Operating system and software for a weak machine?

Question

Iron

There is a machine - pentium 4, 1gb of RAM and a radeon 9550 video card. The computer is used 99% of the time for watching YouTube and 1% for reading. Previously, for these purposes, on an even weaker machine, I used xp and opera 12.16. Which played the video noticeably better and smoother than other browsers (which, even when playing 360p, are minimally dull). But either the flash player was updated, or the guys from Google messed something up - in general, the old opera started to slow down wildly and I had to switch to the latest firefox. Which is worse and slower but more or less manages.
Can anyone tell me how to organize comfortable video viewing on this hardware (it used to be normal, but with each update it's getting sadder and sadder, html5 is forced to hang up the browser at all)?
I guess that they will advise Linux, please indicate some specific versions, since I was not particularly interested in this area, but I can install and configure it.

Answer 1

In general, the situation is as follows. Tried Lubuntu 15.10. The system itself flies, only the video in the browser, like the browser itself, is still dull, while I work comfortably with the system. I solved the problem like this - Pure XP (updates are definitely the reason for slowing down the PC, you can see it with the naked eye) + opera 12.17 + adobe flash 10 version. Works great, no slowdowns or artifacts.

Answer 2

Maybe it's better not to experiment with the OS, but to upgrade the computer?
At work in old computers I change the motherboard-proc-memory to a motherboard with a soldered processor + 4 G of memory in the same case with the same HDD. The people are happy. More than enough for your tasks and for the future.

Answer 3

Well, then put the good old XP
Browser, change to another, try Opera.
On a weak computer, I noticed that the latest Firefox update noticeably slowed down the browser. I rolled back to the previous version and everything was back to normal.
Also, do not install Kaspersky. IMHO he eats resources like a slop pig. Put ESET for example.

Answer 4

lubuntu (not ubuntu). as a desktop manager, lxde is the most undemanding thing (well, after a clean console)

Answer 5

So take Ubuntu . He is the friendliest, easy to install, if something is not clear, everything is simply Googled.

Answer 6

Delete flash.
Then everything will work through the JavaScript player, which is faster.
Or you can download the video with special plugins to watch it later in the player outside the browser.

Guess what linups will advise

They will always advise him, including on those tasks for which he is absolutely not suitable. For example, on this one.
And as a question appears that requires knowledge ( https://toster.ru/q/169567), then no one is able to answer.