Which Ubuntu is perfect for my old pc ?

[Oshima_Kenji]

Hey members.
It's been a long time since I can be able to back to the forums.
Well anyway, I have an old pc that I've bought since 2003. It's 10 years old now, but it's still working.

This is my computer's detail :
1. Processor : Intel Celeron(R) with 1.8 ghz speed
2. RAM : 512mb
3. motherboard : a local motherboard, which is "MSI" labeled.
4. 120GB SATA Drive hdd

In my plan, I was going to replace the old buggy xp with an ubuntu distro.
But the question is, which one should I pick ? And I need to pick the lightest one.

Perhaps, Xubuntu ? or.. Lubuntu ?
Which one is going to run smoothly in my pc ?

Thank you so much for the answer, I appreciate it

[carl4926]

lubuntu

[Oshima_Kenji]

Why you would recommend me Lubuntu ?
How is Lubuntu's performance if I was trying to boot it live by a bootable usb ?
I wanted to know, because, few days ago, I was trying to use a bootable live usb of puppy linux
And it still... Laggy when I got to browse the internet.

If Lubuntu was laggy on the first try with the live usb, should I get it installed, so it'll run smooth ?

Thank you in advance

[carl4926]

Laggy? What graphics device does your machine have? That could be the culprit. Please hope it's not SiS

With only 512MB RAM I would expect live mode to be a bit slow, especially since Puppy loads to the RAM IIRC

If installing lubuntu I wouldn't boot to live mode to run the installer, this makes more RAM available to the installer

[Oshima_Kenji]

No.. It's an old nvidia, which I don't really now which one is the type, but it works normally.

So.. You mean like, I better installing the Lubuntu directly, and no need to bother the live mode?
I wanted to format the hard disk, because there's still a windows xp, but never been touched for a long time.

Okay.. So what should I prepare at all to installing the Lubuntu ?
Because there is still an old xp inside the hard disk, and it wasn't touched by anyone since 2004.

Do I have to format the hard disk via lubuntu live mode, to get rid of the windows ?

Okay then... I guess I'm going to pick the LTS one, because it's going to stay longer, so I don't need to update my os every 6 or 7 months.

Well... Thanks for the reply and the next reply

[carl4926]

LTS doesn't apply to lubuntu IIRC

You can try Live mode, just don't install from there

When you boot the CD you have the option to try or intall
Choosing install bypasses the live mode and reduces the overheads on your RAM for the installer to use, rather than it having to run a live session.

During install you should see an option to erase disk and install or erase XP and install lubuntu

[sudodus]

Hi Oshima_Kenji,

I'd recommend Lubuntu too, version 13.10, and you can use the Alternate Installer or the One Button Installer, which work better with low RAM. But there are also other alternatives, flavours and re-spins of Ubuntu 12.04, which have long time support, and are available either directly or via the One Button Installer, for example Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks, LXLE and Bodhi Linux.

The desktop iso file with the desktop installer is still good, because you can use it to try Lubuntu live without installing.

See these links

Old hardware brought back to life
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Alternate_ISO
One Button Installer, 'OBI'

[Oshima_Kenji]

Well...
Thanks people for the great help
Now, I got my Lubuntu 12.04 installed to my computer
And it works really smooth

Once again, thank you for the great help
Arigatou gozaimas

[sudodus]

But Lubuntu 12.04 has no long time support. It has passed end of life and receives no security updates for the desktop packages

I recommend that you use something else, either the current Lubuntu 13.10 or some other light-weight flavour of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, that has long time support, for example Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks, Xubuntu, LXLE and Bodhi Linux.

See also this link https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BasicSecurity

[xSCCMx]

Try Xubuntu 12.04, I was really satisfied with how well my Dell Inspiron 710m (10 -12 year old laptop) is working with it.