Old CPU OS?

[lykwydchykyn]

A P4 with 1.5 GB of RAM is not so old that you should mess with a lot of super-tiny distros.

If "medium-light" distros aren't performing well, it's probably a graphics chip issue.

What's the output of:

lspci |grep -i vga

Honestly, if this was my machine, I'd quit distro hopping, install a minimal install of Debian/Ubuntu/[insert-general-purpose-distro-here] and just try different desktop environments until one of them pops.

[tahdas]

tahdas@PepperMintIcecream ~ $ lspci |grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

Yeah i think im going to stick with Peppermint for now, but id like to have it look mac-e or at least have a Ubuntu like top thingy (You know the thing at the of the screen with the time and mail and notifications.) I'd also like to have the x and minimize button for the browsers on the left instead of the right.
Thanks for the help and the advice!
tahdas

[lykwydchykyn]

tahdas@PepperMintIcecream ~ $ lspci |grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

Just so happens that I've been wrestling with a machine with this very chipset today. The older 800-series intel chips have been really poorly supported for the last several years. With an 865 you're fortunate if X11 even works.

Yeah i think im going to stick with Peppermint for now, but id like to have it look mac-e or at least have a Ubuntu like top thingy (You know the thing at the of the screen with the time and mail and notifications.) I'd also like to have the x and minimize button for the browsers on the left instead of the right.
Thanks for the help and the advice!
tahdas

You can customize this sort of thing in most desktop environments, I'd say start with XFCE and just dig in. Don't be put off if the default look & feel isn't what you want, most desktop environments allow for pretty deep customization (Unity is probably the biggest exception).

[str8bs]

A P4 with 1.5 GB of RAM is not so old that you should mess with a lot of super-tiny distros.

If "medium-light" distros aren't performing well, it's probably a graphics chip issue.

What's the output of:

lspci |grep -i vga

Honestly, if this was my machine, I'd quit distro hopping, install a minimal install of Debian/Ubuntu/[insert-general-purpose-distro-here] and just try different desktop environments until one of them pops.

Excellent point. IMO many often jump to "light" distributions based on presumption of CPU power when the graphics are what is eating all the CPU. And sadly, many follow the bad advice of downloading a so called "correct" xorg.conf from the net that turns a decent GPU into a snail. Good GPU performance can make a night and day difference. If your current GPU isn't well supported or can't be tweaked for improvements, even a cheap $5 - $15 used card can make a huge difference.
I have a Pentium-D with a measly Nvidia 6800 that runs the "fat as it gets" KDE quite well.
For "mac-e" I would go XFCE plus GLx-Dock.

[tahdas]

PicofDesign.pngThis is what i ve done so far.