Windows XP Dell Latitude D600 too slow for basic internet

[Dan Thomas]

We picked up a Dell Latitude d600 at a flea market with the hopes of using it for simple surfing and email. No streaming, no editing, no development, just surfing. We were locked out by an admin pw, so I installed Vista with a disk I happened to have. It seems to work, but it is just waaaay too slow. Pretty much unusable on the internet. I tried to do a windows update, and it said it couldn't do it.

This was originally an XP machine. Should I install XP instead, would it matter? Or, can I turn off some security stuff? Any ideas appreciated, thanks.

 

[Trouble]

With that processor Intel Pentium M 1.6 GHz and only 512 Megs of Ram (assuming it's still pretty well stock) I don't even know if it would be worth going back to XP SP3 as that will pretty much kick the heck out of 512 Megs of Ram.
If you can upgrade the ram to at least a Gig for XP SP3 and or even better 2Gigs to keep Vista SP2 for a reasonable amount of money then it should be alright minimally but I sure wouldn't invest too much dough into that rig.

You might want to consider one of the Linux Distros if all you want to do is surf and read email.

 

[Dan Thomas]

Thanks for your insight. Ok, I like the Linux idea. Do you mean install linux on this machine? I haven't done that before. Any tutorials or anything? Would I download the .iso, burn it to a disk, then boot to that disk and install it, or something? This would allow me to surf and check email? Why is it faster, because linux is just..better? Thanks.

 

[Trouble]

I kind of like this one.... https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=475A0A48CA6D4035&resid=475A0A48CA6D4035!1953&app=WordPdf
It's by another member of this forum.
As your machine will not likely boot from USB you may have to substitute a CD/DVD but the principle should be about the same.
Grab the latest ISO from here http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=159 (pick a mirror somewhere close to you geographically) and see how things go.

 

[Trouble]

Once you burn the ISO to the DVD and boot, you'll get something called a Linux Live environment.
On the desktop there will be an Icon that says something to the affect of "Install Linux" it may say install Mint Mate on this computer or something else entirely. Just click it, step through the first screen or two and then choose to erase everything and install Linux. BEWARE that, that will wipe your drive so....... conduct yourself accordingly.
As far as being "faster" or "better" it's not exactly apples to apples so it's not for me to say.
Just thought it might be fun for you to take a look at and maybe see what you think.
And some of the more recent distros are getting bigger and seem to have a bit more overhead and a bit more resource demanding, so...... with your limited system resources you may find that it is not a viable solution for you at all and then it's back to the drawing board.

 

[Pauli]

I wouldn't recommend XP at all, it's obsolete. And Vista will be by 11.4.2017, according to Microsoft. Even with basic Internet activity you may, at least with XP, put yourself and everyone else in danger, because your computer / program cannot respond to or handle security requirements, they were built before present hazards appeared.

All old computers and systems work, when used individually. But Internet is quite another thing. You do have bugs coming and going. In my opinion, Windows 7 is the lowest of secure ones to use. Linux I do not know.

With respect to Trouble.