A lighter distro

[h8uthemost]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure what the appropriate board is to ask this, so I thought I would just ask it here.

I'm looking for a smaller distro that I can run on my computer. I'm currently dual booting Ubuntu with XP(hardly use XP though). But, my computer is about six years old, and only has 512MB of Ram.

Now Ubuntu is pretty fast on my computer. Way faster than Windows anyways. But a friend told me that there are distros that are better suited for my computer, that would run faster.

So I'm asking for suggestions for a smaller, lighter, distro that I can run on my old computer, that is like Ubuntu. I'm used to Ubuntu now. So I'm wanting a distro where all of my apps will run on. Mostly...Opera, JDownloader, Deluge, k3b, and I think that's about it. The main ones I use on a daily basis.

I read about Crunchbang and gave this a shot. It's supposed to be based off of Ubuntu. But I didn't like this distro at all. It was fast, but the feeling of the distro was very strange for me.

Someone suggest Debian. That it's a smaller, lighter, Ubuntu-like distro. Is this true? Would this distro do well on my old computer? Also, can Debian be used as a LiveCD? I would like to try it out before I install it.

Any suggestions you can give me will be well appreciated.

Thank you.

[SuperSonic4]

Debian wouldn't be a bad choice but it's terribly old as a stable version

I would suggest Arch if you're willing to put time into it

[halitech]

I wouldn't say Debian is an Ubuntu-like distro, I would say Ubuntu is a Debian-like distro. Debian has been around for many more years then ubuntu and Ubuntu is based on Debian.

As far as a live cd, yes they do - http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/

If you are looking to speed your system up some, doing minimal installs and putting only what you need will give you a speed boost as you don't get all the clutter you don't need. I've been doing Debian minimal installs and following the instructions here to set up my systems.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26566

I'm not sure about Jdownloader running as I don't use it but it looks like its easy enough to install from their website.

[Yunus Emre]

Using Ubuntu for a long time, .deb packages and Synaptic become a strong addiction. And my personal experiments showed me that this is one of the two important things which should be considered really better before switching your distro.

And when it comes to package managing system, I think Ubuntu (thanks to its crowded and hard working volunteers) and Archlinux (thanks to its less crowded but more hardworking volunteers) are the best distros.

You need to spend much more time to make your Archlinux installation a "completely usable" system, but its lighter and it makes you feel only you're in control.

[fromthehill]

It doesn't matter if you install ubuntu, debian or arch.. if you install arch or debian with the same set of programs that come with ubuntu the system won't be a lot faster.

debian and arch (especially arch) are a lot harder to install and it takes a lot of work to get it usable.

btw if you want the same feeling as the standard ubuntu you can install any distro that you can install with the gnome desktop environment

that said, if ubuntu runs fine just stick with it. It's probably not worth the effort (exept if you install it as a learning experience)

[halitech]

It doesn't matter if you install ubuntu, debian or arch.. if you install arch or debian with the same set of programs that come with ubuntu the system won't be a lot faster.

debian and arch (especially arch) are a lot harder to install and it takes a lot of work to get it usable.



I can't speak for Arch as I've never used it but saying Debian is a lot harder to install and takes a lot of work to get it usable is a fallacy. I can do a fresh install on even an old machine and have it up and running within 45 minutes of booting the cd. True, its not as easy as putting in the Ubuntu cd and booting and selecting install but even doing a minimal install and adding what I want and need does not take that long. Plus, with Ubuntu being based on Debian, whatever the OP knows about working with Ubuntu can mostly be transferred to Debian without a large learning curve.

[Norm24]

You could always try Xubuntu.Its a lightweight version of Ubuntu.
http://www.xubuntu.org/

Sys. requirements:
http://www.xubuntu.org/get

[mkvnmtr]

I do not mind running Ubuntu on 512Mb on some old equipment. I am used to it anl like the package manager. That said I usually add a stick of ram. It is cheap and easy to do. The unit I am typing on came with 256Mb and I added 512Mb and am happy with the performance. I have tried other distros but come back to Ubuntu. I normally start with a minimal install disk but wind up with a pretty normal install with several browsers like chromiun and opera. A minimal Ubuntu install with Xfce4 and not Xubuntu is a lite distro that is nice to use.

