[GloryUprising]

Ok guys (and girls), I have an old laptop (Toshiba Portégé R100, Centrino 1.4ghz, 40gig ssd, 765mb of ram) serving as a front end to a decidedly entry level speaker (Dragonfly 1.0 -> LP-2020A+ -> Dayton B652).

The laptop is currently running Foobar2k under Windows XP and streaming from a UPnP servicer. The setup works well, but there is some slight studdering at high bit depth/rate files even when running a RAM Disk, but that's something I can live with. This setup is nice because I have access to most of my libary without having to duplicate files and UPnP allows me to control the laptop remotely.

But we all know XP is going the way of the Dodo.

I don't do much browsing on the laptop anyhow but was wondering if anyone has any experiance and/or suggestions for a dedicated music OS that will allow me to:
1) Lighweight, resource conserving for a lower powered laptop
2) Stream from a UPnP server.
3) Remote render via UPnp
4) Compatable with a wide range of Dacs (specifically a Dragonfly 1.0 with the option to upgrade later on)?
 
....or should I just keep XP?

Thanks!

 

[cel4145]

What about an SSD? That might speed your laptop up if it can support one. I run one on an old Centrino laptop, and it was a nice upgrade in performance.

 

[earthpeople]

If you aren't doing anything that would expose you to potential dangers and you like XP, I would say just stick with it. 
Otherwise, you'll probably have to explore the wide world of Linux! I don't have experience with any distros for dedicated music playback, but I don't think it would be hard to find one that checks the requirements you listed.
 
cel4145: looks like he's already got an SSD in this computer.

 

[cel4145]

If you aren't doing anything that would expose you to potential dangers and you like XP, I would say just stick with it. 
Otherwise, you'll probably have to explore the wide world of Linux! I don't have experience with any distros for dedicated music playback, but I don't think it would be hard to find one that checks the requirements you listed.

cel4145: looks like he's already got an SSD in this computer.

Sorry. I missed that.

Linux is a good suggestion. Might take some effort at learning.

 

[crthell]

This post is assuming you have minimal experience with Linux. It's better to say too much than too little. Sorry if it comes off as patronizing.
 
I, too, suggest Linux. I'd probably go for a lightweight spin (distribution) of Linux called Lubuntu. It is based off of the popular Ubuntu operating system, but with a lightweight desktop environment that doesn't take as many resources to run smoothly. I've successfully run Foobar2000 in Linux using a compatibility layer known as "WINE." This negates the need for a Linux version of Foobar. I don't know about the streaming, but I've noticed that Linux is pretty on the mark with driver support.
 
If I wasn't as exhausted as I am now, I'd run you through the basics of installing software in Linux. Fortunately, documentation is abundant.

I would initially dual boot so that you can go back to Windows if you need to. As much as I love it, Linux is not for everyone.
 
Some links:
http://lubuntu.org
http://winehq.org

 

[Claude]

I continue to use a 2005 IBM Thinkpad R51 with Windows XP for music playback. It is connected to my home network but no longer has access to the internet (blocked in the router). It's powerful enough to do a live DSD-PCM conversion during playback of an SACD ISO.

 

[GloryUprising]

  This post is assuming you have minimal experience with Linux. It's better to say too much than too little. Sorry if it comes off as patronizing.
 
I, too, suggest Linux. I'd probably go for a lightweight spin (distribution) of Linux called Lubuntu. It is based off of the popular Ubuntu operating system, but with a lightweight desktop environment that doesn't take as many resources to run smoothly. I've successfully run Foobar2000 in Linux using a compatibility layer known as "WINE." This negates the need for a Linux version of Foobar. I don't know about the streaming, but I've noticed that Linux is pretty on the mark with driver support.
 
If I wasn't as exhausted as I am now, I'd run you through the basics of installing software in Linux. Fortunately, documentation is abundant.

I would initially dual boot so that you can go back to Windows if you need to. As much as I love it, Linux is not for everyone.
 
Some links:
http://lubuntu.org
http://winehq.org

 
Thanks for the pointer. I'll check it out.
 

  I continue to use a 2005 IBM Thinkpad R51 with Windows XP for music playback. It is connected to my home network but no longer has access to the internet (blocked in the router). It's powerful enough to do a live DSD-PCM conversion during playback of an SACD ISO.

 
That's currently how it's set up for now; I wanted to see if there were other options available.