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Ask HN: Best OS for a slow netbook?

4 points by milankragujevic ↗ HN
I have an Acer Aspire One 722-C6Ckk, which has 4GB of RAM, AMD C-60 APU at 1 GHz (apparently it's dual core but I actually think it's a single core with multi threading, but with "modules" instead of threads, as AMD used to do earlier).

It's from 2012. It's HDD died so I put in an SD to CF and then a CF to SATA adapter and put in a 32GB UHS-1 SD card and I upgraded it's battery to 6 cells and put in a new keyboard (but white because it was cheaper) since the old one wore out too much and keys popped off, and it seems like a nice computer, but IT'S SO SLOW!

Windows 10 is unbearable, Windows 7 is also very slow, Starter edition used to be better but it only supports 2GB of RAM and I have 4GB so it seems like a waste. It only works acceptably on old Linuxes like Ubuntu 10.04 or 12.04 but not anything newer, even with 14.04 it's too slow. [tried with xfce and lxde, unity won't even run properly on it]

With Windows XP is nice and fast but that OS is so ancient I don't wanna touch it with a 5 meter stick let alone run it on a laptop.

By slowness I mean it takes long to load websites in Firefox, it takes long to boot, scrolling is unresponsive, etc., I used to use Zorin OS Lite when it was so lightweight but that was 6 years ago, nowdays it's much heavier and slower.

I wish there was a Linux like Windows XP, not in looks but in speed. Something old but supported... I'm currently installing Ubuntu Server 64bit on it and will try to install some openbox GUI or something, but I don't have high hopes...

My ultimate plan is to give this laptop to my dad, but I simply cannot give him something so slow I cringe every time I have to boot it up.

Is there anything I don't know, or has this world just abandoned all old hardware, and nowdays you need a Core i5 and 16GB of RAM just to run Windows 10 and Chrome... ?

10 comments

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BayesStreet
Xubuntu is probably your best bet for weight:usability ratio. Also look into lighterweight firefox alternatives as it has added a lot of bulk over the years.
gjgala
You can look into Arch Linux, it's super light-weight and should be all you need!
navbehl
You can take a look at LXLE and Lubuntu. Both are lightweight and are intended to have low resource system requirements
limeblack
I recommend Tiny Core Linux and neverware. Neverware might not work on your laptop though because support isn't always very good. I have run TCL on desktops with MBs of ram.
peteevans
As mentioned by others lubuntu and xubuntu are fairly lightweight and I've used ubuntu variants on netbooks in the past and where reasonably fast. From ubuntu server you should be able to install the different desktops anyway, but seems a slightly harder route! Saying that look to the browser, chrome tends to be memory hungry, due to multiple processes, and firefox is heading (headed?) that way, which tends to be bad on limited resource computers. I'm finding firefox slow on my old laptop now. There are some other views here http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-lightweight-linux-distros-ide...
SamReidHughes
Your best option is to get some money and buy a better laptop.
grover_hartmann
Any GNU/Linux distro with a lightweight WM/DE will do.

I'm using Arch Linux with i3 on a dual core with 2GB of RAM and it works like a charm.

I even dual boot Ubuntu on this machine and have no issues.

cdnlus
> It's HDD died so I put in an SD to CF and then a CF to SATA adapter and put in a 32GB UHS-1 SD card

Seems like there's a chance the SD->CF->SATA adaptor might be slowing things down? Cheap, low capacity SSDs can be had on Amazon for chump change...