UKH

Hello again,

Linking back to me current laptop battery dying, I dug out my old Samsung N110 as a temporary stand in, although I'd forgotten how much I like this laptop and its mega battery life / portability etc.

My question is this: given that it's old, only has Windows XP etc, are the methods which I can streamline it to make it run most efficiently - maybe a lite free operating system and office package?

Is there settings etc I can change in the laptop itself to make it quicker? Also, Are there any good simple web browsers out there to be recomended?

Thanks

Frank

Linux

https://itsfoss.com/lightweight-linux-beginners/

I used Bodhi for a while on a 12yr old lowish spec laptop and it worked fine

I'm going to join the others and say that a suitable Linux distribution will let you get the most out of this laptop. Over the years I've had great success moving over 8-10 year old machines and getting another 5+ years out of them.  It's not for the fainthearted though, it'll be a faff to install and a steep learning curve to get used to using it. If you're into computer-y things and like experimenting, then go for it, it'll be fun.  

A less time consuming option would be stick with Windows XP, switch off all the features you don't need, and be careful about browsing/downloads so it doesn't get a virus. You might also get some speedup by running the disk cleanup tools, defragmenting from time to time (man, that takes me back), switching off the plastic-toy graphics in favour of old school win2000 style, disabling unwanted startup items in msconfig, and turning off file indexing (if you don't do file searches very often).

Also bear in mind that although it may have run Firefox just fine 10 years ago, firefox of today is not firefox as was.  So you'll benefit from finding lightweight versions of any applications you want. You can also just run older applications (e.g. Office 2010) but I wouln't recommend that for a browser for security reasons.

I'd be too scared to connect XP to the internet.

As for a Linux operating system on an old laptop try and get something with an xfce graphic user interface. Fancy way of saying what you see on the screen and click with your mouse.

I have Linux Mint xfce on my 11 year old laptop. However I also have the RAM maxed out, which is not a lot, and an SSD drive.

The only thing it can't cope with is playing back 4k footage from my cameras.

Linux and and ssd, I've done it with an NC10 and it's great.

for a moment I thought you meant NC100!  That WOULD have been a notable achievement.

an Amstrad that would be very impressive.

I meant my Samsung, it's a great little tool ( phnarr phnarr) which starts up in about 20 seconds with the SSD / Linux combo, and oodles of battery life. Screen is a bit small for lots of things though.

antique???? laptop 

even antique Conputer sounds wrong 

We have a couple of laptops about 12 years old without SSDs and even they run beautifully in Mint or Ubuntu.

We have a couple of tiny Asus 701s with only 4GB SSD and they make great internet "radios" connected to a small tower system using Debian 8.

I love Linux, it's like going back to the 80s! (when you want to do something in terminal or Python etc) and it's particularly good to make good use of perfectly good old stuff.