We bought it just about a year ago. It is a dinosaur by todays standards I am sure. But it sure does everything much slower than it used to. Don't recall the speed, and don't recall how to find out...

Were does one non -computer literate type obtain Open Source software???

MIght try the new HD route, then just blast the old one. Work off some frustration that way. Got some 12ga 00 buck that is getting kind of old...

In what way is it "running slow". Is there a particular application that is running slow, or is it systemic? What applications are you running in terms of defensive software? Saying a computer is "slow" is like telling the doctor "I don't feel so good".

Also, did it run fine for a little while, and then it started to bog down again?

Picard's theory of a beat up HDD isn't crazy, but it is somewhat unlikely unless there has been physical damage to the drive that didn't kill it. Bad things happen to laptop drives all the time, becuase they get moved, which is kinda the point. Other possibiities are that you may have had some of your ram tank on you, or that it got rattled loose. OR, you restored your files and brought the virus right back in, or you have some really nasty spyware from a site you've visited (which is why I asked if it seemed ok for a little while). All of these things can make your system slow down, as can adding more defensive software, particularly if you go the silly route and have multiple apps with the same function.

I once saw a computer with THREE antiviruses (Nort, MacAfee and AVG) and FOUR firewalls (XP's waste of time, Norton, MacAfee and ZoneAlarm), and while it was well protected, they dogged it down to the point it could barely crawl. While that is the worst I've ever seen, it isn't an uncommon knee jerk reaction to being bitten to have a second AV or firewall put in. But it is like having a second airbag in your steering wheel- doesn't really do anything except make it harder to drive and use the first one.

download.com is a good place

FireFox is the browser I use, OpenOffice is my office suite (handles everything from MS but Access files, but your probably don't work in databases that much). Googling either will find them in a heartbeat. AVG is a good antivirus, ZoneAlarm has nice free version of their firewall, and SpyBot takes care of spyware. Stinger is good if you think your computer is sick and need to find the reason why, if something slips through your defenses, but make sure you download the newest one each time you need it. All of these just take a few minutes to find, then the only thing you pay for is the cost of your download time. And all of these were designed so you don't need a hundred credits in computer science to install them- they aren't as slick as the Microsoft installs, but that just means you have to click the mouse every so often. The difference between being the driver, and being the guy stuffed in the trunk- both get to where they are going, but one's going to have a bad day.

Same here, and I get the same errors that others do. Right now, I'm in a location where there isn't broadband, and the phone lines were new during the Roosevelt Administration. The first one. It's a matter of the server times us out as non-responsive becuase it has better things to do. *shrugs* There is price to be paid for being someplace where your nearest neighbor is 600 yards away.

Be careful with download.com as they have a lot of software that may be free but not all of it is open source.
A good reference list is Here.
The largest, moet well known projects are Openoffice and the Mozilla software such as firefox, Thunderbird, etc.
The reason I specify open source as opposed to just free software is the open source projects are more public. The source code is published in some sort of version control repository where not one single person owns. A lot of times freeware programs are someone thing one person has written in their spare time and the source is only held by them and a couple years later they get tired of doing it and quit and you then can't get any new versions of that software. Open source people may come and go all the time but the code is out there where someone else can pick it up and continue.
Since I rely on my computer a lot I've made some of my own standards to keep me prepared for anything, kind of how we never leave home without our PSK and talk about the x number of essentials for survival, I have some rules that are essential for my computing needs. Open Source and or Cross platform is one of the big essentials for any software I use now.
What has happened to me in the past is some software I've used, be it a free download or paid for package such as Microsoft Money, Visio, Office, Works, etc., is that sometimes the author of the free package will stop updating it or supporting it or with either the free or paid software I upgrade to a new version and the new version doesn't support the file format of the old so you have to keep running two versions of that package. Then you upgrade your (windows) OS and the old version won't work under the new OS so you have to run two computers, one with the new stuff and one with the old. Then you spend a weekend exporting all the data from the old version and importing into the new and cleaning up or filling in anything that got messed up or lost in the conversion process, then a couple years later realize you missed a file and go to your backups then have to find some way to get the old version of that software to read that one file, then find out that old version isn't available anywhere. So you start backing up the software with the data which takes more space and with old versions of paid for software your starting to breach the license agreements.
Much better to stick with the open source stuff. I have one CD with my standard software load, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Gimp, etc. That standard load goes on my laptop, my wife's laptop, my parents pc's, etc and gets burned and stored with my backups. Since its open source I'm free to make and install as many copies as I want with no legal issues. I'm also not limited to one OS version or even one OS. I can edit the same files on my wife's laptop running Windows XP or my pc running linux or some friends Mac or that old Solaris box I found in the trash. If I have to evacuate and loose all my computer equipment I can be back up and running on someone elses or a new one in a few minutes by either installing my software load from cd, downloading it from the internet, or running the portable version from a flash drive. Try and do that with Microsoft Office 97. You don't need to be very computer literate to do this, just be careful when choosing software and research it well, just like you would do for survival gear, be it a flashlight, knife, or PLB.

Firefox

Thunderbird

Open Office

If you've got more than one anti-virus/firewall running at the same time, this can cause serious trouble. Depending on the combination it can crash the system BTDT.

My computer is over 5 years old. I had it built by a small computer shop. Since they built it, they know how to fix it. I had the hard drive kick the bucket. They were able to swap in the electronics in the HD from another to save my data. I am now having some strange problems with IE not working in the user acct. so it will be taking a trip home to the Tek Shop to visit the relatives. Buy another computer. You can never have too many. Besides, you can't search the internet for info on a fix if you can't get to it.

We have already made the decision to get a new laptop next week, will probably keep ole slowmo here for simple stuff, like word processing...