Which OS is the best for me?

[LittlDot]

I really dont know much about this operating system, so i want to try it for the first time.
this is my labtop


Any suggestion about which is the best for my machine? thanks!

[deadflowr]

Look at lubuntu

Don't know about best, but should be light enough for ya.

[Sef]

You could use Ubuntu itself. Minimum recommended RAM is 512 MB.

[arpanaut]

Make some live cd/dvd/usb's and try a few versions and decide for yourself.
Granted, lubuntu, xubuntu may suit your system better.

[lykwydchykyn]

Your *hardware* would be happiest with something a little lighter than regular Ubuntu; but the question is, what do *you* want your laptop to be like? How do you want it to look? How do you want to interact with it? How important is speed vs. looks or functionality?

We have an embarrassment of riches these days when it comes to desktop environment choices, and that's probably the single biggest factor in determining performance and in helping you choose the best distribution of Linux to run.

[LittlDot]

i really dont care much about fancy stuff. all i want its that it runs cool in my labtop, cuz actually i only use this labtop for 5 things.
1- Play a game called : Command and conquer: Red alert 2
2-Use notepad ++
3-Play steam game. In this labtop i can only play "Counter strike 1.6" becouse it has a low processor.
4- i dont know if is possible to use hamachi on linux and also Skype i need to make a research.
5- Prgraminng in java and C.

[lykwydchykyn]

I don't do much gaming, so I don't know if your games will work on Linux or not. You probably want to stay in the Ubuntu family since that's what Steam is targetting.

Since you don't care much about looks and want low cpu usage, I'd suggest starting with Lubuntu. It's got a very simple desktop environment reminiscent of Windows XP, and is the lightest of the "official flavors" of Ubuntu. If you want something a little less traditional, but still light, try out Bodhi Linux; it's also based on Ubuntu, but not official, and uses the Enlightenment desktop.

Xubuntu is also very solid and lightweight, and its desktop environment has been around longer than the other two I mentioned.

Some other random advice:

- Notepad++ can be run in wine, but we have a lot of great programmer-oriented text editors that run natively. Geany is a good place to start.
- Skype works. No idea what hamachi is.
- Ubuntu ships with OpenJDK java, but you can install Oracle Java from the Oracle website too.
- Just about any Linux distro is great for C development, from what I hear.

[lisati]

I've run "standard" Ubuntu on a machine with similar specs (same CPU, slightly less RAM, not sure about the grapics), and it worked reasonably well for browsing, email, and other interet related tasks. This was a few Ubuntu versions ago: because thing might have changed, so I'd suggest trying a "Live CD" or similar on a more recent version.

[3rdalbum]

Ubuntu 12.04 will work. 32-bit or 64-bit. I wouldnt recommmend Ubuntu 12.10 as it really needs better 3d ability than your computer is likely to have.

However, Lubuntu or Xubuntu 12.10 will be fine.

[LittlDot]

Since everyone consider "Lubuntu" and "Xubuntu" as good options i will try boths. if it didnt help i will come back and make other post.

Thanks to everyone who took time to read and respond.

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