Best Distro for Lenovo x61s (ssd & 2gb ram)

Hello All,

I have rediscovered Linux in the past few months. I really like what I see. I'm still baffled by all the distros and variations that are out there.
What I have tried on the above machine is Win 8, XP Pro, Ubuntu 12.10 & Mint 13.
I put Win8 on another machine as I really like it, but I want to run Linux full time on my x61s (1.6ghx dual core, 2gb ram. Intel 120gb SSD)
Ubuntu 12.10 appears to be a resource hog. If I do not have 4gb ram it really crawls. Is it the Unity desktop that is dragging things down?
Mint is good but it's appearance looks old kind of XP'ish to me, other than that is really flies. I guess what I like is the looks and function of Ubuntu and the performance of Mint. All I am really using it for is torrents, surfing, word processing, etc.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Basically anything will run on it, but you might want to try Xubuntu or Debian instead of regular Ubuntu. There are multiple flavors of Mint, too, if you are not crazy about the MATE desktop.

If none of those suit your fancy, go explore: http://distrowatch.com/

 

I've always liked Joli OS which can be found here: Jolicloud - Joli OS
It's easy to download and you can even try if on-line. Registration is of course free.
I log in with my GMail account and all of my bookmarks linked seamlessly.
Regarding Ubuntu, I like the older versions better (8 & 10.04). than the version 12 you tried.
What's really cool about Ubuntu & Joli is that they can really breath new life into an older computer that is clogged with windows to the point that it is forgotton on a shelf somewhere. It somehow finds all your hardware and well, just seems to work nicely, especially for torrents, surfing, word processing, etc.

 

Thanks to both of you. I'll check them out. Someone at work suggested Puppy Ubuntu also.