what version should i use?

**broecher** · October 6th, 2012

Hi,

I have a laptop that was windows2000, has pentium III and 500Mb RAM. I want to use it for internet mostly, rare light word processing.

I am still waiting for the hard drive to arrive, but I am wondering....

Should I go with ubuntu 12.04 or something older or lighter since the system is old? My wireless adapter doesn't work with anything older than 9.04 (when I tested it with the live cd).

Thanks!

**DuckHook** · October 6th, 2012

I had a similar scenario to deal with: old Dell Latitude D600 with Pentium M processor and 500Mb ram. I have had great success with Xubuntu. Other users have said Lubuntu is even tighter on resource use. I'd suggest either distro. You may wish to try Xubuntu first, as it is more complete than Lubuntu. Or install both systems in separate partitions and test which is faster in a real-world environment. Please post details on your wireless adapter as we cannot help you without further info. If adapter is Broadcom, there is a known replacement module for older Broadcoms that must be used in lieu of the module that ships with Ubuntu/variants.

**claracc** · October 6th, 2012

Originally Posted by broecher

Hi,

I have a laptop that was windows2000, has pentium III and 500Mb RAM. I want to use it for internet mostly, rare light word processing.

I am still waiting for the hard drive to arrive, but I am wondering....

Should I go with ubuntu 12.04 or something older or lighter since the system is old? My wireless adapter doesn't work with anything older than 9.04 (when I tested it with the live cd).

Thanks!

I recommend you try lubuntu 12.04 from live CD, (remark, running in live CD will be a little slower than when fully installed in HD).

I have a similar laptop, ten years old pentiumIII, 1 GHz CPU, 512 Mb RAM, from which 64 MB go for graphics card sis 630/730, 20 GB HD.

Lubuntu 12.04 works very well, is quick and responsive, and I use this laptop to surf web principally. The only drawback is seeing flash streaming videos is in low motion, but this is adobe's fault since flashplayer is a resources hog.

**MARP1961** · October 6th, 2012

Lubuntu is quicker than Xubuntu and can be made to look as good.

**GreatDanton** · October 6th, 2012

If you don't mind how the OS looks like, you can also go with Crunchbang. It's excellent for older hardware, and it's even faster than lubuntu.

Regards.

**broecher** · October 6th, 2012

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm trying Lubuntu right now and it looks like it will do. Seems to run fairly well off the CD so it I would think it will be fast once its installed. I like that it comes with chrome too.