I've given a fair few old laptops (5 to 10 yrs old) a new lease of life by installing various Linux flavours on them (played around a lot with Ubuntu Studio)
Most work 'straight out of the box', occasionally you may need a little nudge with different drivers for network or GFX, but there are many forums out there with the perfect answer . . because they've already overcome whatever slight issue you have.
I'm almost 72, and if I can do it . . . .
