Can I run Unity on my machine?

[timwryan]

I have a Dell 700m. It has:

1.60Ghz Intel Pentium M with 2048kB cache
490740kB RAM
Intel 855GME chipset
OpenGL 1.4
1280x800 display


The RAM is user-upgradable to 1GB (or even 2GB if I take apart the keyboard). The processor and chipset I can't do much about. Do I have any options besides purchasing anew computer/using Ubuntu classic?

Thanks,

Tim

[3Miro]

If you can run OpenGL 1.4, then you should be fine.

Can you run desktop effects on 10.10? If you can run Normal desktop effects, then Unity should work fine.

You can always get a liveCD with Unity and boot form it to test.

[timwryan]

I did have screen effects in 10.4, but lost them in 10.10. This was annoying, but not so horrible. Not getting Unity is a little upsetting...

Some digging shows that here is some issue with drivers for the chipset I have. I looked at xorg yesterday and it seems like drivers are out there, but I do not understand how to install them. They do seem to exist, however. I think this is over my head to repair. I have trouble translating what I see on xorg into what I see in my package manager. If anyone feels like walking me through this, I would be much obliged.

Thanks for your help,

Tim

[Rubi1200]

This:

Intel 855GME chipset
could be a problem.

It's an older chipset which already had issues with 10.04 and 10.10. At the time, there were workarounds for that, but whether something like it exists for Natty I don't know.

For Unity hardware requirements, see here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/UnityHardwareRequirements
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DemystifyingUnityGraphicsHardwareRequirements