Ubuntu's pretty cool, and it would probably work quite well, and you can customize it a lot.


Do not use a starter edition, they are way too restrictive. I have 7 Starter on my netbook, and it won't even let me change the background by default

Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 dual-boot.

Windows 8 RP and Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 2 dual-boot.

I don't use Ubuntu 11.x anymore since Unity lags on both the computer described and the laptop I use as my main machine. It seems like a copy of the Windows 7 taskbar and Mac OS X's dock combined and it didn't really work too well for programs I needed the most, like Pidgin, compared to Pidgin's Mac equivalent Adium on OS X and Pidgin on Windows and Ubuntu 10.10

I'll set up Windows XP later. Hey, I'll be able to play Theme Park World again!

Just disable unity.Use gnome 3 or KDE.

Windows 7, if you're willing to just download the ISO.
If not, Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Hey ho, buddy it's Ubuntu 12.10, not 11.10.

Good point.

I don't know your budget, but maybe you can get a cheap Windows Server 2008 (or 2003 (it is cheaper)) license.
Windows 2008 is the "better" vista, I read a article about it in 2010. I tried it myself with the test-version and the trick to expand the test-time. It was awesome.
There are some good Websites:
http://www.win2008workstation.com/
http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/

2003 is also not that bad, better than Windows XP and of course cheaper than 2008.
http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/index.htm

When I get/build a new computer I will probably choose a Win-Server as Workstation.

Windows Server 2008 is in no way a "better" Vista, since they're built off of the same kernel and underlying codebase. What you're thinking of is Windows Server 2003, which really was a "better" Windows XP, since it was NT 5.2 compared to NT 5.1.

You might get some real world speed "benefits", but really that's due to nothing more than the fact that Server 2008 has a lot of the client niceties disables, so once you enable those it'll be more of a perceived benefit than anything.

those websites show how to reactivate these niceties...
I think he should try 2003
Anyways 2008 is not as bad as Vista

They're the same OS.

As Derf has already said, the only difference is what is enabled. If you were to enable the entire client feature set on Server 2008, it'd run exactly like Vista.

ooooookay I accept the facts
Then he should try 2003 and convert it to a workstation, if XP is too old

What OS did it come with? If it's NT 6.x then (usually) there shouldn't be any driver issues with any NT 6.x OS...Windows 8 will most likely run fine with this specs and the RTM can only get better.
About the netbook, did you do a clean install? Cause all the bloatware that comes with it can slow things down severely.