Easy Distro for websurfing with old laptop. Possible?

[jetsam]

Just try one and see!

We can't answer your questions because the answers are mostly up to you and what works for you and your system.

I'd suggest Puppy again, but you could also just try one I've never tried and tell me what it's like

[mörgæs]

...a web browser with right plugins able to load only the fundamental content of the web pages, I mean avoiding to load flash content...

You should try the browser links2. It is text-only and takes a while to get used to but it's worth the effort.

The OS itself puts only a light workload onto the computer. The problem is finding light applications.

I hope you have changed all passwords which have been entered while running XP. It's an easy target for attackers.

[gipsyshadow]

The OS itself puts only a light workload onto the computer.

Yes, we're dealing with the idle OS ram, so I'm looking for a light (and easy) distro for 1st, then I'll search a light web browser, anyway thanks for your suggestion

I think I'll try puppy xenial for 1st, just because there's a version in my language too while puppy bionic, antix and mx are only in EN

[gipsyshadow]

I'm back but with bad news.
I've just tried puppy xenial live and I've opened the terminal to give some commands as "inxi -Cx" but I've got "command not found". I've tried with "sudo" but got the same output, I've tried "lshw" and the same bad output. After that I've tried "lsusb" and "uname -a" and I've got proper output with the required infos. So what's wrong?
Other important matter for me: touchpad doesn't work. I 've gone to setup-> touch -> flSynclient and got "couldn't find synaptics properties. no synaptics driver loaded".
Other (maybe more important) matter is that I'm not able to connect to internet. I use only an internet key for that and I set the right provider from FF loading 192.168.1.1 page. I've tried to load that page from palemoon (which is the default puppy browser) but I couldn't access it, I think there have been some hw troubles related to this huawei key.

Now I wonder what's the best way to go for me: 1) working on puppy with your help to solve those troubles, 2) trying knoppix or the other mentioned distros. As said I need a "small" in size distro (max 8gb), I mean after hdd installation and with a "proper" web browser on it, with low ram usage and easy to use, as puppy seemed to me. What can you suggest me?

By the way, is still this the right thread to discuss about installation problems or I've to move to mörgæs' signature thread?

[jetsam]

My guess is neither inxi nor lshw are installed in the default Puppy install. I can get back to you with more details later (I installed Puppy Xenial last night myself), but you basically just need to install the software you want to use.

There's always some transition pains using a new distro; it's unavoidable that there will be some learning curve. Some general advice: be a bit flexible. Sometimes a distro will have a better preferred solution than what you're used to. I believe Puppy comes default with Abiword, for example, and it's the best Word-clone word processor in existence. I use it on every OS now including Windows, but I discovered it because Puppy introduced me to it.

If you stick with Puppy, you may want to explore the Puppy forum. There will be advanced knowledge about Puppy represented there that nobody here has.

[mörgæs]

You are welcome to open your own thread like this one and you are welcome in mine. Your decision.

I suggest that you install using a wired internet connection regardless of the distro you try.

[gipsyshadow]

you are welcome in mine

Thanks mörgæs but let me understand this: your thread starts with [solved] so I guess I can't ask my linux distro request within yours nor ask help to make my huawei key to work on puppy, can I?

Anyway I'm oriented to just try knoppix and see if my internet key works "out of the box", my only doubt is about the minimum disk space knoppix lxde requires because I couldn't find it anywhere and my downloaded iso is more than 4GB (vs 300MB puppy .iso), do you know it?

[mörgæs]

I marked the thread solved because the main contents is the five initial posts. They are now followed by 22 pages of old hardware related discussion and everybody is invited both for asking and answering BUT since you already have your own thread here I suggest that you stay faithful to it.

If there is 15 GB of hard disk space you have plenty of space for all the distros mentioned.

One thing at a time. First the install using a wired connection and then the Huawei dongle.

[gipsyshadow]

All right, I go on here with my struggles
Let me point to and summarize what I'm looking for. I'd like to get this old acer into an "emergency" device so it's fundamental my usb huawei key and touchpad work "out of the box", I mean suddenly with "the" distro running in live session. Acer's an ethernet port too but I've only got this huawei key to connect to internet so neither wireless nor ethernet solution for me.
15GB is about twice what I can afford. If (and only if) I'll have success with a distro so "big" in live session than I'll re-arrange my hdd to get extra space.
I think I'll give another chance to puppy trying bionic version, we can never tell. If I won't get success I'll move to the "bigger" distros mentioned here, both in size and in ram usage.

[westie457]

Take a look at Peppermint os. https://peppermintos.com/

I ran this on an Acer Iconia tablet, no keyboard only a touch screen. Everything worked out of the box.
Can you tell us which wireless chip is in your box please.