Older computer

[CWM84]

Hello,

I am using a OLD Dell Optiplex gx280

512 Megs of Ram

40 Gig hardrive


I am wondering whats best to instal on it?

Xubuntu? Or Lubuntu?

This is a single Core pc..

Thanks,
Christopher

[jadtech]

as I understand it either just remember the older the processor and lower ram the lighter the install the better off you will be and you can still install and attempt to run what ever it will allow ...

[Mopar1973Man]

Give you a sample of what I've just done...

AMD CPU 1.2 GHz
1.0 GB Ram 133 MHz
Older nVidia TNT video card
40 GB Hard Drive

I install fine and seems to operate fine at this point. I will admit I've not hooked up to the Internet as of yet but will by tomorrow. If I can find this thread again I'll post up my results if that might help ya.

[Bucky Ball]

I would go Lubuntu as it is lightest. Actually, I would go for a minimal install, use Lxde as the desktop environment and only plopped the apps I needed on, but that is me.

Best bet; download and burn both, try them from the CD (choose 'Try *ubuntu' when you get to that screen), see which you like and which runs best and go with that. There are lighter again if neither is much good. Double the RAM you would have no problem ... (Mopar1973man has twice the RAM you do so their results don't really relate to the ones you might achieve). ;)

One point which may or may not be relevant to you: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS is a long term support release with support for three years (before anyone rants, it is three for Xubuntu, not five, check it out), while Lubuntu 12.04 seems to be a regular release with support for half that time, eighteen months.

[CWM84]

as I understand it either just remember the older the processor and lower ram the lighter the install the better off you will be and you can still install and attempt to run what ever it will allow ...


The sticker on the front says its a P4
desiged for XP

[Bucky Ball]

I have a P4 3GHz with 1Gb RAM. Works fine. But says nothing about your machine. Try from the CDs. Your P4 is no problem; the lack of RAM is your issue. Possibly other things but won't know until you boot from a LiveCD and find out. ;)

[CWM84]

I have a P4 3GHz with 1Gb RAM. Works fine. But says nothing about your machine. Try from the CDs. Your P4 is no problem; the lack of RAM is your issue. Possibly other things but won't know until you boot from a LiveCD and find out. ;)


So would you go with LU ?

So why doesnt it have a 3 year support? (( Lubuntu ))

I would have to be constantly updating my Kernel?

Thanks,
Christopher

[Mopar1973Man]

(Mopar1973man has twice the RAM you do so their results don't really relate to the ones you might achieve). ;)


Opps... My bad...

Well then getting older, slow and less RAM... I've got a Sony Vaio Laptop running on Xubntu 12.04. The laptop is only 800 MHz AMD, with 192 MB ram and 10 GB hard drive... Slow but it working...

[Bucky Ball]

@CWM84:

- So would you go with LU ?
I use Xfce wholly and solely on my machines.

- So why doesnt it have a 3 year support? (( Lubuntu ))
You would need to investigate that; perhaps email Lubuntu devs.

- I would have to be constantly updating my Kernel?
If you want to go for every Ubuntu release you would be upgrading not just the kernel but the entire system every 6 months. Or you could stick with one release for the full eighteen month support life. Or you could install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and use the same release for five years (and new kernels will be released and installed as part of your regular update through update manager).

Kernel upgrades come as part of normal updates on your release through update manager (or you can use another kernel by installing the PPA manually). A new release, on the other hand, comes every six months and it is entirely up to you whether you go that route or stick with the LTS releases or use both; one stable, one tweak and learn. ;)

[lykwydchykyn]

Ah, I remember when a GX280 was my main work machine. Ran Mepis with KDE3 and compiz on it, back when. You wouldn't want to run KDE on it now! :)

I'd say Lubuntu will probably run better out of the box, but if you install Xubuntu and disable some of the services you don't use it'll probably run just as well.

It really comes down to which desktop environment you like better.

[lykwydchykyn]

So would you go with LU ?

So why doesnt it have a 3 year support? (( Lubuntu ))

I would have to be constantly updating my Kernel?

Thanks,
Christopher

I can't say authoritatively, but I'd assume the reason Lubuntu isn't LTS is because of lack of resources. It's still relatively new, and a fairly small project.

It's worth keeping in mind, "support" means security updates and bugfixes. The core part of Ubuntu is going to be supported for 5 years, so the only part you won't get LTS for is the Lubuntu-specific bits (mostly LXDE).

[CWM84]

I can't say authoritatively, but I'd assume the reason Lubuntu isn't LTS is because of lack of resources. It's still relatively new, and a fairly small project.

It's worth keeping in mind, "support" means security updates and bugfixes. The core part of Ubuntu is going to be supported for 5 years, so the only part you won't get LTS for is the Lubuntu-specific bits (mostly LXDE).


So I should of downloaded Xubuntu?

[Mopar1973Man]

I look at it this way its only time... I would give both a try as a matter of fact I might just give the Lubuntu a shot on the laptop and see what its like.

[Bucky Ball]

So I should of downloaded Xubuntu?

If you have Lubuntu downloaded, try that. It is lighter than Xubuntu anyhow. If you want to try the desktop environment for Xubuntu later, just install xfce4 as I suggested earlier. If that is sluggish, uninstall it again.

This will give you the Xubuntu DE with Lubuntu apps and the Ubuntu core. You can switch back to the Lxde DE anytime. If you added xubuntu-desktop as well that would give you a mix of Xubuntu and Lubuntu apps but that is going to start getting too heavy for your box. ;)

[lkraemer]

I know you referenced *ubuntu, but why not download some ISO's that will work fine with your
current CPU & Memory? That way you can give them a try. I think you will be impressed.....

REF:
http://distrowatch.com

Good LiveCD choices are:
1. Debian 6 "SQUEEZE" (Gnome 2.x) (XFCE LXDE Installs from CD) Supports i486
Install as Minimum Install & select the 486 Kernel
2. TinyCore 4.x (XFCE)
3. Vector 7 (XFCE)
4. Slitaz
5. AntiX M11 IceWM Rox Default (Fluxbox, wmii and dwm also installed)
6. Arch Linux (XFCE) i686
7. Porteus 1.2 RC2 (XFCE)
8. Puppy

There's lots of options. Burn some of the LiveCD's on a CDRW and give them a test. (Arch is a Source Distrbution......Well worth a test! GREAT Wiki/Forum & Documentation)

Since your Memory is greater than 256 Meg. The best i486 choices are:
1. Antix M11
2. Tinycore
3. Arch Linux i686
4. Porteus
5. Salix OS
6. Semplice Linux
7. Slackware 13.37
8. Vector Linux 7
9. Zenwalk Linux
10. CRUX i686


lk

[MarceloG]

Lubuntu. I installed it on a Pentium 3, 512 RAM and it works very well. Your machine will work best with it among the Ubuntus out of the box.

[ticket]

Worth noting that the flash video performance will be very poor. These days, the last Adobe flash version effectively killed hardware acceleration, even for nVidia cards. Only a fast CPU will now give you adequate flash video performance.