Windows XP replacement for adventurous users

On 8th April 2014, Microsoft discontinued support of Windows XP as promised and if you used XP after 8th April, you might face with the following screen.

Now some users might want to continue using of this legacy operating systems due to many reasons. For example, I heard that some said, there are many great applications that are not running in newer Windows and there are no replacement for them. My solution for them is either try to find another applications which compatible with newer version of Windows or if you want to use XP, at least avoid using internet or least you can do is have updated anti-virus.

However, some people want to use outdated XP because their computers/laptops cannot run newer version. Like previous category they can either upgrade it or the best solution for those who want to try something new is give a try to light distribution of Linux. Here, I have listed few light weight Linux with their minimum requirement, although, the list is longer but I listed few of them in below (source Wikipedia).

1. Lubuntu is very lightweight Linux which just needs 128 MB of RAM to run with a Pentium II CPU which makes it suitable as XP replacement with its nice LXDE desktop. [Personally I recommend this Linux as XP replacement].
2. Linux Lite is another lightweight Linux which has similar interface to Windows XP and it supports Synaptic package manager. It is based on Ubuntu LTS.
3. Tiny Core Linux is also good replacement for Windows XP. I personally tried it before, it is quire stable and can run GUI with 32 MB RAM easily. It also used TCZ package manager.
4. Damn Small Linux is one of the lightweight Linux which has been around quite while. It can be run on 486DX CPU with 16 MB RAM. Good enough to be used as Windows XP replacement, however, in comparison with Lubuntu and Linux Lite its interface not attractive at all and look outdated.
5. VectorLinux Light is lighted version of VectorLinux which can be run on a computer with 256 MB of RAM which offer reasonable performance and GUI.
6. PuppyLinux is another lightweight Linux which loads fully in RAM and therefore, if you have old hard disk, you do not need to be worry about performance. The minimum RAM requirement is 128 MB, however, 256 MB is recommended in order to run OpenOffice.
7. BodhiLinux is another Ubuntu based distribution which supports multi architecture such as ARM, AMD64.

For more lightweight Linux click on the following links,

• http://www.howtogeek.com/172987/revive-your-old-pc-the-3-best-linux-systems-for-old-computers/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-lightweight-linux-distributions-give-pc-lease-life/