General TC > Tiny Core Netbooks

TC on an old "ultrabook" Sony VAIO VGN-T150 - CF as HDD, USB boot?

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Misalf:
Before you sell the new one I'd suggest you try out TC on the old one for a couple of weeks or so and see if it fits your needs.
TC is more than basic compared to *buntu distros and the like. You have to create configs from scratch for many apps and there is less automated background stuff going on which would make life easier (but slow things down). I'm relatively new to Linux as well and I had lots of head scratching (and still have here and there) using certain apps on TC which just worked on other distros.

However, I like it that way. If stuff goes bad it's often my fault (not reading the manual) - It doesn't hurt to learn about the software I use.
I'm using TC on a netbook (1.6GHz Atom [oc ~2GHz] - 2GB RAM - bad intel 945GME GPU) every day - Browsing, YT, Movies, Music, GIMP and even some old games - and it is sluggish some times even with TinyCore (lots of tabs in Firefox etc.).
The intel driver for Linux doesn't perform very well though (as I've read) so especially 3D apps often don't work well/at all or are glitchy.
But actually, I'm using this netbook mainly to mess around with TinyCore and learn about Linux in general. TinyCore is my main OS because it is "incomplete". There is also Win7 and LMDE installed but I barely boot these (well, sometimes Windows for compatibility reasons).

I installed Puppy Linux on a few decade old family computers. No problem for just-web-browsing users. And it has more apps to offer in it's repo ; maybe everything you want.

About disabling ads in the browser (or better for the hole OS):
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
No heavy browser plugin.

Rich:
Regarding open tabs in a browser. The problem often isn't having many open tabs, it's what's in those tabs. I normally have 12 to 14 tabs
open on the browser on an 800Mhz cpu with 512Mb RAM machine with no problems. On occasion, I have experienced sluggishness when
some tab had a page loaded that was executing who knows what in the background pushing CPU usage way up even though the page
appeared benign. Closing the offending tab solved that.

MX372:
@ Misalf - just to be clear, I do not have a "new" laptop; my main laptop until just recently going back to my Sony VAIO (subject of this post) is a ToughBook CF-19 Mk2 (circa 2008; Core2Duo w/3GB RAM/500GB HDD), which I won (meaning FREE) in a competition, and that's when I pretty much quit using my trusty VAIO. I recently dug it out again since every time I travel for the Army I end up taking 2 laptops - my gov-issued one I need for my duties and my TB, which is a PIA since both laptops and chargers weigh at least 12 lbs. My VAIO saves 2-3 lbs and some space as it is smaller/lighter than the TB.

With regards to your other suggestions, I agree and understand. I have been using my VAIO almost exclusively for the past 3 weeks or so, having only used the TB a few times. I should probably try TC for a while and see how it works out before switching from LXLE (which so far works well and I like - it's a pretty good distro). As for the TB, there is no need to keep it, even though it is a few years newer; I can easily sell it on ebay or craigslist for at least $350, which could get me a brand-new low-end laptop if I really wanted, and I could sell the VAIO as well, and I'm confident I could get at least $50 for it. Some people would likely just go that route. For me, I'd rather be challenged to make what I have work, and learn something along the way (computers and electronics are a hobby interest for me, sounds like for you too maybe).

I have tried Puppy before (I first started playing w/Linux back in the late 90's with distros like Mandrake, Puppy, and a few others I don't even remember), but it just didn't suit me. Also, that link you posted seems to pertain only to Windows, not Linux, or did I miss something? Thanks for your comments!

core-user:
If it were me, I'd go with the CF/IDE, TinyCorePlus, & new battery - use ext4 filesystem with 'noatime'.
(If you don't get on with TC, try AntiX or SliTaz, both low resources distros.)

MX372:
The thing I'm not sure of is if I can just plug the CF card into the 50-pin ribbon cable that plugs into the 50-pin HDD. I have read that CF cards also have an IDE mode, but not sure if that will be automatically configured or not. I have also seen CF to IDE adapters, but since my HDD is a 50-pin "CF-style" connector, that just seems like an un-needed component.

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