In message , Adrian Caspersz
writes

The OP, if he is still about, might want to chip in here and let us
know which direction he could be taking this.

The OP is still here :-)

Unfortunately, any thread that dares to mention Linux quickly develops
into a Linux v Windows war, swiftly crashing into a general Linux war of
versions, programs and more, with doubtless knowledgeable and
experienced users all having their say, but leaving the newbies far
behind.

TBH, this seems to be a useful, summary, by TNP, in that I understand
what is being suggested and, perhaps more importantly, why :

quote

Just inject three or four points of sanity into the confusion.

- You can still get 32 bit Linux in latest releases.

- Linux + desktop will just about run in 256Mytes RAM, is usable at
512MBytes and starts to be friendly at 1GB.

- Linux itself is not the problem nor yet is the desktop. Its the apps
themselves. Thunderbird here is taking 256Mbyte RAM ON ITS OWN. Libre
office calc is around 50-100MB. Firefox is around 200Mbyte. On this
freshly booted desktop I am using 1.8GB or RAM for the Linux + those
apps plus Skype plus a reasonable amount of widgets. Dumping all but
thunderbird nets me a shade over 1GB.

- the key element to usability IME are RAM, CPU power, Graphics
acceleration and disk speed. You can't do much with a lappie about CPU
and graphics - either they will allow you to watch a Flash video (the
biggest chewer of CPU+GPU I have encountered outside of real time games)
or they wont. RAM should be increase to bet the machine can get if you
have any spare compatibles lying around,. Often very cheap or free on
old machines. SSD disk will make a massive difference and the good news
is that you don't need much and it can always be taken out and used in
another machine.

- SSD disk is not only very fast to boot, and load programs but more
importantly its very fast to SWAP in and out of - ten times faster than
ordinary disk. So a machine equipped with it that is swapping is far and
away more usable than one without.

- Rather than argue on line, burning the latest 32 bit Mint Mate onto a
DVD and booting from it will reveal exactly how fast it will run Firefox
and Flash, if its unusable, you have lost nothing but a couple of hours
and a burnable DVD. If it is usable even with current disk and RAM, why
not install it.

unquote


--
Graeme