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Old 06-30-2010, 10:56 PM   #1
cokie69
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Registered: May 2010
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Fastest "switch on -to- ready to use" system for old laptops?


I was wondering if in this forum someone could show me the way...

I have an old laptop (Compaq Armada M700... a PIII with 576Mb RAM!!!) which I seldomly use. I have always "wished" I could use this old (and slow and crippled) laptop to do something basic, very basic: to connect to the Internet, browse my email, maybe download and read a PDF, watch some stupid Youtube videos (-not in HD, of course I know!)... and that's about it (no gaming, no Office, no Photoshoping, no anything else!). But I wanted to do that in style: fast and without hazzle -as 'in having to navigate thru somehow obscure prompt commands or similar!'.

I've tried installing a bare TinyXP... but yet it takes forever to start up, load... and be ready to navigate. I've also looked at the Linux world -albeit I am clueless on this OS- and I tried installing different flavours of Ubuntu and others. Unfortunately results weren't much better than with TinyXP -in regards of starting up and responding to user interaction in a reasonably and timely manner. Lately I've hear about the (in)famous Chrome or Chromium or whatever... but it seems it's not going to be ready for a while just yet and it won't necessarely work on such old laptops like mine.

Ah!... it HAS to be GUI-based... no command prompts!.

So...

Any suggestions on how can I rescue my old laptop to use it as explained above keeping in mind the hardware limitations I have?.

Any help would be certainly appreciated. I don't mind which OS to use providing I can EASILY install it in that laptop and that I can work with it within a couple of minutes of switching it on (max!)... anything else is of no use since I know I'd end up not turning it on ever.

Thanks a lot...
...and plz be considerated: albeit I'm a medium-advanced Windows' user... I'm no expert,... and I know nothing about LINUX so put your answers in plain and direct language.
 
Old 06-30-2010, 11:04 PM   #2
paulsm4
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Registered: Mar 2004
Distribution: SusE 8.2
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Puppy Linux is certainly a contender:

http://www.puppylinux.org/

SimplyMepis has been good, and it isn't an overloaded resource-hog. And very, very easy:

http://www.simplymepis.org/

I don't have any direct experience, but you might also want to look at "Ubuntu Netbook Remix":

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR

'Hope that helps .. PSM

Last edited by paulsm4; 06-30-2010 at 11:06 PM.
 
Old 06-30-2010, 11:06 PM   #3
cokie69
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Registered: May 2010
Posts: 2

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wooww... that's speed paulsm4!... thanks a lot for your prompt response.
 
  


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