Is Ubuntu 9.10 Server what I am looking for?

[p10]

I have an old desktop PC that I have hooked up to my printers, and an usb HD containing all my audio and video. Currently running Mint7. As I nowadays rely on my laptops for everyday surfing and video/audio streaming off of the usb HD.

In other words I have a Mint7 install the old desktop hugging almost 300 of its 512megs of RAM just to access the usb HD and printing a few documents now and then. Would I be better of with an ubuntu server?

I need the desktop to perform the following tasks:

share printers on my home network
make my ntfs-usb-HD available for streaming audio and video to my two Mint7 laptops
have a minimal WM-install for surfing the web, watching sports with sopcast and listening to internet radio.


Could Ubuntu server be the way to go, or am I better of stripping down Ubuntu or Mint to only contain what I really need.

[dca]

The LTS release (8.04) is lighter than the new 9.10, might be what you need...

[adaucourt]

@p10

If your are not looking for a GUI interface, Server is where it's at... Works excellent for File/Print sharing, and from what I have gathered from your requirements that is what you are looking for.

[p10]

@adaucourt

actually I would prefer a minimal GUI, as I need to run some gui-programs on it (web-browser, sopcast player, ftp and torrent program, cd and dvd burner program). So I would be better of with stripped down ubuntu than ubuntu server + gnome-core?

[lykwydchykyn]

Seems like you'd have less work to do stripping down what you've got than reinstalling with the server.

If it were my machine I'd probably put Debian stable on it (provided the printer was compatible), but there's nothing wrong with Mint or Ubuntu either.

Just remove GNOME and compiz and put LXDE on there.

[adaucourt]

actually I would prefer a minimal GUI, as I need to run some gui-programs on it (web-browser, sopcast player, ftp and torrent program, cd and dvd burner program). So I would be better of with stripped down ubuntu than ubuntu server + gnome-core?

You can try Xubuntu... An official version of Ubuntu Linux that uses the XFCE desktop environment. Designed for low-specification computers.
http://www.xubuntu.org (http://www.xubuntu.org/)

[p10]

Just remove GNOME and compiz and put LXDE on there.
Thanx for the tip on LXDE! Will definitely test that on my mint7 box!