Should I replace Windows XP on my Mothers Low-End Lappy?

Question

My Mom recently got a old XP Lappy. One of those old clunkers that are shiet by todays standards, It runs incredibly slow and XP is incredibly buggy on it. Plus my Mom's a newbie at Computer. Should I keep XP or try replacing it with a Linux OS? Or would those be too complicated?

Answer 1

Your only chance of being able to use the Computer is to install a linux os. The old laptops don't have enough power to run the new programs.Many of them only 512mb of Ram. You can't even run a browser right with that amount of ram. I just checked on Chrome I'm using over 200 mb of Ram and I only have one page open.For just going online and looking at email or going to facebook it will be fine.Linux does run on a lot less power,so the laptop could run great. It's free so you aren't out any money.If she does a lot of different stuff with other programs it will be different and most people don't try and learn how to use it.If that's the case getting a new laptop would be the answer.

Answer 2

Installing Linux won't change much. Newer programs require a certain amount of cpu and memory, regardless of whether you are using Windows or Linux. You will find, however, find that the desktop is much more responsive when running linux. I have one of these old machines, and I get much better overall performance with Linux than Windows.

Answer 3

if it has 512mb ram, look at lxle and wattOS.



if 1gb ram, look at linux mint xfce and linux lite.



good tips:



--- install "preload".



--- change swappiness value to 10 or a bit less;

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq#What_is_swappiness_and_how_do_I_change_it.3F



--- use lighter programs, such as:

music - guayadeque or audacious

videos - gnome mplayer

similar to paint on Windows - pinta

word processing - abiword

spreadsheets - gnumeric

youtube without the web browser bloat - minitube

basic text editor - leafpad

terminal - lxterminal

task manager - lxtask

web browsing - midori (with iphone user agent selection option)

email - claws mail or sylpheed

software add/remove: synaptic package manager is better than using software center

picture manager - gthumb

disc burning - xfburn

picture viewer - ristretto or gpicview

psensor is generally a good temperature monitor

there are other alternatives.