linux advice?

[EHyde she/her]

So ... my good laptop is off for repair (it's the cat's fault!) and while it's gone, I've been using my 6yo dell laptop that is literally held together by duct tape and ribbon (the hinges broke some time ago...). It is very, very slow, so I decided that I'd put a linux OS on it instead of windows XP, thinking that would run more smoothly. I tried LinuxMint but if anything, it's now even slower than it was before. Do any of you more tech-savvy people have any recommendations for a good OS for an old slow computer? The only things I really care that it does are web browsing and word processing.

[Eerongal he/him]

know what the specs are on it?

If you're just looking for something quick and lightweight, you could probably do damnation small linux

Edit:

also, Suse and Ubuntu are my favorite distros, though depending on the laptop's specs, they might be a bit too much for it. Though i'm currently running ubuntu relatively well on some ANCIENT hardware.

[Joe ST he/him]

if you want an OS which you can browse the web on then Ubuntu is probably the most easy to use, though like Eero said, the performance wont be great. Wordprocessing is kinda difficult cause you're stuck with either web-based ones, or open office, which sucks the left one.

If you wanted to actually learn some linux, I suggest checking out Arch linux. It gives you a bare-bones installation, without a GUI or anything, and you have to learn how to install each of the bits. I've been using it as my desktop OS for the last 4 years now, and it's worked perfectly as a browser, mediaplayer (VLC), programming interface (various languages), and chat (pidgin) which is all that I really use. You could also learn to produce professional grade documents/papers/etc with (La)TeX, and the editors on linux are good enough.

[Eri she/her]

Ubuntu is nice, and with the Unity3D turned off it isn't very slow.

For word procedding I recommend Libre Office — it's like Open Office, but without the bugs.

[EHyde she/her]

Thanks for the suggestion. My good laptop came back quicker than expected so I'm not in such a rush to get the old one working well, but I'll probably continue fiddling with it so I have something that works just in case.

[Shivertongue he/him]

Don't use Linux.

That's my advice.

[Joe ST he/him]

Don't use Linux.

That's my advice.

My advice is to ignore Shiv, he knows nothing

[Shivertongue he/him]

Keep in mind, Joe doesn't even know what his spikes are for, and is that someone you really want to take advice from?

(I'm teasing. I just like to make fun of Linux users.)

[mfhscoobydoo he/him]

Ahh the heated battles of linux,  linux is perfectly usable as a main os (I would know.) but if you are going for easy to use-windows-like OS that is light weight and free look no further than zorin os lite. Trust me I love it.