A good Linux distribution for older computers?

Afriend asked me for a recommendation about a good Linux distribution. What he wrote was this:

".at home I'm a total Apple head. I have an old Toshiba laptop that I loaded Ubuntu on but its too old to keep up anymore. I also have a desktop HP that I bought about 7 years ago and recently Microsoft has decided to lock up Windows 10 for some reason. I'm done with them. How can I get a book disk that will load up Ubuntu as the OS and go from there? A related question would be: Do I need to have a hardwire keyboard and mouse to get this to work? Since wireless bluetooth stuff probably won't work unless there's associated drivers I'm speculating I need to get some basic USB gear. Thoughts?"

My reply:
I have Lubuntu 18.04 running on an older  Intel Core2 w/ 2 Gb RAM. It has wifi and ethernet drivers, pretty good graphics, and runs Ubuntu "lite" (Lubuntu). It just works. Bluetooth drivers are already on Lubunu and most Linux distros. I check out Distrowatch.com for the latest and greatest. Your choices are almost endless, for a small footprint, try Puppy and Damn Small Linux. I used PCLinuxOS for a while, I like the control panel they have. Download the ISO and burn it to a USB stick with YUMI, LiLi USB Creator, or WinToUSB. You can try them as a "Live" enviroment without installing and see if  you like the interface. If you  have any questions, feel  free to IM me. Peace.