Will Linux make T43 run faster?

[Jefferson]

I consider a laptop usable if it can run Youtube.

My T43 is pretty much maxed out, with 2.13 Ghz CPU and 2GB memory,

with msata SSD on msata to IDE adapter.

But alas, with XP installed, it runs Youtube at not 720p, not 360p, not even 240p but at 144p,

with intermittently skipping frames.

My question is... Will Linux make it run Youtube better? I'm hoping maybe 360p with no skipping frames?

If so, what bistro of Linux would be good for T43?

Comments are appreciated. Thanks!

[axur-delmeria]

Before jumping to Linux, see if there's a way to watch youtube videos directly from video player applications.

[kfzhu1229]

I consider a laptop usable if it can run Youtube.

My T43 is pretty much maxed out, with 2.13 Ghz CPU and 2GB memory,

with msata SSD on msata to IDE adapter.

Youtube keeps changing their interface and it just runs slower and slower on Pentium M. Now it would take a minute or more just to load the interface, but on Windows 8.1 and similar specs I was able to get it to work on 360p fine, although it is slow to navigate, so you are better looking at 3rd party applications to view youtube videos.
If you are unfortunate enough with the Intel 915 iGPU, then there is nothing you can do, as the Intel GMA struggles with even 720p local video playbacks as it puts too much load on the CPU.

[unix_joe]

Probably not.

But you can try yt-dlp and pull the videos down locally. This reduces the overhead taken by the browser. Then use mpv to play and see how choppy the videos are when played directly from the computer.

[axur-delmeria]

Probably not.

But you can try yt-dlp and pull the videos down locally. This reduces the overhead taken by the browser. Then use mpv to play and see how choppy the videos are when played directly from the computer.

I wonder if Linux will have an advantage here due to OpenGL 2.1 being supported by Linux Mesa and mpv able to make use of it.

[kfzhu1229]

But you can try yt-dlp and pull the videos down locally. This reduces the overhead taken by the browser. Then use mpv to play and see how choppy the videos are when played directly from the computer.

From my experience with Pentium M 780 and FireGL V3200, 1080p local videos will play, but the system is put to the limits with that one. With a slower 2.16Ghz CPU 1080p video will play less well, but should still technically be fine. 720p is no problem.
But with GMA graphics, then that's when you might run into some issues with terrible drivers bogging down the video decoding performance.

[Droider]

I think Linux does not help T43, tried and tested myself. However, Windows 8.1 with msata ssd, pm770 cpu was doing fine while i had it. You can use VLC or other video players to watch youtube.

[kfzhu1229]

I think Linux does not help T43, tried and tested myself. However, Windows 8.1 with msata ssd, pm770 cpu was doing fine while i had it. You can use VLC or other video players to watch youtube.

That is providing the OP has the ATi variant. the GMA variant doesn't even have working graphics drivers under Windows 8.1 and hence would be utterly unusable...
But I have a similar Pentium M 760 specced Acer laptop with discrete graphics currently in Windows 8.1 and that had zero issues under 8.1

[Droider]

I think Linux does not help T43, tried and tested myself. However, Windows 8.1 with msata ssd, pm770 cpu was doing fine while i had it. You can use VLC or other video players to watch youtube.

That is providing the OP has the ATi variant. the GMA variant doesn't even have working graphics drivers under Windows 8.1 and hence would be utterly unusable...
But I have a similar Pentium M 760 specced Acer laptop with discrete graphics currently in Windows 8.1 and that had zero issues under 8.1

There is a working driver for 915gm for vista/windows7 which happens to work with windows 8.1 as well. It was provided by hp for nc6120 model.

I checked their website for the download, sadly i noticed that they dont host drivers for those old models. Good thing, i still have a backup of that file, i am going to dig my backup and provide a download for the O.P to try.

Edit found it. Force install it from device manager if it shows unsupported operating system.
https://file.lu/d/pUI

[kfzhu1229]

There is a working driver for 915gm for vista/windows7 which happens to work with windows 8.1 as well. It was provided by hp for nc6120 model.

I checked their website for the download, sadly i noticed that they dont host drivers for those old models. Good thing, i still have a backup of that file, i am going to dig my backup and provide a download for the O.P to try.

That is a XPDM based driver which unfortunately does not work in Windows 8.1. If you install it via device manager you just get an error (from device manager of course) saying The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows (I just tried, be it in safe mode and/or with disabled signature check), and that is because Windows 8 and 8.1 completely stripped any compatibility with XDDM video card drivers. So unless you happen to have a heavily modded driver that enables Windows Aero support in Windows 7, the driver is not gonna work in Windows 8.1
That said, the UI experience under Windows 8.1 with the default basic driver is actually not any worse than under Windows 7 with the ghetto XPDM driver, where the GPU does barely any acceleration at all and almost everything is thrown at the CPU instead.

[axur-delmeria]

At this rate, it seems that moving to Linux would be better than hanging on to XP or trying to upgrade to 8.1.

[dr_st]

At this rate, it seems that moving to Linux would be better than hanging on to XP or trying to upgrade to 8.1.

Even better would be moving off T43 and onto a faster dual-core CPU. High-end T61/X61 can still perform mostly adequately, even on modern Youtube, and with a modern Windows/Linux.

Neither Windows XP nor a single core CPU is sufficient for what's considered "basic" in modern computing.

[axur-delmeria]

Even better would be moving off T43 and onto a faster dual-core CPU. High-end T61/X61 can still perform mostly adequately, even on modern Youtube, and with a modern Windows/Linux.

Neither Windows XP nor a single core CPU is sufficient for what's considered "basic" in modern computing.

Not modern Windows. The way it installs updates without your consent and beyond your control will instantly use up one CPU core, and leave you limping with the other.

[dr_st]

Not modern Windows. The way it installs updates without your consent and beyond your control will instantly use up one CPU core, and leave you limping with the other.

Pro/Enterprise doesn't do that if you tell it not to. Also, for this kind of stuff, Win7 is modern enough in my view, and there you can disable auto-updates even in the Home versions.

[dimamyth]

A long time ago, I found a working solution for smooth HD (720) offline video even on Atom 270.

The Pentium M is more powerful, AFAIR. So, it's technically possible to play 360p vids, I guess.

In my post in the T61 branch, I made a video comparison between T400 under win 7 and T61 under Ubuntu, playing the same Full HD Youtube video. As can be seen, T61 performs better (and stuttered under Windows).

But I have a custom kernel on this T61, that has a lot of things optimized, and built with Core2 optimizations.

Perhaps the same trick will work for the T43.