Lubuntu vs Xubuntu on a old laptop?

[mips]

I'm about to give a old HP nx9010 laptop to a 5yr old kid once I get a replacement hard drive. The laptop has a old P4 desktop processor and 256MB of RAM.

I need people with similar spec laptops to comment on this thread as to processor usage & ram usage for Xubuntu vs Lubuntu.

I will be installing lots of educational apps as well as MAME & SNES games for the little girl.

[Shadius]

I've been told that Lubuntu is the lightest of the two. Still 256 MB RAM is very low. :-k You could burn the LiveCDs of each and test it out on the laptop to see how it runs. I'm pretty sure that Lubuntu would be a better fit though.

[viperdvman]

I agree. 256MB RAM is not much. I have a family member with an old P4 Mobile (the Pentium M's were new at the time) that has I think 2GB of RAM in it. So it's possible that your old laptop might be able to utilize more RAM if you're concerned about that. With a P4, it's most likely older DDR 333 RAM (note: not DDR2).

I too think Lubuntu would be the way to go with that little RAM. And utilize plenty of SWAP space too, like maybe 512MB or 1GB just in case you run some RAM-heavy apps on Lubuntu.

[ajgreeny]

Yes, I agree; go with Lubuntu.

I have Lubuntu 12.04 on an old Acer laptop, admittedly with 512MB ram and a celeron cpu, but still slow and old. It uses around 90MB ram at rest, whereas Xubuntu used close to 200MB. Xubuntu is no longer the "poor man's Ubuntu" and is now a fully fledged and very configurable OS for systems that may not be quite powerful enough for unity, gnome 3 or kde, but are in some ways too powerful for LXDE and Lubuntu.

Having said al that, I am very strongly considering Lubuntu for my next main OS, having now got used to its slightly strange ways, and the need for manual editing of some config files for such things as startup applications, and of course you have the pick of every package in the repos, whether they strictly belong to Lubuntu or not.

You may need the alternate install CD to install the system as you have only 256MB ram, but if you already have the live CD, try that first; it may work, even if slowly.

[Dr. C]

I have a similar laptop a Compaq EVO N1000c. It has a P4M 1.8 GHz processsor. When I got it used about 6 years ago I upgraded the RAM to 1GB and have been running Ubuntu on it since then without any problems. It is currently running Ubuntu 10.04.

The one secret to extending the life of an old computer: Max out the RAM.

[BrokenKingpin]

I much prefer Xubuntu over Lubuntu, but for 256MB of RAM I would say go with Lubuntu. On my netbook I don't see much of a performance difference between the two distros, but my netbook as 2GB of RAM, not 256MB lol.

[Shadius]

Yes, I agree; go with Lubuntu.

I have Lubuntu 12.04 on an old Acer laptop, admittedly with 512MB ram and a celeron cpu, but still slow and old. It uses around 90MB ram at rest, whereas Xubuntu used close to 200MB. Xubuntu is no longer the "poor man's Ubuntu" and is now a fully fledged and very configurable OS for systems that may not be quite powerful enough for unity, gnome 3 or kde, but are in some ways too powerful for LXDE and Lubuntu.

Having said al that, I am very strongly considering Lubuntu for my next main OS, having now got used to its slightly strange ways, and the need for manual editing of some config files for such things as startup applications, and of course you have the pick of every package in the repos, whether they strictly belong to Lubuntu or not.

You may need the alternate install CD to install the system as you have only 256MB ram, but if you already have the live CD, try that first; it may work, even if slowly.

I agree. I think you would have to use the alternate CD to install Lubuntu with your 256 MB RAM. You should consider upgrading the RAM if it's possible. Max it out if you can or at 1 GB.

[rai4shu2]

With 256MB of RAM, you'll need to be careful about apps. For example, you'll want to install Midori instead of Firefox. That's really the main thing to think about.

If it were me, I would start with a CLI install from an alternate CD and then build up from there (install openbox and synaptic, then install more stuff from there).

[sanderj]

I'm about to give a old HP nx9010 laptop to a 5yr old kid once I get a replacement hard drive. The laptop has a old P4 desktop processor and 256MB of RAM.

I need people with similar spec laptops to comment on this thread as to processor usage & ram usage for Xubuntu vs Lubuntu.

I will be installing lots of educational apps as well as MAME & SNES games for the little girl.

With 256MB RAM, Xubuntu or Lubuntu won't be the problem (nor a difference); the apps will be. Forget running Chrome or Firefox. And if you run Midori, you won't get HTML5. :-(

So, my advice: upgrade to 1GB, which is possible according to http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11599_na/11599_na.html#Memory

[leclerc65]

I would go with Lucid Puppy.

[mips]

I 'might' be able to get more RAM for this lappy, maybe 1GB total from a generous soul.

