lighter weight os for better online video with older hardware?

[sdowney717]

is it possible?
I have a dv9005us laptop with go 6150 nvidia. It struggles with internet video smoothness, gets jumpy, laggy etc...

So would a different linux version work any better than ubuntu ?
Or is it doomed to be sub par forever.

[evilsoup]

Have you tried Lubuntu? Or just installing LXDE from the repos & using it instead of Unity? Even Xubuntu/XFCE might give you better performance.

[Irihapeti]

If you're really game, you can just install a command-line system plus Openbox, and then add only the programs that you want.

[sdowney717]

I can try that.
other than that is there any older linux os that would have been better for that laptop?

I am happy with it except for online video.

this is the specs, it has 2gb ram

ProcessorAMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology TL-50 / 1.6 GHz ( Dual-Core )
Memory1.0 GB / 2.0 GB (max)
Hard Drive100.0 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400.0 rpm
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Display Type17.0 in TFT active matrix
Max Resolution1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ )
Graphics ProcessorNVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 Shared video memory (UMA)
Optical DriveDVD±RW (+R DL) / DVD-RAM

[lykwydchykyn]

Are you using the built-in nvidia driver or the proprietary one? With those specs it's more likely a driver problem than a lack of system resources.

[Irihapeti]

You could try something like Puppy Linux (which I haven't used for ages and ages, so I'm not up with what they're doing nowadays) and see if that helps.

I'm no expert on such things, but I wonder if the processor speed has something to do with it.

[Irihapeti]

I'll leave it to lykwydchykyn, who I think is better informed on this than I am.

[ajgreeny]

I also agree with lykwydchykyn, because I do not really think those specs are so low that they are your main problem.

I had ubuntu 12.04 running on a sempron 2400+ with a similar 2GB ram and it ran very well, not with unity, of course, as that was far too slow and my ATI 9200SE could not run it properly, so I chose the classic fallback DE. In my opinion Xubuntu would be better for you, but that is just because I have found it to be so much nicer an OS than Ubuntu.

[snowpine]

Try downloading the video (using your favorite video downloader) then watching locally from your hard drive (using your favorite video player; I find mplayer to be the smoothest). Works every time for me!

[sdowney717]

I actually found not using the nvidia driver worked a little better. which i found very odd


i just installed lubuntu desktop and it is no better. all it really does is put in another desktop, the underlying system is still the same.