Other Repalace xp with lite software

The story is that i have an oldish dell inspiron laptop in the house with a celeron m processor and 512 mb ram.its is currently running xp.but this takes an age to boot. I am looking for a lite alternative.It will only be used for basic tasks like browsing the net maybe itunes at most

I have never used linux but i am open to all suggestions
thanks

 

You'd see a lot of benefit from formatting your hard drive and reinstalling XP. Linux (in its various guises) is pretty good too, but it's probably worth trying to get windows working first.

 

The problem was though it wasnt fast at basic tasks even when new

 

XP usually start slowing down every 3 month or so, depending on usage.
A re-install will make it go nice and fast.

If you want a different OS, you have Windows 2000. However Windows 20000, which actually is XP-lite (well XP (release in 2001) is really Windows 2000 (released in end 1999) with minor improvements here and there, new help document, much faster start-up and a theme).
The problem with Windows 2000 is it's very slow boot time. But the rest is fast and very snappy. XP drivers will/should work for Windows 2000 as it virtually identical OS.

Third option is Linux. I, like many, recommend Ubuntu distribution of Linux. Why? Because the install process is similar to Windows Vista/7 with it's GUI layout, and everything is pre-configured for you as well, so that when you start it, you go directly to Gnome xWindows (the graphical interface of Linux (kinda like what Windows <= 3.1x was with DOS).
And the distribution comes with many drivers built-in, and programs to make your life easier.. As normally Linux by itself, is kinda a pain to install compared to other OS's. Ubuntu is free, of course.

 

Have you thought about making a cut down copy of xp using a program called n-lite, I've used it before to create discs with all the junk taken out. The speed improvement is amazing boot times will be down to under 30 seconds and if you get it right you'll end up with about 12 processes running compared with about 24-27 on a normal XP installation.

 

cool ill look into both of these,i mainly want to use this for fast boot times like a note book, Is this the software they use?

 

If you're looking at linux, mint is worth using, it's lighter that ubuntu aswell, have a look what type of ram it's got in it an upgrade wouldn't do any harm. I've got some old stuff laying around that you can have if it's the same stuff.

 

Ok so i have looked into all the suggestions and a stripped down of xp is looking good,Although linux is also.when i was researching i found one called linux notebook remix.Whats this like?

 

That'll be a cut down ubuntu...lol

 

Is it any good? i found out that it is using ddr2400 mhz so-dims

 

I've never used it to be honest, I wont go near net books . As for the ram I think I might have some of that, I'll have a look tomorrow. How many ram slots has it got?

 

I only have two slots so unless you have two 512 mb dims i think im outta luck

 

Just had a quick look , found 4 X 256 MB I'm sure there's some 512's and maybe some 1gb . I'll have a good hunt around tomorrow, I think I need to sort out the old parts boxes, got loads of old stuff in there.

 

Thanks very much

 

You could still throw a 256 in the spare slot....if you think about it thats still a 50% increase...lol

 

i cant i have both filled with 256 mb

 

More memory won't help after 512MB in XP, unless you game or run big programs, as everything is thrown to the page file as soon as possible.

 

Oh.so there would be no need,would 2000 or linux do this as well?

 

I can't comment on Linux memory management as I don't know how it works. Knowing that Linux can run virtually anywhere, it perhaps, most, likely a more adaptable management. But I am only guessing.

Windows XP and older all use the same memory management approach... Back in days, memory was uber expensive and small quantity so the approach is to store everything onto page file, so that you have memory to run programs. The CPU can only execute instruction that are in the main memory. So, Microsoft approach is perfectly fine, especially that before the days we reach 512MB of RAM (considering that you had the latest version of your software and OS), even a simple task like surfing the web was critical for a web browser to consume minimal amount of RAM, else few could do anything else with the system. Remember when people were going down as disabling services to save every few kilo-bytes of system memory. Today, all this is not needed, as most people have 2GB+ of RAM which is enough (of course I am not talking about exceptions, I know they are some, like that gamer that has only1 GB of RAM and wants to play Crysis...obviously I am aware)

 

The disadvantages of getting into pc later, thanks for clearing that up for me