Dell Netbook: Windows XP or 7?
I have a Dell Latitude 2120 netbook with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom single core CPU and 2GB of RAM. According to the sticker, it originally came with Windows 7 Pro. When I got it, the hard drive was blank, and I installed Windows XP.
Now, I realize I'm not going to get this thing to be lightning fast, but should I keep XP installed or upgrade to Windows 7? I'm not sure if 7 would be faster or slower or about the same as XP. If it's about the same or faster, I may upgrade just for the security updates. If 7 would be slower, I think I'll keep XP.
I also thought about going the Linux route, but I'd like to stay with Windows on this one due to some software I need to use.
Here's a picture of it, if anyone's interested: http://www.nick99nack.com/junk/Latitude2120.jpg
Comments
I think Windows 7 is the best choice.
Spicy answer is Windows 10. I was surprised how well Windows 10 and 8 ran on crappy NetBurst hardware.
oooh! Spicy indeed!
I did hear that Windows 10 ran well on netbooks and actually considered trying it, since I don't do too much on there. But, I thought I read somewhere (might have been another thread here, actually) that the new feature updates have bogged it down some since then.
I believe if you disable unnecessary windows components and change the visual settings, the netbook should run fine with Windows 10.
Well, I installed Windows 7 Pro 32-bit since it still had the license key for it on the bottom. It runs alright. At least, it's about as fast as it's ever going to be... It's slower to boot up than XP was, but it's better overall since I can run the new Firefox. The ESR version that ran on XP was completely useless on this thing.
I wouldn't use Windows on one of those things. Linux Mint would be my choice with either WINE or a dual-boot setup for essential Windows programs.