I just got an older laptop and I wanted your help in setting it up with a browser. It's a PIII 700MHz laptop and I just installed a copy of Windows XP SP3 on it. Unfortuntely, the RAM is pretty low on this thing: 256MB to be exact. It's functional for now, but I'm trying to install a non-resource-hugging browser on it that has two things: tabbed browsing and a built-in spell checker alas Firefox. Normally, I would use Firefox 3 or IE 7, but both are not suitable for this small laptop. So may be a 'Lite' browser out there that you guys would recommend? Also, any suggestions on how I can speed up the processor? May be I can go into the registry and disable/eliminate some of those programs running in the background in Windows? I'm open to suggestions, and thanks for the help, per usual...
Firefox in its current iteration is actually significantly faster than its predecessors, so if you're trying to improve speed I don't think you'll be helping yourself by looking for an older version. If you're looking for a speed demon of a browser, Opera is your answer. Google Chrome is a good candidate too, but Opera just has "it". Now your memory constraint is a pretty big deal, and I think memory is usually more important than processor speed in impacting overall performance especially for resource-hungry applications. For that reason, I would recommend Opera as a browser again, with Chrome as a second alternative because of its unique memory management model (one process per tab). You probably should also install and use TuneXP to try and streamline your PC's performance. A lean version of Linux instead of Windows XP might actually work out to your advantage here, too.
You really need to add some RAM to that thing, you are going to have epic problems trying to browse 2008's internet on a machine from 12 years ago. Doesn't matter what browser you put on it.
I have to agree with this comment as well. It's actually pretty inexpensive to buy a couple of SO-DIMM sticks and relatively easy to install for most laptops, and the benefits are very well worth the money. My sister once had a 256MB laptop...upgrading that to 1GB made all the difference in the world.
That's not a horrible laptop to just surf the net on, you just need a bit more RAM- check out crucial.com. You don't want to skimp on the browser, just strip out some windows function like windows messenger, fax service, etc.
OK, I knew I would be getting that answer sooner or later The laptop has a "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it...so there! And as far as upgrading the RAM, I'm not looking to spend a penny on this piece of garbage, I'm not going to use it, I'm just setting it up to donate it to some poor b*stard who might use it for word processing/some Internet browsing. So really just looking to make the most out of what I have...
OK, Opera and K-Meleon seem to be the recommendations from those 'in the know' (friends and others). Which one has tabbed browsing/spell-checker-as-you-type setup that's similar to Firefox?
My advise it to put Ubuntu on it. XP isn't going to function very well with that little RAM and Ubuntu runs like a champ on older machines. You can get a copy here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download If you don't really know if you would like it you can actually run the operating system from the CD so you can try it out. If you do decide to install it the install is real simple. Just choose all the defaults and there are actually less setup to deal with then an XP install. Ubuntu has everything you need and brings life to old hardware. There are other versions of linux, but Ubuntu and Linux Mint, which is built off of Ubuntu, are the most non tech friendly Linux OS'. By the way you can download Linux Mint here: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.html
if you want xp to run fast on your laptop, download something called tinyxp. it's basically a stripped down version of xp without all the services running. things like remote access, or fast user switching, automatic updates... etc. it will run pretty well on 256mb of ram. you can get it through a torrent. if you're worried about using it illegally, just switch the serial to a legal one. there should be freeware out there that will let you do it. i did this on my dell before and it's smoke'n fast (duo 2 core with 2 gigs).
