I have an old laptop that I bought semi-new in 2009 which has

>>61921918
Reinstall 7. Really, Linux's desktop composition is quite heavy on resources compared to 7's. At least from what I've tried, Cinnamon, GNOME and KDE.

You should find a tech savvy friend to look at it in person. Maybe some cleanup in Windows can help you with performance. Or perhaps it would be inexpensive for you to do an upgrade, like more RAM or an SSD.

I know the laptop is older in years but it might still have components which can function well to this day. Don't go nuking your OS prematurely, especially if you use MS Office.

Install Gentoo

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>>61922624
You missed the one environment which matches XP levels of light: XFCE.

Try linux mint w/ XFCE, OP.

>music production
it's gonna be bad on Linux. no ez mode foss music software

2009 laptop should run 32 bit xubuntu or lubuntu fine, will run better than a modern windows and can easily emulate classic 16 bit games

also 32 bit Mint MATE is better than Ubuntu MATE

Debian or Fedora with XFCE.

>>61921918
>>61924379
Agreed OP. Try Mint XFCE before buying into all the bullshit. Unless you absolutely need windows, then reinstall 7. But with all the newer updates, its still gonna get bogged down.

>>61921918
Xubuntu