iMac Questions

I am new to Apple products and just picked up an iMac at a yard sale for cheap. It has OS 9.2 installed and I am wondering about my options for web browsers. It had MSIE 5.1 when I got it, but that wouldn't even go to my home page, yahoo.com, because it is too old. Someone else recommended iCab so I installed the version for my OS. It is ok, but really strikes me as slow compared to Firefox that I am used to. Any suggestions for speedier alternatives to the iCab browser for my machine?

Also, a poster on another forum recommended running Xubuntu in place of OS 9.2. Is that a valid option, and where would I go about getting an install disc?

Finally, the yard sale where I got this iMac had another like it for a pretty low price, but it had a password screen at startup and no one knew what the password was. Is it possible for me to get past this password screen if I buy the computer, or would a reload of the OS be necessary?

Thanks for any help you might offer.

 

350 MHZ G3 processor
128 MB memory