Advice on OS for low end slow laptop

[Cienja]

I have a Dell 1200 laptop:

Intel Celeron M 1.40GHz
1.24GB RAM
60GB HD
Windows XP Home SP3

Basically, I use this to write, Internet, IM, and that's about it. It's slow slow slow.

I need advice on whether to reinstall XP, try a Linux OS, or is it the processor and chipset that are the problem, and thus, OS doesn't matter.

Thanks in advance.

 

[lxskllr]

I run Ubuntu on lower specs than that. There's faster distros, but the trade off with features isn't worth it to me. Puppy is pretty good though, and very light.

I don't like XP, and I wouldn't recommend it. It's time to put that on the trash heap where it belongs. Ubuntu 10.04 runs just as fast as XP, and it's modern, and more secure. Puppy is even faster still.

 

[Paperlantern]

I run Ubuntu on lower specs than that. There's faster distros, but the trade off with features isn't worth it to me. Puppy is pretty good though, and very light.

I don't like XP, and I wouldn't recommend it. It's time to put that on the trash heap where it belongs. Ubuntu 10.04 runs just as fast as XP, and it's modern, and more secure. Puppy is even faster still.

That is way too much machine for Puppy. Like lx said, the trade off isnt worth it when you have that much to work with. Puppy is good on (and intended for) something in the neighborhood of 500 or 600MHz with ~256MB RAM or even a little less. It boots up to ~75MB of RAM out of the box, less with tweaking.

I just installed Mint 9 on a 1.4GHz Celeron with 1.00GB of RAM and a 20GB HDD and it flies.

I do disagree about XP going to the trash heap, it is still a (relatively) lightweight OS, and should run perfectly fine on a machine with those specs, though I cant argue the point of Ubuntu/Mint/Puppy being more secure than XP. But it probably would run just fine with a little maintenance, and would FLY with a full reinstall, there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[gsaldivar]

It's time to retire that ancient laptop and get a new one.

 

[Gooberlx2]

It's time to retire that ancient laptop and get a new one.

Meh, why? Ubuntu will run just fine on it and do exactly what he needs.

 

[Steltek]

Meh, why? Ubuntu will run just fine on it and do exactly what he needs.

+1

 

[Cienja]

Yeah, I don't do much with it. I think I'll try Ubuntu. Something new

Thanks for the input.

 

[0roo0roo]

Well optimized winxp sp3 runs fine on an old centrino/pentium m.
If it drags, it is time to reinstall, and be more careful what software crap you install.
Linux isn't going to work magic, your cpu is slow, perhaps your drive is slow as well. The slow laptops I have fixed up for relatives do chrome and firefox quite well, but I upgraded their harddrives, and that made the biggest difference if their ram was already enough, really old laptops have really slow harddrives. Linux won't magically fix that. If you go flash heavy, that will rape the processor, no way around it. It isn't xp that is slowing you down.

 

[spikespiegal]

Good luck getting Ubuntu to run on some legacy hardware like the 845Gs. XP autodetects and runs this stuff fine.

Sorry...I get a kick out of it when the Linux guys tell you to upgrade your hardware to run the OS when legacy Windows OS's run fine.

 

[lxskllr]

Sorry...I get a kick out of it when the Linux guys tell you to upgrade your hardware to run the OS when legacy Windows OS's run fine.

Modern Linux has more features, and the security is orders of magnitude better than XP. It's worth it for no other reason than not needing A/V scanning everything in the background. With Linux, you get Win7 features with XP overhead. It isn't for everyone, but it's certainly worth a try. All it costs is the time to download and install it.

 

[jae]

Linux Mint 9.. I liked the Fluxbox Desktop flavor, but regular Mint 9 should perform a tad bit faster than XP.. only thing that won't be as good as XP is flash.

