which version for an older v1 model B?

[bcphysics]

Hi,
I have an older Raspberry Pi 1 model B and I tried putting a new raspbian os on it, but it runs poorly. I'm guessing that an older OS version would work better. I know where to find older versions but I don't know how far back to go, which version I should try first. I could do trial-and-error but I assume that others have traveled this path already.

thanks

[DougieLawson]

It won't be any better or worse, it'll just be 100% insecure.

If your old RPi isn't fast enough for your project replace it with a RPi3B.

[pcmanbob]

You have not said what you want to do with your pi, but if you don't need a desktop environment try using Jessie lite,
will even run reasonably fast on an original pi with 256 meg ram.

[mikerr]

If its the 256MB version, then memory is tight:

a) set memory split/GPU usage to 16MB

b) use a different browser than the now default chrome

[alphanumeric]

I have a couple of A+'s I run headless. Instead of running Jessie Lite, I just set them to boot to the command line interface instead of the desktop GUI. Works for me. They do boot up faster and my python file runs sooner. I just run sudo raspi-config if I need to toggle back to the desktop for some reason. Different strokes for different folks.

[bcphysics]

Thanks for the ideas and responses.
I want to build a small weatherstation. Originally I was going to use an Arduino but I thought I'd try the raspberry pi instead. Previously it was used for Kodi/osmc, but I just got a new rpi3.

I had to run the installation three times before the OS would even boot properly (having just downloaded the newest rasbian. Once running it would barely open a chromium browser. I assumed that it was the newer OS causing the problem. Maybe it was something else. I'll try again.

[ghans]

I would not expect wonders. Chromium being sluggish on the first models is to be expeted.

ghans