Linux OS suggestion for old laptop

DSL (Damn Small Linux) would probably run just fine.

You can also try Archlinux (i686 optimized) and install low resource consuming applications :

- Fluxbox/IceWM/Openbox/whatever for the Window Manager
- Rox as a file manager
- Mpd with a client of your liking for the music...
- Mutt as email client ( or Claws if you prefer X oriented)
- Gqview as "picture program"
- Dillo/Links2 for browsing...

Those are just suggestions, you could use whatever you want!

I have heard others refer to CDLinux (find it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cd-linux/ ) as a good one for extremely limited-resource machines like yours. I have not used it, but here it is as a suggestion to check out.

Another is Portable Linux, a SliTaz fork, that sounds interesting -- http://portablelinux.sourceforge.net/

Seconding Goineasy9, I have antiX installed on an old PIII with 512MB RAM and hear it runs swell on a PII with 256MB RAM, but this is probably the minimum regarding system requirements. The developer for SaxenOS also used this latter as a description of the minimum system for his distro in a webpage read recently. Both run very well on my PC.

I all you want to do is surf the web and save small files occasionally, the new Lucid Puppy with a USB stick or Slax with its free "Slax Drive" could serve you well running as LiveCDs.

http://www.linux.org has a list of distros, also, that may be helpful.

Best wishes in your endeavor!