Is 512MB RAM enough to run Ubuntu?

[brawnypandora0]

If not, should I get lubuntu instead?

[Dutch70]

If not, should I get lubuntu instead?

1GB is recommended on the link below.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

Xubuntu may be a better option. You can find more info on Xubuntu & Lubuntu on that link also.

You can also add the Lubuntu desktop environment to Xubuntu and choose which to login to at the login screen.
It's just about 1 command to add it.

With that amount of RAM, read this before creating your swap partition.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq

[mastablasta]

yes 512MB is enough to run Ubuntu. In fact it runs on as little as 256 MB ram (depends also on the processor) . but as suggested a lighter weight DE might run even faster (xubuntu, Lubuntu).

[brawnypandora0]

1GB recommended!?!?! Does that mean in future years, it'll become 2GB recommended?

[Grenage]

1GB recommended!?!?! Does that mean in future years, it'll become 2GB recommended?

Yes; Ubuntu is not a minimalist OS, it's a modern 'average-user'-orientated OS.

[brawnypandora0]

When will the minimum RAM requirement hit a ceiling?

[Grenage]

When will the minimum RAM requirement hit a ceiling?

Probably not in our lifetime, it's been steadily increasing for decades!

[Paqman]

It'll run ok on 512MB, but you'll have to be careful about what apps you run. There are lightweight equivalents to a lot of stuff:

Open Office = Abiword & Gnumeric or an online package like Google Docs or Zoho (install webservice-office-zoho for Zoho integration)
Evolution = Webmail (install the package desktop-webmail)
GIMP = pixlr.com

I'm sure other people have more good suggestions. You should also go to System > Prefs > Startup Applications and uncheck anything you're not using, and make sure you've got some swap space, about 1GB should be plenty.

[Dutch70]

When will the minimum RAM requirement hit a ceiling?

Probably not in our lifetime, it's been steadily increasing for decades!

[brawnypandora0]

How do I know which ones to uncheck? Even opening up Firefox or My Documents is unbearably slow--at least ten seconds wait. I guess I have no choice but to switch to lubuntu.

Is it possible to directly switch from Ubuntu to lubuntu without doing a reformat? I have 60GB worth of files on my laptop and my USB 1.0 flash drive is only 1GB capacity. I don't want to transfer everything over to my desktop, do a format, and then transfer everything back to my laptop.