Skype and Abiword or similar

Hi, as I mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I'm new to Knoppix, but not to Linux. I've been an Ubuntu long term newby for some years. I'm trying Knoppix for a change. I've installed it on a flash drive and I like it. Being old, my computing needs are not great. Two things I'd like are Skype(grandkids gave me a cam thing - didn't work on Ubuntu - knoppix saw it straight away). So how do I get Skype. And, - not Abiword especially,- but LibreOffice takes forever to load. My computers (I have 3 Linux only), are out-of-date things handed down to me by geekish grandkids. Its become a hobby............sarum

Since you mention LibreOffice, I assume you are running 6.4.4 - otherwise install that.
I have used Skype on Knoppix 6.2.1 - it worked, but not perfectly, on a 3 year old computer. So, it can be done, but old hardware may be too slow/limited. You might try to reinstall/upgrade LibreOffice to make it run faster, it shouldn't be that much of a resource hog. What does top tell you about the state of the system during the too-slow-conditions?

I assume that you have stuffed as much memory as possible into the machine(s). Upgrading from 512 to 2048M on a 5 year old Asus A3hf made a difference for me.

Oh, and I forgot three things:
1. You aren't on a USB1 port? Think some old computers may have a mix of USB1 and 2 drives, like many nowadays have a mix of USB2 and 3.
2. Tried a faster pendrive? You can get them beyond 20MB/s with USB2 - that's not far from some internal 5400 rpm disks.
3. Tried to copy KNOPPIX to hard disk and run from there? Can make everything simpler and speedier - yue can still boot from the pendrive, but you run from HD copy of Knoppix.

Sorry for the delay in replying. I'm now using Knoppix on my Ubuntu computer, but only on 'live CD' mode. I suppose it's obvious but I didn't realise that USB2 and 4GB of ram would make so much difference. Thanks for your help...sarum