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I have an IBM Thinkpad X30 laptop with these specs:

  • P-III 1.2 GHz
  • 256 RAM
  • 40 GB HD

Currently I run Ubuntu 8.4 on it, but it's to slow.

I need a lightweight OS (Linux or windows) for

  • text
  • viewing pdf's
  • surfing the Internet

Do you have any advice for a laptop with these specs?

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2 Answers

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There's a derivative of Ubuntu called Xubuntu that is designed to run on slower computers. Check it out!

Xubuntu is an official derivative of Ubuntu using the Xfce desktop environment. It is intended for users with less-powerful computers, or those that require a highly efficient desktop environment on faster systems.

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There are a few options for an older systems. Lucid puppy 528 and wary puppy are varients of puppy linux that run well on older systems. I believe the best options are tinycore linux and damned small linux due to their lower ram requirements - tinycore is only 12mb for a gui build, and you can add software for web browsing and PDF viewing.

If you need a newer distro, you can get linux mint 12 lxde or older builds of linux mint with fluxbox. You could also use an older distribution like the KateOS 2.1 Livecd

If you need to use a livecd for recovery use System Rescue CD or use Parted Magic. You can use UBCD with Parted Magic, and adjust it to your needs as well

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If you add some links for each OS it would help answer the question, and would make for much better and easier to read answer. :) – Lizz Feb 25 at 2:01

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