Will I see an increase in speed going from Ubuntu to Xubuntu?

[Warpnow]

My primary pc's motherboard went out, so I threw together some parts and got a Pentium 2 250mhz running with 128mb of ram and an old 8gb hard drive I had from an old machine.

I installed Ubuntu 7.04 and it runs quite well. Just some lag here and there. Takes a little time for applications to start and a while to boot up, but all in all usable. Gaim, Firefox, Openoffice, these all seem to run very well.

But things ARE laggy.

What kind of increase will I see if I go to Xubuntu?

[smartboyathome]

Yes, you will see a huge boost of speed, especially with Compiz Fusion now installed in gutsy.

[Warpnow]

Okay, I'm going to download Xubuntu. I figure if someone in this thread decided to talk me out of it, having it downloaded can't hurt. ;)

Think I should download the LTS or the newest one?

[RAV TUX]

Okay, I'm going to download Xubuntu. I figure if someone in this thread decided to talk me out of it, having it downloaded can't hurt. ;)

Think I should download the LTS or the newest one?The newest one...

Also if you want a DE faster then Xfce in Xubuntu, install e17 CVS and see a even more dramatic difference.
(plus a better looking and more user friendly desktop then Xfce, GNOME or KDE...IMHO)

[aysiu]

As someone who has spent the past 2+ years jumping desktop environments and window managers, eventually ending up on Gnome (despite its shortcomings), I have to say that the #1 thing that determines speed is the applications you use.

Sure, having a lighter desktop environment or even a window manager may feel faster at first, but once you start using heavy apps like OpenOffice and Firefox, it really won't matter what you're using in the background. Those are heavy apps for 128 MB of RAM.

I would look into using lighter apps like Leafpad or Dillo. Or, if you need more features, AbiWord or Galeon.

[Rhapsody]

Think I should download the LTS or the newest one?
I'd go with the latest myself, 6.06 is more than a year old now. But with the old hardware you're using, 6.06 should auto-detect everything correctly and work well. So the only serious difference will be older applications, which you may be able to live with.

[n3tfury]

Yes, you will see a huge boost of speed, especially with Compiz Fusion now installed in gutsy.

"huge" is stretching it a bit.

[mindtrick]

You can install a command-line only system with the alternate cd and then build as you like. I'd go for xfce4 and light apps like abiword, seamonkey, audacious.

Or alternatively you could try Zenwalk which is XFCE based, has a good package manager, fast on older hardware, light but featureful.

[p_quarles]

"huge" is stretching it a bit.
Seriously. I've seen several posts where people were disappointed because they got absolutely no noticeable performance increase with Xfce.

Aysiu's completely right. A lot of the default Ubuntu apps, particularly Firefox and OOo, are memory hogs. There are various tweaks you can apply to Firefox to get it running more quickly, but with OOo, the Java-based environment is just going to be slow. AbiWord/Gnumeric or the Koffice suite are much faster alternatives, though they don't have the same support for ODF.

[Warpnow]

Well, I'm having a problem with Ubuntu. Whenever I try to minimize a program it goes to the background but doesn't appear at the bottom so there's no way I can find to get it back to the front, which makes me just accumulate running programs like crazy.

So, in light of this, I'm looking to change asap. ;)

I did a little research on E17, and it looks nice but difficult to install.

I'm beginning to wonder from what you guys say if any Ubuntu variation is a good idea with as little ram as I have. Would I be better off with DSL or Puppy Linux?

[n3tfury]

Well, I'm having a problem with Ubuntu. Whenever I try to minimize a program it goes to the background but doesn't appear at the bottom so there's no way I can find to get it back to the front, which makes me just accumulate running programs like crazy.



did you delete any of your panels? the bottom panel by default uses the "window list" add on.

[Fbot1]

Would I be better off with DSL or Puppy Linux?

I think so.

[n3tfury]

i'd go with DSL because i can't stand the whole "puppy" image. DSL's a little harder to get your wireless working, but if you're tethered, i'd go for DSL.

[Fbot1]

i'd go with DSL because i can't stand the whole "puppy" image. DSL's a little harder to get your wireless working, but if you're tethered, i'd go for DSL.

http://www.puppylinux.com/puplogo100x100.jpg

AWWWWWWWWW PUPPYS ARE SOOOOOO CUTE!!ONE!!!1!

[Warpnow]

Yeah, I'm downloading DSL and will try that.

I'm wired in. I always use Wired connections on my desktops- I just don't see the point of wireless for Desktops...they won't be moving anyway.

I may download puppy and give it a spin, too, depending on how well I like DSL. Well, more based on how easy it is to get other programs working on it, because I've only heard of a few of the apps that DSL uses, and if I don't like them I might have to try installing some others. I think DSL may take the whole "lightweight" thing a bit too far for me. I may want at least something like Abiword as I do a lot of word processing.

[p_quarles]

http://www.puppylinux.com/puplogo100x100.jpg

AWWWWWWWWW PUPPYS ARE SOOOOOO CUTE!!ONE!!!1!
Sure, but LOLCats Linux (especially the new edition, codename "Invisible Bicycle") is way funnier.

[n3tfury]

http://www.puppylinux.com/puplogo100x100.jpg

AWWWWWWWWW PUPPYS ARE SOOOOOO CUTE!!ONE!!!1!

ugh.

[pablo66]

I really don't need and increase in speed since I'm running a laptop with Core2Duo 2Ghz w/ 2Gb of ram. BUT, would I get longer battery life by running xubuntu or e17?

[aysiu]

I really don't need and increase in speed since I'm running a laptop with Core2Duo 2Ghz w/ 2Gb of ram. BUT, would I get longer battery life by running xubuntu or e17?
I doubt it.

[Warpnow]

I downloaded and installed DSL.

I like the operating system, but it has the worst package management that I've ever seen...its terrible.

Half the programs I try to install don't work, and 90% of the programs I want aren't there, and the organizational structure is terrible and redundant, leaving programs listed 5 different places, none of which make sense...

When I installed Opera, which runs very nicely, the bar at the top with close and minimize, ect, is entirely gone. Gaim, on the other hand, doesn't boot up at all...