Will Linux make my laptop faster?

[PrincessAlissa]

Hi

I have been looking into Linux as I have a 2+ year old laptop running XP that has begun to majorly slow down...

From what I understand, with laptops, reformatting the HD & reinstalling windows might make you run into a few problems, especially with the wireless internet drivers.

Ive been eyeing the new 'netbooks' that run linux, and was wondering - if I was to create a live usb/flash drive version of Fedora, and just boot from that, would it increase my system speed?

I simply want to use it for internet, nothing more. However, I guess the page I need to access has a lot of flash or something because my current config. cant handle it.


Thanks so much for any input you can give me. Ive been getting more into computers and it seems none of my friends know about Linux!

~Alissa~

[oz]

Ive been eyeing the new 'netbooks' that run linux, and was wondering - if I was to create a live usb/flash drive version of Fedora, and just boot from that, would it increase my system speed?

Welcome to the forums!

All of the liveCDs and boot-from-flash-drive systems that I've ever tried were slower than having Linux actually installed to the hard drive, so the answer would be no, if I understood the question correctly.

Still, using them to check out Linux is very popular these days, and distros run from live-media can come in handy for various emergency situations.

[PrincessAlissa]

Thanks for the help!

Are there any tactics I could use to make sure that my system doesnt turn into a brick if I overwrite Windows with Linux? Id like to make sure my wifi still works!

Also, if I was to sell the laptop, is re-installing Windows just a matter of sticking the CD in?


Thanks in advance!

[oz]

Are there any tactics I could use to make sure that my system doesnt turn into a brick if I overwrite Windows with Linux? Id like to make sure my wifi still works!

Also, if I was to sell the laptop, is re-installing Windows just a matter of sticking the CD in?

I'd recommend setting up a dual-boot system so that you can boot from the boot menu into Linux, or into Windows, as you wish. The installers included with most Linux distributions will take care of this for you during the installation, if you choose that option.

Yes, if you have a working Windows installation CD, you can usually insert the CD and let the Windows installer do its thing. Sometimes, a machine might mis-behave and a few other steps are required. Of course if you pick the dual-boot option mentioned above, you'll keep Windows intact.

[PrincessAlissa]

So if Im understanding this right, during the install of Linux I will have the option to basically "partition" my hd?

I always thought you couldnt do that unless you reformatted..


Anyways, do you recommend a specific distro that is the most "newbie friendly" that I can dual-boot with? I dont think Im quite to the level of writing scripts/commands yet!

Thank you

[oz]

You'll have the option to create additional partitions for Linux to reside on, if you have extra space on your hard drive. If not, the installer can make the space for Linux.

You wouldn't want to format any partitions except the ones that Linux will reside on.

Mandriva, Linux Mint, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, and Ubuntu are all considered very new-user friendly, but not necessarily in that order.

[mike171562]

Ubuntu has an installer that runs from inside windows, download the app and run it, its pretty simple

Wubi - Ubuntu Installer for Windows

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

[wowbag1]

Hi, As an alternative have a look at SLAX distro - its small and you can load it into RAM approx 300MB if I remember correctly, so it runs direct from there. So its fast even on my old machine and does most things.

wowbag1