Debian netinst. vs. Ubuntu minimal

[wolfen69]

i running ubuntu minimal (7.10) with xfce. i have 160mb ram that is pretty much maxed out on this laptop. it runs pretty good for a 10yr old computer, but was wondering if a netinstall of debian etch would be a little lighter on ram usage.

[kerry_s]

depends on how you build it.
starting from scratch, debian is smaller, faster, more stable then ubuntu.

i use a custom etch/lenny on 450mhz 256mb ram, i built mine from the base up to be low resource and fast. everything i use is light and doesn't take up much resources. i barely use swap, it takes a lot of multi-tasking to get into swap.

xfce4 is a bit heavy for 160mb ram, you should go lighter to maximize performance. i use jwm on mine, takes getting use to, but well worth it.

just give it a go->
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/4.0_r3/i386/iso-cd/debian-40r3-i386-businesscard.iso

[jdhore]

i running ubuntu minimal (7.10) with xfce. i have 160mb ram that is pretty much maxed out on this laptop. it runs pretty good for a 10yr old computer, but was wondering if a netinstall of debian etch would be a little lighter on ram usage.

My dad was running Debian Etch on his laptop (700MhZ P3, 128MB RAM) with GNOME and it ran pretty decently, so i think Etch with XFCE would prolly run pretty well...Certainly better than Ubuntu, that i can guarantee without a shadow of a doubt.

[wolfen69]

well, here's a quick heads-up on my conclusions. there is basically no difference between debian netinst. and ubuntu minimal. both use the same amount of ram. so i went back to ubuntu. peace.

[polmir]

You install weekly-builds testing
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/
It is good idea.