Best operating system for an old laptop?

[Rakoua]

I'm attempting to convert an old HP laptop from 7 or so years ago into something that functions for web browsing and general uses like music playing. Currently it has Windows XP and is extremely slow, but the last time I formatted it was 6 years ago and since then a lot of various trash has accumulated.

Now, I could reinstall Windows XP, but I was thinking of something Linux-based. However, it has only 512mb of RAM and I doubt that the latest Ubuntu would work very well on that computer... So, I'm asking for advice on what operating system to choose.
It's a Compaq nx6125 with an AMD Sempron 3100+ at 1.79GHz. It has 60 or so GB of hard disk space and an integrated Radeon x300. I know it's not much to work it, but it works with XP in theory and I think that it could handle some of the tasks I want it for.

Also, if anyone could recommend some good free programs that would work on such a computer, especially for light photo editing, that would be very welcome.

[AqD]

Linux desktop is not faster or more reliable unless you're talking about GNOME v1 or KDE v2 and using ancient web browsers such as Netscape 4 and Opera 5. It was long ago, before 2002, before Ubuntu was born and before they even had real anti-aliased text rendering, and you're going to have problems finding hardware-accelerated video driver and sound driver, and printers, scanners, etc etc. All *modern* linux desktop applications are by design much slower and much more memory-consuming than ordinary windows programs (except for WPF or win8 metro apps).

I recommend you to use windows server 2003 instead. It's like an optimized version of xp. It boots faster and performs much more stable, albeit just as insecure. And use photoshop 7 for photo editing.

[GrnEyedDvl]

I recommend you to use windows server 2003 instead. It's like an optimized version of xp. It boots faster and performs much more stable, albeit just as insecure. And use photoshop 7 for photo editing.

Why the hell would anyone want to use Server 03 as a laptop OS? Its hardly an "optmized" version of XP, and there is a ton of stuff installed by default that he will never use. By the time SP2 is installed its a far heavier installation than XP is. Not to mention you are suggesting an OS that support has been dropped for unless you are an Enterprise customer that purchased extended support.

Server OS's are for servers. Not for laptops.

I would go back with XP if I were you, but Ubuntu will also run fine. If you truly want a light weight version of Linux then there is a version of Ubuntu made just for you, called Lubuntu.

[Bolkonsky]

By all accounts Linux Mint is lightweight.

You could also try Windows 2000.

[AqD]

@Bolkonsky: 2003 is much faster than 2000, which has a lot of security holes and problems utilizing RAM for disk cache.

[Bolkonsky]

@Bolkonsky: 2003 is much faster than 2000, which has a lot of security holes and problems utilizing RAM for disk cache.

Yeah but server versions have given me a lot of problems with program compatibility, just something to consider.

[keinmann]

There are plenty of light-weight implementations of Linux (and even BSD) out there. You really just need to get on Google and find one that you like. Just test a few. If you don't feel like manually installing different versions on your machine to test them then download Microsoft Virtual PC or Sun's Virtual Box (both good virtual machines) to test some different OS's and find one you like. Another added benefit is that you can set the amount of RAM and HDD storage your virtual machine has to test how the system might perform with the hardware specs of your old laptop. You might find some flavors of Linux a bit clunky or too complicated, but then you might absolutely love another... so just research and test... it's a decision I can't make for ya! ;-)

Personally though, I do indeed like both Ubuntu Linux and Mono Linux...

[Rakoua]

Thanks guys, I'll consider these options and see which one of them suits me most.

[Jaketh]

The new updates to Linux Mint are pretty sexy. I'd look into that.

[Dewy]

Puppy linux will easily install on to your laptop and is faster than windows server 2003 and pretty much any other OS you can think of.

[Ybbon]

Or try Ubuntu with Cinnamon front-end which gives a Mint look and feel. You can run it from CD to see how you like it without actually installing. You can then use LibreOffice, Gimp for whatever you need. I'm pretty sure that it is not a memory hog, but as my laptop has 4Gb and my desktop 8Gb hard to tell