Alternative OS to MS OS's.

Good afternoon,

I was doing some sorting out in the loft over the weekend and came across a ten year [maybe even older] old laptop that has a 75GB HDD, 2GB of RAM, 32-bit and is currently running Windows Vista.

I want to try out [sometime in the near future] something new other than a MS OS [alternative]. I have seen many members here that dual boot MS OS's and alternative OS's [Linux, Lubuntu etc]. I am after an alternative OS that is lightweight and ideally at least includes if possible the following:

Web Browser
Task Manager
Command Prompt
Notepad
Paint
VLC

I understand that there are many different types/flavours of lightweight OS's that can either be installed or can boot and run from a live USB or DVD. On investigation, and this is only an example of course, I saw that TinyCore [Linux distro] is only 11MB in size. I just want something that is lightweight, doesn't use excessive amounts of resources, flexible and mosy importantly highly stable. I am curious what other members use!

Thanks in advance.

Your old laptop is much better than mine.
I have Lubuntu (lubuntu lightweight, fast, easier) that is a light Ubuntu version, looks like Windows and works very well. It will work great on your laptop.
Mint OS and Zorin OS are other good OS.
Linux is fast, free and secure.
BUT, (there is always a "but") it isn't windows and most Windows programs don't work on a Linux machine, but there are equivalents for Linux.

Linux Lite, looks and acts most like windows 7. I have Linux Lite x64, 2.002 beta installed dual boot on old Celeron laptop. Entire OS is less than 1 GB. Based upon Ubuntu and Debian.

Thanks everyone so far for all the recommendations, information and links, it is very much appreciated.

I have researched the suggestions provided with regard to what features they provide, the system resources they use/need and their capabilities. I noticed that the Zorin OS and Elementary OS require a payment. I have looked at the Remix OS and the UNIX derivative Darwin OS [Open Source OS from Apple that forms the basis for macOS] and don't think that is quite what I am after.

I have downloaded the Lubuntu OS, Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon Edition and Linux Lite as these seem very interesting and can be run live from a DVD or USB.

The Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon Edition is quite versatile with regard to the fact that it partitions the HDD [although I will partition the HDD myself prior to installing the OS using AOMEI Partition Assistant] along with the fact that it also appears to setup the dual-boot option for you. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The trouble also is that there are several versions for most of these which makes it even more difficult to decide on a particular system!

I think watching some YouTube videos on some of these is the next port of call.

This is how I have my dual boot set up. Grub is on Linux partition.
How to Dual Boot Windows and Linux. (The Nontraditional way)
I tried the Linux Lite 3.x versions which are larger than 1GB. Too much bloat for my needs.

Hi Snick,

What a great video, thanks for posting the link .
I like the use of EasyBCD to incorporate the Grub Boot Loader [add an entry] into the Windows Boot Loader [modify] rather than into the MBR, it just makes sense. Therefore if either one of the OS's goes down you can still boot into and use the other OS.

I've experienced bootloader issue when Windows 7 had a major update. It only broke the link to grub. Easy fix with EasyBCD.