xubuntu or debian xfce

[ubun2warrior]

hi

i have an old desktop computer with p-4 processor and 256MB RAM. I am planning to install a distro with xfce desktop environment. what should i install xubuntu 10.04 or debian 6 xfce.

i read somewhere that debian would better?? in fact is debian 6 better or ubuntu 10.04?? although i am using ubuntu 10.04 have also tried debian. i didn't find much difference. i was comfortable with both. is there any performance boost with debian??

plz reply!!

[ubun2warrior]

ubuntu is extremely slow on the pc ; the system suddenly hangs and it has to rebooted and debian xfce just does not install on the system... its just stuck at the first screen. so i have installed antix and its working fine for the time being..

[lithopsian]

Debian is generally an older kernel than Ubuntu, and more stable because of the extended testing that goes on before each release. Other than the apps that are bundled there aren't massive differences between the two. Most obviously, Ubuntu has used more and more heavyweight desktops, although you can always replace them.

Debian + XFCE is basically what Crunchbang is (Openbox is also offered in Crunchbang). It is specifically designed to be lightweight distro and would be a better choice with your limited RAM. If you could even slip in a little more memory then I think you would see a big difference.

[cobolt01]

Can't you try and buy a little more RAM? If I'm not mistaken your system needs PC3200 DDR400 RAM. In my experience, systems of this age will run Ubuntu very nicely with 1GB of RAM.

[Bo Fussing]

@ubun2warrior

Anecdotal evidence from reading reviews on Xubuntu (and Xfce distros in general) is that it is not that much lighter in terms of resources than the standard Gnome 2.3 desktop.

You might want to try (the now officially blessed) Lubuntu http://lubuntu.net/ which uses the least resources of any Ubuntu distribution.

Bo

[lithopsian]

Xubuntu is not really lightweight because it uses XFCE on top of all sorts of other stuff from Gnome. I don't think it will work well with 256MB. Debian with XFCE would be better. Crunchbang will definitely work with 256MB, with either XFCE or Openbox.

Your CPU is plenty for any of them although you didn't mention clock speed. 3GHz will run great, less than 2GHz might have you waiting a few seconds for some things.

[Lateralis]

Xfce isn't that lightweight. It used to be lighter than Gnome but that is no longer the case at all. Also, Debian Xfce will not run any quicker than Ubuntu Xfce, since the nuts and bolts of both operating systems are essentially the same. (Just arranged in slight different ways.)

Having helped someone else recently, I would strongly suggest buying more RAM. 256 MB is really very little, and even if you get a modern Linux distro installed, you might struggle to do much with it.

If you can't install more RAM then you could try Lubuntu, for it is a much more lighter desktop than Gnome or Xfce, running as it does LxDE. But even then I couldn't guarantee it will be a particularly happy experience.

[verymadpip]

+1 for Lubuntu.

Is it official yet? I thought it was on its way, but not quite there. I've been wrong before though & definitely will be wrong again.

[lithopsian]

As I said, XFCE as implemented on Ubuntu is not lightweight, but XFCE itself is very lightweight. Check the Crunchbang implementation without all the other stuff that Ubuntu adds and you will see this. It uses less than 100MB RAM at the desktop. Debian + XFCE uses more than that and Xubuntu uses waaaay more, but it would be unfair to blame that on XFCE.

[snowpine]

AntiX is an excellent choice; I don't think you will find much lighter.