X32 on linux or XP?

[sysbox27]

Hi,
I have been running my X32 (1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB disk, ATi Radeon 16MB) on Win7 for a few months now and overall I must say I have been pleasantly surprised with Win7's ability to run on this aged hardware and deliver fair performance.

However...

The one area that bugs me every couple of weeks is the graphics, more specifically the lack of Win7 drivers for this old card. I installed the XP version of the driver and that did improve on the native Win7 driver but still I have faced problems like not being able to view most video in VLC (standard DivX avi's) or being able to watch stuff in youtube in full screen.
I also have problems using ThinkVantage power manager as if I attempt to start it up the machine blue screens with an error linked to the ATi driver i use.

So, I'm now wondering whether WinXP, which is what this laptop shipped with I believe, would be better as all drivers SHOULD work properly (I hope!) or whether to go to Linux.
Any thoughts on this?
Most of the apps I use on this machine are web driven.

Can anyone suggest a particular Linux flavour that would be most suitable?
I have been thinking Ubuntu or Debian, or CrunchBang.

So, to recap:
1) WinXP or Linux? and please provide a reason if you don't mind.
2) If Linux to 1 above, then what distribution and please provide reason for your choice.

Sorry for all the questions but hoping all those X32 (or similar) owners out there will be able to provide some insightful feedback.

Many many thanks in advance and all your advice.

Best regards,
Grant.

[automobus]

In my experience Flash on Linux is awful. That said, the last time I used Flash on a Linux installation was a year ago. Maybe with the increasing adoption of phones and such with embedded Linux, Adobe has improved performance. If you want a rough idea of how Linux Flash will play on your computer, try Puppy. It is a small live CD distribution, so keep in mind that no live environment can ever compete with a local installation. Puppy is unique because, in addition to its many other features, it has Flash installed by default. Give Puppy 4.3.1 a try to get a feel for Linux Flash on your hardware, and consider that it might run even better on an up-to-date installed distro.

Do you really have Windows 7 installed with only 8GB HDD, or is that a mistake?

[NorrisCell]

Win vs Linux will really depend on what you need to do. I feel Linux is a bit smoother running if you have a non-maxed out machine. I have Fedora 12 on my X31 and it works well. You'll have to give up some hardware specific things, such as the native on-screen display and some Fn key combos. Honestly, XP works well as long as you have 1 GB of RAM to back it up. I got an X31 specifically for programming and terminal commands, so I played around with a few different Linux distros

[Temetka]

If you install the tpb package you can have your OSD in linux.

The trick is to run it with elevated priveleges after logging in.

In Ubuntu once I log in, I issue the command "gksudo tpb" enter my password, and BAM! OSD works just fine.

[sysbox27]

Sorry automobus - that should have read 80GB hdd.

Thanks.

[CeeDee]

I tried Ubuntu on my X32 but was never very happy with it as I couldn't find anything that it did, better than XP. My experience with Win 7 was very brief then back to XP. 2gb ram is more than enough for XP but barely enough for Win 7.
IMHO XP is the "right" OS for the X32.