Bring it on!

That would be reuse, not recycle ;)

But that’s a nice suggestion

I assumed a x64. Debian (the distro mx linux is based on) offers multiarch support, so i just had to enable it by running:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 
sudo apt update

Then, to install 32-bit firefox, I first uninstalled it and then installed the 32-bit version:

sudo apt remove firefox-esr  
sudo apt install firefox-esr:i386

With the standard 64 bit version, the browser would struggle with just 2 or 3 tabs, and with the 32 bit version, she can use like 10 tabs without problems

Or I could recycle it

Could you really? E-waste recycling is a great lie made so that people don’t get remorse over throwing away their devices. Electronics are too complex, diverse and full of toxic stiff to be property recycled.

If anyone wants to dive more into this, there has been some projects where people from higher income countries put tracking devices inside e-waste before sending to “recycling”, to find out where they end up. Spoiler: in poorer countries, to either be scattered around, thrown into a landfill, or be scavenged by underpaid people without any protection equipment.

disable CPU hogs and file indexing etc.

Do you have some tips for that?

There are plenty of distros for very low end pcs, but they tend to require more tech skills to use. I have experience with a friend in a similar situation. I installed with mx linux for her and she is liking it. The performance is pretty reasonable and it comes with various tools that make it easier for people with less tech skills. The only extra thing I did was install the 32 bit version of firefox, because it makes a huge difference in low ram devices.

Never underestimate the network effect and how reluctant people are to move to another social network. The masses just follow the crowd, so every big account moving out from there helps take more users away.

So far, people are being pretty reasonable. Most are recommending mint, ubuntu or similars, and no one recommended arch to someone with basic linux/computing skills. I have to say I’m impressed. Restored my faith in the community.