Minimum system requirements

[Mateo]

Wow, looking on ebay I didn't realize that RAM was dirt cheap now (haven't bought any in years). My CPU is supposedly expandable to 512mb. So.. can I buy any memory stick that is SDRAM and it will fit in my computer? I have never upgraded ram on a computer so I don't know about compatibility and such.

[Sunflower1970]

I have a couple of old computers that I was wondering if I could put Ubuntu on. One is a pentium 2, I believe 400mhz processor. I think it originally had Windows 95 or 98, not sure which. I think it's an 8gig hard drive (not sure about ram). The other has an unknown processor (i don't have either computer with me at the time), but it was from the windowsME era, I think 64meg hard drive and unknown amount of RAM memory.

I'm pretty sure the latter can run linux, but would it be able to run GNOME (or KDE, I guess). Or would a minimal WM be necessary? What about the older computer, could it run ubuntu at all?

I put Ubuntu on a Pentium II 400 Mhz. I upgraded the RAM to 384MB, and it has two 15 Gig hard drives. Ubuntu's a bit slow, but runs much, much faster than the Windows 98 (first ed) on that computer.

[Mateo]

Sounds like we have similar computers. Did you use the standard ubuntu distro, with gnome?

[MkfIbK7a]

I put Ubuntu on a Pentium II 400 Mhz. I upgraded the RAM to 384MB, and it has two 15 Gig hard drives. Ubuntu's a bit slow, but runs much, much faster than the Windows 98 (first ed) on that computer.

my setup is the exact same thing but instead of gnome i use fvwm-crystal which is beautiful and extremely speedy

its in the repos

do sudo aptitude install fvwm-crystal

you will be awed at the speed

iceWM can also be good

[Dr. C]

I run Ubuntu Edgy on a Celeron 400 Laptop with 192 MB RAM and 2.5 MB of Video RAM. it actually runs very well, much faster that Windows XP and more stable than Windows 98.

Ubuntu Breezy on the other hand was so extreamly slow on the same laptop as to be totaly useless. There has been a huge order of magnitude improvement over that last year as how Ubuntu performs on my Celeron 400 laptop.

[burek]

Think Openbox for a shining min. system


(or tinywm)

[jdralphs]

hmmm ... i'm running a laptop with i think 2-4mb of video ram, 128mb system ram, and 400mhz k6 processor with a 10gb hdd. i'm running ubuntu edgy, with xfce, enlightenment, and gnome.

gnome is relatively slow
xfce is faster than gnome and slower than enlightenment, but for its features, thats ok.
enlightenment/fluxbox/blackbox run pretty well

gnome runs much better after disabling any, ha, unnecessary services.

the only complaint i have is that video is unplayable. cpu usage goes to 100% and memory/swap levels stay stable. video and sound are out of sync and then pretty mucgh stop altogether. any ideas?

[Artemis3]

If you use gnome, run gconf-editor, look for apps -> metacity -> general and enable "reduced resources". This also has the benefit of getting rid of wireframe animations.
Make sure you use a light theme. If you have 2 HDs put each in a separate pata cable and make swap partitions in both. Linux can use them in parallel faster than a single one.

the only complaint i have is that video is unplayable. cpu usage goes to 100% and memory/swap levels stay stable. video and sound are out of sync and then pretty mucgh stop altogether. any ideas?

Cpu is a major factor for compressed video playback. Try with vlc/mplayer, but don't expect h264 videos to play smooth anytime soon... Mpeg1 should work, mpeg2 and 4 maybe... Don't resize, use a low enough resolution if you can; if video is using shared memory don't assign too much to the card.