Recommend linux for old laptop

Question

linux

There is a laptop, not so old, Core2Duo, but only 512M RAM.
Used by mother-in-law, 99% for Skype and watching online movies through a browser.
Alas, on XP it slows down quite a bit even during normal surfing.
I ask you to advise linux that would run smartly for the above tasks, on which Skype and the latest flash player would be easily installed.
Maximum lightness is welcome.

Answer 1

I will add slitaz to the above mentioned lubuntu

Answer 2

It costs Lubuntu on the first Celeron, 24 MB of RAM. Not to say that it flies, but you can use it.

Answer 3

So on such a configuration and windows xp can be used. Well, in Linux, it will obviously not be faster to watch a movie through a flash.
Yes, and Skype in Linux is also gluttonous.
The most correct decision is to buy another memory chip for one gig, since memory on ebay costs a penny. And you will be happy.

Answer 4

It will be cheaper (!) and faster just to add memory.

Answer 5

Lubuntu - Ubuntu with LXDE, a very lightweight DE;
Crunchbang - also based on Ubuntu, with an Openbox environment;
Arch Linux itself is very lightweight and if you put LXDE or Xfce on it, it will fly, but there is no DE out of the box, so you have to install it manually.

Answer 6

Online movies through a browser, for a weak processor of old laptops - this is a disaster, especially if it is flash. For some sites you can find the '->mplayer' plugin, I even sat on the ancient eeepc900 for some time ... not comfortable.
Also, 512MB of RAM for modern browsers is back to back, and considering that Skype, depending on the load of contacts, eats from 100MB ... you can only be saved either with older versions of the browser (goodbye compatibility and goodies) or endure it.
About two years ago I sawed a gentoo assembly for exactly my laptop with 1Gb of RAM, it was tolerable for these tasks, but later I realized that in 90% of cases it is more convenient to connect with an RDP terminal to a virtual machine on a more powerful server, and first download the films respectively. downloader and watch without brakes in a regular player.
Accordingly, now I have installed Ubuntu 12.05 without problems, but in your case, DE needs to be changed, unity will not work. Even if it is a regular openbox.

Answer 7

forum.ubuntu.ru/index.php?topic=30990.0
habrahabr.ru/qa/31589/
I usually install: debian stable + awesome or zenwalk. In general, there are many distributors that are designed specifically to run on older PCs, they are on the links above.
Although your computer is not that much outdated. I flew Debian 6 on this one. I think it's just worth cutting ads on sites, and everything will be fine, since such a configuration is more than enough to play 1024 video.
Or, as an option, really put VLC and torrents, put the torrents on automatic re-download as the films / series of interest appear. The mother-in-law will have to learn to select the watched movie and press ctr + shift.

Answer 8

I once used Xubuntu on weak hardware (ubuntu with Xfce)

Answer 9

stands gentoo on dell 510m 256 MB ram, Blackbox stands as a manager. Works decently enough.

Answer 10

On my EeePC 701 (used mainly as a radio receiver, sometimes also for watching movies, extremely rarely for something else; used to be used as the main computer on business trips) there is an ancient archik (I haven’t updated for a long time because of systemd, but Gent is too lazy to roll there). Everything works great. And even for texlive, there was enough space for a 4GB SSD!