[Klinky]

This should definitely be investigated before investing time getting an alternative OS up and running, along with the troubleshooting and training that comes with it.

Upgrade to the latest CPU for the platform. For $25 you could gain an extra 1+ Ghz or more cores.

Max out ram, for DDR2 systems this is usually 4GB - 8GB. 2GB sticks can easily be had for under $10 a stick.

Replace hard drive with SSD. Especially if it's a low RPM hard drive. 128GB SSDs can be had for $35 on sale.

The above upgrades will easily boost performance whatever OS is already running on the hardware, and total time to install should be 1 - 2 hours.

[jlgaddis]

There are a lot of very respectable laptops available (off-lease and such) for relatively cheap.

I picked up a ThinkPad T420 a few months ago on eBay for, IIRC, $180. For $250 all in, I had a nice i5 laptop w/ 16 GB of RAM and a 120 GB SSD. I didn't need it and don't really use it for anything but it's great when I need a spare or somebody else wants to use it. It could easily serve as a great primary machine for an average user (i.e. e-mail and Facebook / web browsing), though.

[perryh2]

I bought a T420 from Ebay as well for around $180. Everything works well but the screen on my sucked. Did you replace yours?

[jlgaddis]

Nope, it was in great condition.

[yuhong]

The SSD as a boot drive will require an OS reinstall anyway though.

[anonbanker]

dd if=/dev/originaldevice of=/dev/newdevice

Unless the system is too old to contain new drivers, or you're switching from x86 to arm, you shouldn't have a problem. I've done this multiple times, including a gradual upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 to 16.04.

[copperx]

Not really. I usually just image the boot drive.