 

[dennilfloss]

PCLinuxOS doesn't look as fancy as Mint but it likes more hardware.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos

http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1pYqzb6zU&NR=1

I run its TinyMe variant and an old IBM laptop with a Celeron 600 processor and 256MB of RAM.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Ubuntu NB edition

 

[Nothinman]

Good luck getting Ubuntu to run on some legacy hardware like the 845Gs. XP autodetects and runs this stuff fine.

Sorry...I get a kick out of it when the Linux guys tell you to upgrade your hardware to run the OS when legacy Windows OS's run fine.

With "legacy Windows" being the key word there. XP is almost EOL, finally, while Linux distributions are still maintained and upgradeable for free. You only need more memory if you run a full Gnome or KDE desktop, other options run just fine. I've been running Debian sid at home with Enlightenment on the same machine for like 7 years now and it still runs exactly the same as it did back then and I'm completely up to date. That's just not possible with Windows.

 

[sathyan]

Ubuntu NB edition

How is Ubuntu NB edition different from regular Ubuntu? On the website, it says optimized for smaller screens which certainly applies for a netbook but perhaps not a laptop. Are there other differences of note? Does the NB edition run faster?

 

[lxskllr]

How is Ubuntu NB edition different from regular Ubuntu? On the website, it says optimized for smaller screens which certainly applies for a netbook but perhaps not a laptop. Are there other differences of note? Does the NB edition run faster?

I don't think so. It's pretty much interface tweaks to make the most of netbooks physical resources.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Xubuntu is nice. Supposedly a lighter footprint than Ubuntu proper. I use it on a similar machine (1.6GHz P4-M / 1GB) and it's a pretty darn good user experience, overall.

 

[Compman55]

Reinstall and patch to SP3 without hooking it to the internet. Once you get SP3, do NOT install internet explorer 7 or 8. Just leave the old crappy browser and delete the shortcuts. Download firefox or safari or chrome and it will be much faster. Installing a newer version of IE seems to really lag windows XP. Also stay away from bloated printer drivers. Our HP all in one really bogs older systems down at work.

AVG2011 also lags the system now. Avira doesn't seem to.

 

[repoman0]

I run Windows 7 on a similar Thinkpad T43. 1.73GHz P-M, 1GB RAM.. plenty fast most of the time. It slows down a little when I try to use MATLAB r2010b on it while Firefox is also open.

 

[Arkaign]

It wouldn't be worth dumping a bunch of $$ into, but if you come across a really cheap ~160gb or so 7200rpm notebook ide drive, that would boost performance considerably. Those old 40-60gb 4200 and 5200rpm drives are a real drag, and that's probably whats in there.

 

[bobal]

Hi, you've got a small hard drive, you might want to consider buying an external drive. and If you create and delete a lot of documents you might want to consider doing a system defrag. Even better you may want to try a fully automatic defragger as you don't have much space. As well as this, I always find cleaning the dust from your laptops cooling fans also makes a difference.

 

[Munky]

I run XP on a 1.6GHz P4 with 256MB RAM, so yours will handle it just fine. Don't forget XP was designed with HW requirements from 2001.

 

[lxskllr]

I run XP on a 1.6GHz P4 with 256MB RAM, so yours will handle it just fine. Don't forget XP was designed with HW requirements from 2001.

The only caveat to that is the modern web. That's bloated exponentially since 2001. Careful selection of applications should do well enough on the desktop.

 

[Nothinman]

I run XP on a 1.6GHz P4 with 256MB RAM, so yours will handle it just fine. Don't forget XP was designed with HW requirements from 2001.

XP is also almost EOL and should only be considered as a last resort.

 

[Triodos]

I have a Dell 1200 laptop:

Intel Celeron M 1.40GHz
1.24GB RAM
60GB HD
Windows XP Home SP3

Basically, I use this to write, Internet, IM, and that's about it. It's slow slow slow.

I need advice on whether to reinstall XP, try a Linux OS, or is it the processor and chipset that are the problem, and thus, OS doesn't matter.

Thanks in advance.

It should not be slow. Just reformat the hard disk and reinstall win XP. Use MS-Office 2003 and a light-weight antivirus. You'll be fine with your system.