No matter which Linux , however, I would say that you should take the same linux as the one of your servers, like that you will be in familiar environment.

Otherwise , personally, I would go with Debian.

The server has CentOS 7.9, but I was afraid that might be too stout for an older laptop? I originally bought it with Windows 7, so it's a good 10 years old. I don't expect to use it TOO much, though, other than for sandbox testing and to run backups.

A 10-year old laptop should have no trouble running CentOS 7 or 8. Might want to put an SSD in if it doesn't have one. I'd also opt for a distro that's similar to the one running on your server, so CentOS or Fedora maybe. It'll be a good opportunity to become more familiar with Linux server management. But rsync runs on all distros so it doesn't really matter all that much.

i think centos8 only supports 64 bit systems ... but it is end of life effectively at the end of the year anyway, so i wouldn't install it!

You can switch to CentOS Stream pretty easily though.

If this is just to run rsync, and you want something easy as Windows to use, you can try Linux Mint.

Windows, and the associated bloat, just bog down older machines, whereas Linux seems to be considerably less intensive.
I'd agree, that laptop should be fine for your purpose, and changing to an SSD will bring new life to the machine. I did use external hard drives (they are cheap) for backups.
I've been through this with an older machine this year and the only problem I had was getting a suitable SSD.

I use a Raspberry Pi (with an external hard drive) for backups, and I have a 13 year old laptop that I have retired from somewhat heavier use. Pretty feeble machines by current standards are more than enough.

You fo not need to install Apache unless you are going to use it as a development or test machine. All you really need is rsync, although I would suggest using rdiff-backup or something else that gives you differential backups. Do not forget to ensure a DB dump is done before you run the backup!

I do not think Centos would be a problem, but I would keep it lightweight: peferably do a server install with no GUI, or use something lightweight like LXDE. I would definitely not install KDE or Gnome on a machine that old.

@Dimittri, as easy to use as Windows? My family mostly need something a lot easier to use :) (not older daughter who is becoming and engineer, but younger one and wife do).

>>You can switch to CentOS Stream pretty easily though.

ah thanks robzilla, i didn't know that ... i've just looked it up and it seems pretty easy ... do you know of live servers on centos 8 that have converted over to CentOS Stream?

do you know of live servers on centos 8 that have converted over to CentOS Stream?

I know a few... of mine :-) It's fine so far, but I'll probably hop over to AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux in a while.

thanks, if i can switch over very simply for now, i'll worry about what to do in the medium term - and thanks for the tips, i like centos so both of those look interesting!