a store (newegg etc.), and if they have the expansion, great, if not, buy a battery (or two, so you can change it).

 

[darkgiant]

Thanks for your quick response! I will make sure to look into Debian. I guess another question would be in terms of support (for example, Ubuntu) a distro that has a high support, where maybe a solid popularity of forums or maybe articles on problems. I just want to make sure, as a college student, I don't spend more time fixing up my laptop than doing work on it!

 

[someone755]

Ubuntu's LTS releases have the most info online, but, in general, Ubuntu is based off of debian, so only rarely are things any different.

If you don't mind the performance hit from Ubuntu and are okay with some lag, Ubuntu will work for you.
Every other distribution, I haven't explored so I can't give you any tips... Though I hear arch is nice...