Ubuntu on laptop

[Milambar]

I have an IBM thinkpad 570, with a 40GB hdd (I added this, the default 4GB one did my head in), and 128MB of SODIM RAM.

Currently, its running xubuntu. I have tried, in the past fluxbuntu, kubuntu, and standard ubuntu. None of them seem to be "speedy". Now, Im not looking for Cray style performance, but atm, it takes about 45 seconds to render a webpage... And up to 20 seconds to re-render a window when I swap windows from one application to another. Yeah, that bad.

I'm wondering, what really lightweight ubuntu based install you'd recommend for the afore mentioned laptop. Would the "netbook" version work?

[Mighty_Joe]

According to this page, your laptop has a Pentium II 300, 333 or 366Mhz processor. That and 128MB of RAM is pretty weak. Ubuntu is a modern OS, the rival of Windows Vista. It isn't intended to run on old hardware (you wouldn't try to run Vista, right?).
The Get Xubuntu page states: "Xubuntu can run with starting from 192 (or even just 128 ) MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256 MB RAM." It sounds like you are at the lowest limit at what Xubuntu can run on. Consider that the Firefox process I'm typing in right now is 130Mb. It's amazing you can run it at all.
The netbook remix is designed for current hardware: Atom processors, a 512Mb or more RAM, fast SSHD's. It is not an option for your hardware.
Have a look at this post which gives some options for older hardware. However, if you want fast page rendering and task switching, there really isn't much the OS can do with your current hardware. Blow $200-400 on a netbook and you'll be much happier.

[chia_janet]

Can I run Ubuntu meant for desktop onto a laptop? Just asking, I'm not a technie person.

[Mighty_Joe]

Can I run Ubuntu meant for desktop onto a laptop? Just asking, I'm not a technie person.

Ubuntu, and Linux in general, supports a great range of hardware, both desktop and laptop. You can check your hardware against the hardware support wiki and the resources linked there.

[snowpine]

I have an IBM thinkpad 570, with a 40GB hdd (I added this, the default 4GB one did my head in), and 128MB of SODIM RAM.

Currently, its running xubuntu. I have tried, in the past fluxbuntu, kubuntu, and standard ubuntu. None of them seem to be "speedy". Now, Im not looking for Cray style performance, but atm, it takes about 45 seconds to render a webpage... And up to 20 seconds to re-render a window when I swap windows from one application to another. Yeah, that bad.

I'm wondering, what really lightweight ubuntu based install you'd recommend for the afore mentioned laptop. Would the "netbook" version work?

No operating system will magically turn a slow computer into a fast computer but there are many options that are faster than Ubuntu. I would recommend checking out some non-Ubuntu options, starting with Puppy, the loram flavor of SliTaz, DSL, and Antix. And definitely don't use Firefox, which is a ram hog--check out some lightweight browsers like opera, midori, kazehakase, or even dillo. Good luck!