What is the lightest OS for old computers ?
I have a quite old laptop with Pentium M 1.5 Ghz and 512 mb ram (shared for graphics, so 480 really).
Currently it has Windows XP, but it's really slow, to the point it can't be used. I'd only need to browse the internet.
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>I'd only need to browse the internet.
It's not just the OS, it's the browser. A single tab will use from 50 to 300MB. You don't have enough RAM for the modern internet.
If you must, try a light linux distro such as Slax.
Linux light.
bullshit
don't listen to him op
you can run firefox with that much ram
open about:memory if you don't believe me
ubuntu.com
just pay attention to how you partition your hdd
sudo apt install tlp xinit i3
echo exec i3 >> ~/.xinitrc
startx
xubuntu
Does Puppy Linux still exist? If so, that. Never seen an up to date Linux distribution that's so light on system resources before and ever again.
Throw it away.
Your life is better not spent tweaking shit.
yes, puppy is still around.
OP, you could run DSL (damn small linux) from a USB or CD
All you need is swap broheim
Install Gentoo
I was using a very old ThinkPad as my main machine for a while and even with a fairly lightweight Linux distro I found that 640MB RAM wasn't enough for internet browsing. The main issue was that I'd occasionally venture to a website with a lot of images and all of my RAM would instantly be used as it tried to load, the hard drive would start singing for swapping, and the entire system would become unresponsive because that's what happens when you run out of RAM and it's trying to do everything it can to still function while relying on a slow ass laptop HDD to substitute as RAM.
I upgraded that machine to 1GB and it *significantly* reduced the amount of "out of RAM" issues I'd run across while browsing. It still happened on occasion but it was more like once a week rather than multiple times per day. I'd really consider 1GB an absolute minimum for browsing nowadays.
>I'd only need to browse the internet.
Buy a new computer then. Ancient shit is not fast enough for the age of "webpages being full-fledged html5/memescript applications".
You CAN run Firefox and Chrome just fine, but unless you're opening Richard Stallman's website, you're fucked. Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, whatever normie shit you browse has tons of images and tons of javascript.
Open up your task manager, see how much RAM is used by a single tab.
Slitaz
You'd be surprised. I was basically browsing the internet all day every day on my ThinkPad from 2002 until I finally got a new machine last year. A little patience goes a long way. Maybe a lot of patience. Still, it's doable.
Also uMatrix exists now so you can at least control everything and only load what you actually want to load.
Upgrade the ram.
1gb or just a 512mb stick for a pentium M machine is 10$ or less
Even my R30 with a pentium 3 has 1gb of ram
>not browsing the internet with Lynx
Why are you even on Sup Forums?
Use the stallman method, wget websites
A lot of good advice here. Puppy definitely is the lightest you can get if you want a graphical browser like firefox (or better, GNU IceCat), which adding uMatrix and controlling what loads from websites you reduce the load.
You can also go for a lighter browser like dwb which takes times to adjust but is fast, or use a text based browser like lynx which is the fastest you can go.
If you have the skill, you can install a source based distro to have a minimal installation, it will take time compiling (a lot of time), but after that you gain a computer apt for a decade more.
>watermarks
kys faggot
>mini.iso
Even android with 1gb ram now struggling to browse web. So no you better spend/save that money for a tablet like chuwi or telclast because is a new meme.
chrome tends to use more memory
most normie sites will work normally, from the ones you mentioned only facagook might be difficult but it's cancer and a shit site anyway
>Open up your task manager, see how much RAM is used by a single tab.
that's what i said user
Dont listen to this uneducated kids, if you want the MOST light weight distro there is, its arch, no buts or ifs ... I can boot my arch with i3 under 100mb of ram ... enough is said...
How lighter Puppy is, compared to Debian or Arch or Slackware (I mean, what is the difference of taking those distros from a minimal install and start installing packages from there)? Tinycore sounds cool but it runs entirely in the RAM and I don't know much about Slitaz.
No point in worrying about memory while CSS3 effects rapes your CPU.
Is there some sort of plugin that tricks websites into thinking you're a phone? I'd imagine mobile versions of sites are lighter than the desktop counterparts
>living in sweden
thats your problem
the useragent?
>arch
Fuck off with that shit, OP clearly is not familiar with linux distros
OP try out Puppy Linux, just do it. Slitaz also works just fine.
Some Linux distro with a lightweight desktop environment. Puppy, Manjaro or whatever with maybe Openbox or LXDM for desktop environment if you want an "easy to get started with" distro.
Freebsd
>Your life is better not spent tweaking shit
What the fuck are you doing in this board then?
My athlon XP has 3GB
I never really use more than 1
OP install the ubuntu mini.iso and report back
Any xcfe distro or puppy Linux
The lighest I know off is: Xubuntu/Lubuntu Core.
Just use CLI and lynx.
This.
Lynx is so comfy to use for light browsering. Sadly though, its not meme compatible
Windows XP. If you disable all bloat you can get RAM usage down by a lot.
Look for a distribution specialized for old hardware, like puppy. Binaries for Ubuntu, arch, even Debian are built with most features enabled.