What browser for a athlon xp 2000+/128mb ram computer?

[slicksilver]

This is a very old PC being used by a telephone operator. The PC still works fine and she does not have a problem with it. She does her daily tasks in excel and word with no issues.

Fast forward to yesterday. Got her a USB wireless adaptor to connect to the internet which connected well. IE version installed is 6 and OS is WinXP. IE was slow so I decided to down Firefox and install it. The moment I opened it the PC was literally on life support systems. A page or tab took more than a minute to open. It took few minutes to close it. I spent like 20 minutes trying to uninstall the damn thing. Now its back to its old state and is fine. OP is happy again.

Now, what is the most lightest browser in the market? The only task she needs to do is use the web interface of gmail.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[shimpster]

Lightweight Browsers

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-web-browser-lightweight.htm

 

[lxskllr]

If it's just for email, I'd suggest Thunderbird. You get the added benefit of not needing net access to view old mail.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Firefox is actually now very CPU-heavy, and also somewhat memory-heavy.

A friend had me upgrade his Firefox, from 3.x, to newer versions, and the newer versions load his web sites much slower.

 

[slicksilver]

If it's just for email, I'd suggest Thunderbird. You get the added benefit of not needing net access to view old mail.

She needs to use the calendar as well.

 

[lxskllr]

I've used Midori, and it's a nice browser, but I've never used it with such slim ram resources.

 

[themillak]

thunderbird has a google calendar plugin iirc.

i've used chromium and epiphany on linux for lighter-weight browsers (and on a PIII maxed out to 512 mb ram) and they still use up to 50mb per page opened. if you can find the specs for the computer anywhere you might be able to find suitably old ram of small enough sizes to make it work better. if there's 1x128mb stick now and an open slot you may be able to find another stick somewhere. if all the slots are full you should check documentation first to see if you even can upgrade.

 

[JimmiG]

With just 128MB of RAM, you're going to have to turn off flash and any other plugins even if using a lightweight browser - just use JPG images and text.

That's just not enough RAM for anythig. Even smartphones come with at least four times as much RAM these days.

 

[Rottie]

upgrade more memory she will be more happier!

 

[CuriousMike]

The 128MB of RAM is OK for Windows 3.1

 

[AFurryReptile]

Why not just buy a cheap used computer off of Craigslist for $25? I mean, really, that computer you're using has got to be 15 years old....

It doesn't matter how "light" your browser is. Web pages these days are so bloated that you're going to have a hard time running ANYTHING on that computer.

 

[gmaster456]

Have her get some more RAM or have her get a cheap off lease system if it's financially feasible. My MP3 player has more memory than that thing. your lucky getting the latest browsers running smoothly with 512mb, let alone 128 even the lighter browsers listed would have a hard time.

 

[0roo0roo]

Seriously a windows update would cripple that machine, making her unlikely to bother or hold off...

An off lease dell core 2 can be had for ~100 dollars on ebay, computing power a dozen times faster, just how poor is she? If that old harddrive goes down and takes her documents with it, how will she be better off...

She's not saving money, the free IT support time required to make that thing work is many times more than it is worth, and would easily buy her a new machine to begin with.

 

[Maximilian]

128mb was inadequate 10 years ago, things havent changed since then. Get more memory :thumbsup:

 

[slicksilver]

Cant get more than 256MB on the mobo. The mobo brand is some Kobian

 

[slicksilver]

Seriously a windows update would cripple that machine, making her unlikely to bother or hold off...

An off lease dell core 2 can be had for ~100 dollars on ebay, computing power a dozen times faster, just how poor is she? If that old harddrive goes down and takes her documents with it, how will she be better off...

She's not saving money, the free IT support time required to make that thing work is many times more than it is worth, and would easily buy her a new machine to begin with.

She's not poor as such. She basically has no reason to upgrade. Shes happy with her PC so why upgrade. She backs up her office files on two thumb drives so shes good with that. Infact shes does backup twice a day

 

[0roo0roo]

Why upgrade? So she can maybe try newer things, with that old machine it makes sure she can't, xp is aging out ..and it wastes your time to boot.

 

[slicksilver]

Why upgrade? So she can maybe try newer things, with that old machine it makes sure she can't, xp is aging out ..and it wastes your time to boot.

I worded it wrong...She says why upgrade is what I meant. I totally agree that she should upgrade.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've got an A64 S939 4000+ (2.4Ghz single-core) system, with 2x1GB DDR and a discrete video card, in my FS thread. I would sell it for $60 shipped if you want.

That would certainly be a step up for her, and you could install a 64-bit OS onto it if you wanted to.

 

[MrDuma]

Midori or something like that if i remember well. was using it on an old PC and i remember i was able to watch youtube videos and all that stuff

 

[EagleKeeper]

With XP, you want at least 256 if not 512 RAM. Chrome works good on my 1G lappy from '03 using XP.

However, the cost of getting the RAM; you may be better off getting a used or new system for a couple of bills.

 

[Unum]

That old PC just isn't good enough for even regular web browsing nowadays. Well maybe if you disable all pics and scripts and maybe some other elements...but what's the point? Just get a new one for a few bucks, and save yourself from a ton of stress.

__________________
current project: Uunisepät | Uunisepät

 

[boochi]

Buy some used RAM on ebay. Look up the motherboard and get the maximum amount it will support. My guess for something that old is going to be 512MB or if you are lucky 1GB.

 

[Harvey]

Buy some used RAM on ebay. Look up the motherboard and get the maximum amount it will support. My guess for something that old is going to be 512MB or if you are lucky 1GB.

This, except that, if the motherboard uses DDR or DDR2 RAM, you may be able to bump it up to 4 GB. Windows XP (32 bit version) can "see" a maximum of a little over 3 GB, but if the motherboard uses onboard video, it will use the added RAM above 3 GB for the video, rather than taking it from the RAM available for running programs.

When you check the specs for the motherboard, you can probably ignore specs that state a lower limit on the amount of RAM the system can use. Many such specs were written when sticks of the RAM type with larger capacity were not available. I can't guarantee this, but it has worked for me on several machines.

If the motherboard uses SD RAM, this RAM form is very expensive because it's not the current volume seller so, unless you can find some at a reasonable price, it may cost more to add enough RAM than it.

In any case, bumping the RAM up to at least 1 GB (2 GB preferred) will vastly improve the performance of the system, and the only question is whether you can get it at a reasonable price.

 

[sm625]

Get firefox 3.6.28 from here:

http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php

They are still updating it. I guess it is some kind of corporate stable version so it gets support but not the bloat. I jsut realized the firefox my gf was using daily for the past year was still firefox 3.5.9. So I know that one runs fine, and is fast. 3.6.28 should be about the same.