[Some Penguin]

http://lightlinux.blogspot.com/2009/02/lightweight-ubuntu-derivatives-for-old.html
might be useful.

One could also use ancient distributions, which were of course generally less resource-intensive than today's versions with fancy compositing window managers, heavyweight browsers and so forth. I recall Red Hat 3-ish running quite well on a 90MHz Pentium w/ 80MB RAM, for instance. :p

I'll note that theoretically, one can use a source-based distribution such as Gentoo and configure it to be rather minimalist... but speaking as somebody who's done Gentoo installs, I'll point out that actually getting it set up can be fairly painful, especially if you haven't done it before and aren't an old hand at Unix-type OSes. Expect to spend much time reading documentation and waiting for programs to compile if you go this route.

[LoloftheRings]

install LXDE on ubuntu and select it from the login screen, its horribly fast. If it's still too slow, try fluxbox.

[tgalati4]

LinuxMINT XFCE or Crunchbang might be faster, but you lose some Gnome Goodness.

I would first max out RAM (which is probably 1 to 2 GB in that machine). Then I would put in a WD320 Blue Scorpion drive. The largest PATA/IDE notebook drive available.

Those two mods will increase your daily, hands-on speed regardless of the distro. I would also keep your current installation and add partitions to test new distros.

I agree, you do get spoiled with the Debian/APT package management system. But don't let that stop you from trying OpenSUSE or Fedora. They won't be faster, but they will look and feel different.

[Gone fishing]

Crunchbang (Ubuntu based distro) looks like its very light and is quick on my box.

[snowpine]

Crunchbang is one of my favorites; I know you did not like its default configuration, but remember than it is infinitely customizable (http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/5297/november-2009-screenshot-thread/).

If you want even more speed, check out Puppy linux. With 512mb, Puppy can load completely into ram for extra speed. I think there is even a version of Puppy with Opera as the default browser.

[whoop]

Your current ubuntu installs seems to be working for you... So I don't see a reason to switch...
This off course does not help you. So I propose a solution with minimal effort and maximum result:

The repos are littered with window managers, install a few fast ones and see which one you like best... A lighter window manager will make your computing experience faster, and you won't have to reinstall your os.

So don't switch distro, switch your window management, just a suggestion.

[XubuRoxMySox]

My computer is similar to the OP's and Xubuntu Karmic runs awesomely fast on it! Even faster, incredibly, than Crunchbang runs on a newer laptop. I dunno what they did to make it smokin' hot like this, but whatever they did, it screams. And it's gorgeous. And it doesn't ship with that troublesome PulseAudio nor the politically incorrect Mono stuff (in case that matters to you).

-Robin

[h8uthemost]

Wow, thank you for all the excellent suggestions guys!

I did download Debian the day I made this post, and I just burnt it and fired it up. But it only gives me an option to install, so I"ll have to check out the LiveCD link that halitech gave me.

But...I think I may hold off on an entirely new distro until I try different window managers like has been suggested.

LoloftheRings suggested LXDE, and claims it's incredibly fast. Any other suggestions?

If a new window manager still isn't what I'm looking for, then I'll try the Debian LiveCD, and even Xubuntu. There's been two posts about Xubuntu.

Any distro that is like Ubuntu, that has the Synaptics Package Manager is really what I'm looking for. I've been using Ubuntu for a couple years now, but I'm still a noob when it comes to a lot of things about Linux. And Ubuntu is just becoming "easy" for me. So I really don't want to switch to a distro that I'm going to have to learn everything all over again.

Thanks again for the suggestions guys! That's more than I was expecting. And please, if anyone has any others, please don't hesitate.

Thanks.

EDIT: So Xubuntu is basically just Ubuntu, except lighter? So all the apps I'm using on Ubuntu right now, should work on Xubuntu?

And I'll keep in mind the suggestions about having a light install. I wiped out Ubuntu a couple months ago and did a fresh install. And when I did that I tried to install only the apps that I really needed. And I'm planning upgrading my Ram to a 1GB or 2GB after New Years. So hopefully that will fix my speed issues.

EDIT AGAIN: Just switched to LXDE, and you're right, it's pretty damn quick. Lol. I'm liking this. Although I can't figure out how to add icons to the bar. In Gnome you just dragged the icon from whatever menu(like the Internet Tab, Sound and Video, etc) right onto the bar. You can't do this in LXDE.