Operating System for 512 MB laptop

I have dug up an older Acer Aspire 4720z laptop and I want to put it to work. It's x64, Pentium Dual Core ~1,5 Ghz, 80 Gb hard drive and 512 mb RAM. I'm planning to use it mostly for internet browsing and old PC games, probably music/video as well - just general purpose. Originally it had Vista and I have tried Ubuntu 16 so far, both didn't work well. My main concern - RAM usage. It seems to be the bottleneck of this system, so I need OS that accounts for this. Also I don't want to give up too much disk space to OS since 80 GB can get tight fast.

What Windows/Linux operating systems will be optimal for this configuration? Doesn't matter if x64 or x86 as long as it runs smooth with normal desktop and general purpose programs (office, paint-like, etc.)

I am also considering adding RAM up to 1GB, is it worth the trouble and what answer will be in that case?

Deo

Posted 2017-01-11T15:30:11.137

Reputation: 109

Answers

Ubuntu will work properly, but not Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome 3. Both use 3D stuff, and that is too much for older laptops. I've had similar problems with Unity. After changing to Ubuntu Mate, the problems are mostly gone.

A laptop that could run Vista normally, can probably run this. You may have to be careful with some programs that use losts of RAM. That means closing one program to open another. And using Firefox to open 30 tabs with lots of javascript in them (like Facebook), that won't work well. But then again, that's something that you have to find out yourself.

I've used Ubuntu 12.04 on a 2003 desktop (so 9 years old then), and could even open Virtualbox with Windows XP vm to use Photoshop. It's not fast, you can't open large files, but for me it worked well enough.

The biggest problem nowadays is video, with higher resolutions, and complex websites that do so much client side that you're going to notice.

SPRBRN

Posted 2017-01-11T15:30:11.137

Reputation: 5 185

Yes, I also used Ubuntu a long time ago, around 10th version and was pretty happy with it, that's why I decided to try it. So, just changing OS desktop to something less demanding should be sufficient change to free up enough memory for applications? I'm not going to run Photoshop or something that demanding there, mostly just browser and office programs. – Deo – 2017-01-11T16:35:47.973

Changing the desktop made a big difference for me, but I just see that you only have 512MB RAM. I don't know how that's going to work out. Adding RAM to 2GB is a cheap way to make the laptop usable. Otherwise there are real light distros like Arch or Puppy Linux. I tried the latter, and it takes time to get used to the desktop, nothing like Mate. Arch may be the better choice. See https://www.linux.com/news/best-lightweight-linux-distros

– SPRBRN – 2017-01-11T16:49:04.423

My goal here is to do the most with least effort/money. I am considering adding another 512 MB if it will have big impact (e.g. turn a car into a plane), otherwise (car -> slightly better car) I don't want to bother. – Deo – 2017-01-11T16:54:49.567

I think the problem will be browsing, unless you turn javascript off. But I may be wrong. I hope that extra 512GB is not wasted money because it's too little. – SPRBRN – 2017-01-11T17:04:08.400

@SPRBRN +1 for Arch. but it can be cumbersome for newbies. I've never used Puppy so I don't have much input on that but it's definitely more lightweight than Ubuntu. Debian would probably be my best suggestion for a lightweight distro for beginners. – DrZoo – 2017-01-11T17:27:17.547

Does the laptop have a COA sticker? If so, that OS is probably your best answer as the laptop was designed for it and it could save you having to buy a licence. If not, probably Windows XP would be best as according to this link that is what it originally shipped with. (The other option, Vista, has a reputation for bloat.)

It would make a difference if you upgraded RAM, if you are using memory-intensive applications. You could find out whether 512 is enough once you've installed an OS by opening the Task Manager and monitoring the free memory as you use the computer. You could upgrade to 2gb RAM, which is the maximum supported (see above link).

TheCatsTail

Posted 2017-01-11T15:30:11.137

Reputation: 31

It came with Vista, and it was not satisfying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Aspire#Aspire_4720z I collect it took about all of it's RAM, so memory was paging all the time and that affected performance greatly. As for XP, should I go with 64-bit since it supports it or with 32-bit, accounting for small available RAM?

– Deo – 2017-01-11T16:29:34.150