Either way I already have the Lubuntu 12.04 32-bit Desktop ISO (which I'm also using on my own old laptop) so I will probably install that and then add xfce 4.10 just to try out.

Just trying to get a feel for things, appreciate other input of people that have been in a similar situation.

[BrokenKingpin]

Either way I already have the Lubuntu 12.04 32-bit Desktop ISO (which I'm also using on my own old laptop) so I will probably install that and then add xfce 4.10 just to try out.
Let us know how Xfce 4.10 runs on that thing... I think without some of the extra stuff that comes with Xubuntu it might run pretty well compared to LXDE.

[mojo risin]

256 MB ram maybe a little low. I have got 512 mb ram and run Lubuntu and it idles at about 150mb RAM using firefox however it is at 320 mb RAM I am not sure about other Browsers, Chromium which is the default is supposed to be lighter as are other like epiphany.
Have to watch though re more memory, because your laptop maybe too old for the type of RAM still to be produced. I upgraded the RAM about 4 years ago and the highest it got was 512 mb RAM and it was the last one they had.

[Frogs Hair]

Bodhi Linux has 128 MB /300 MHz CPU requirement .

[Lightstar]

I chose Lubuntu for mine. Works really well and it's really snappy.

[sudodus]

I 'might' be able to get more RAM for this lappy, maybe 1GB total from a generous soul.

Either way I already have the Lubuntu 12.04 32-bit Desktop ISO (which I'm also using on my own old laptop) so I will probably install that and then add xfce 4.10 just to try out.

Just trying to get a feel for things, appreciate other input of people that have been in a similar situation.

With more RAM, say 1 GB, I would still recommend Lubuntu (at least when thinking about 12.04) because it is not only less hungry for RAM, it also plays video better than the other [KX]Ubuntus.

If you can't get more memory, try also some other distro with LXDE. I installed Knoppix 6.4.4 (yes installed an almost-debian regular system, no frugal install) into an old Compaq with 400 MHz CPU and 192 MB RAM. Puppy also works with that computer, but I think Knoppix works better.

[GreatDanton]

Take a look at my signature. I have lubuntu on my old laptop (with 512mb ram), but in my opinion Puppy Linux is faster. I switched to Lubuntu because of the terminal commands :oops:

[mamamia88]

Neither get debian it's like ubuntu but with way less crap preinstalled. worth a shot anyway. i switched and couldn't be happier

[Face-Ache]

I've been running Lubuntu 12.04 on a Toshiba Satellite M40X machine; 1.8Ghz processor, 512mb RAM. It's been running totally fine, but just today i threw another 1GB of RAM in, and now it's quite a bit quicker.

Other than Ubuntu, i haven't had much experience with other distros, but if you could beef the RAM up to 1GB, i'd say Lubuntu would run really well. :)

[chamber]

Do a gentoo + openbox install. Will be super light and completely tailored.

[mips]

Do a gentoo + openbox install. Will be super light and completely tailored.

Sorry but my Gentoo days are over.

I'm gonna take a existing Lubuntu install I have on my on laptop and transfer the HDD to the other laptop just to test.

[GreatDanton]

Maybe you should take a look at knoppix. I installed it once and it's really lightweight. After installation Knoppix was using only 55 MB of ram-so it's suitable for your machine.

[Artemis3]

I have installed many machines recently with the same configuration: p4 and 256mb of ram, to give away.

My experience: You can use ubuntu minimal, and pick "Ubuntu LXDE Desktop" when it prompts you what to install (there is a "lubuntu minimal", but that won't cut it for end users). Or you could use the lubuntu alternate iso image.

Xubuntu could work as well, especially if you add more ram (even 512m is good enough). Don't install both because you will have duplicate apps in the menus.

Here is the important bit: Do manually specify, say 1g swap partition and the rest for /. When finished, it is very important you modify /etc/fstab and replace relatime with noatime, and the most important of all, means the difference from unusable to usable: add vm.swappiness=0 to the file /etc/sysctl.conf

I always happen to use OEM mode, which makes a temporary user/password; that way when you finish tweaking and installing things after install (such as restricted-extras), you run the prepare oem thing icon on the desktop (it asks your password) before turning the machine off. Next time the computer is turned on, it will ask what login name you want, and what password.

Those who said Debian: you can replicate the exact same thing with ubuntu minimal + command line option, and then instead of installing lubuntu, you would install the same package you would in Debian (eg: xfce4 instead of lubuntu-desktop). While this makes a smaller config, it takes user friendly features away (no Network Manager), and or you will take more time cherry picking the packages you want to provide.

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

[tjeremiah]

Neither get debian it's like ubuntu but with way less crap preinstalled. worth a shot anyway. i switched and couldn't be happier

how much RAM does it consume when idle?

[mips]

how much RAM does it consume when idle?

Very little, <100MB depending on the DE/WM you are using.