Choosing the best version

[lee-anna-loo]

Hi,

I have one old desktop computer on which I want to install some version of Ubuntu, because whatever I want to do the Windows needs ages to do that.

It has Celeron (902MHz), 384MB of RAM, and around 100GB hard disk.


First I was thinking to install Ubuntu 10.04 or Ubuntu 8.04 (since it was working perfect and it has lower requirements), but then I saw the Xubuntu.


But I wanted to ask for more professional opinion :D, so any recommendations? :)

[snowpine]

Please take a look at the System Requirements:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

Your RAM is low for Ubuntu, but you should be able to run Xubuntu just fine. The best way to know for sure is to burn and boot a Live CD, take it for a test drive. :)

[Megaptera]

Hi,
Useful review & comparisons here:

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/what...t-linux-distro

I like Crunchbang based on Ubuntu 9.04 - very light & fast.

http://crunchbanglinux.org/

You could also look at Peppermint - webcentric and uses Prism:

http://peppermintos.com/

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story...0-025-35-OS-RL

Hope these of interest?

[buggyruss]

I'm using a 600MHz P-III with a gigabyte of ram and something like 60GB of disk. This system has a Radeon 7000 based graphics board and an Intel/Pro network card (hardwired gigabit to in-house "wireless" router (that's used wirelessly for other things...)). I run the display at 1600x1200.

Having said all that, I use this system for surfing, software development, and can listen to streaming Radio Paradise with Amarok while doing it. It's running Xubuntu 8.04.4 and uses the XFCE windowing environment.

Though some websites are slow due to Flash (mostly), the surfing ability is fine in most cases. Development and streaming audio, of course, are superlative (Youtube videos suck, however their sound works great).

I've pretty much castrated the Xubuntu installation - removed all powersaving processes and things like avahi, NetworkManager, etc etc etc.

As a substitute system for when my daughter wants to use "the fast computer" (like as I type this...), it is more than sufficient for my needs.

--------

I'm running 8.04.4 simply because that was the only stable/usable version of {XL}ubuntu I could get running totally - higher versions broke in some manner whether Ubuntu, Lubuntu or Xubuntu. This version, though, appears to be stable for how I use this old desktop computer.


But I apparently have zero need for a higher version.

Good enough.

[Gonzalo_VC]

Well, it is said that plain Ubuntu can run in a system with 256 MB of RAM, although they recommend more.
Xubuntu and Lubuntu (this one is a derivative, not an official distro from Canonical) are lighter. In fact I used Xubuntu 9.10 in a Pentium II with 256 MB of (EDO)RAM, a S3 graphic card with 8 MB, and it worked a little bit slowly but fine! It run Firefox, Abiword and Gnumeric at college.

Your Celeron looks better than that ;)

I guess you'll be able to install any of them and afterwards install some other desktop environment... for instance: install Xubuntu and install latter the LXDE desktop env. and see if it runs better (faster).

And it is said that Ubuntu family 10.04 is faster (lighter?) than 8.04, for instance. Well, my better experience is with the netbook version (right now with Firefox running and 4 tabs opened, using 223 MB of RAM), so it's not fare to compare it with the regular desktop version.

Then you have other light distros outside the Ubuntu family (DSL, Vector, Puppy, etc.).
Cheers.

[lee-anna-loo]

Thank you all for the advices.

I have decided to try installing Xubuntu 10.04. I have already downloaded it, and now I wait for my sister to save her files somewhere else, so I can install it.

I'll inform you for the performances when I'll thy it.