possible used laptop purchase

[WildTangent]

I have the opportunity to buy a used Compaq laptop with an AMD K6 @ 400 mhz, a 20GB hard drive, and 128MB of RAM, for $100 canadian. It *should* be able to run Ubuntu, perhaps only with XFCE, but I'd have to see first. My question is, is it worth it? I'm not familiar with older AMD processors, so I don't know how it compares to an Intel CPU. Any advice, or info would be appreciated.

-Wild

[erikpiper]

If it can install from CD: Yes! My AMD smokes all my intels, and 400 is plenty fast for any archetecture but p4. 20 Gb is great for $100! I payed $100 US for a lappy with 350 Mb! This was a while ago though...

[poofyhairguy]

I have the opportunity to buy a used Compaq laptop with an AMD K6 @ 400 mhz, a 20GB hard drive, and 128MB of RAM, for $100 canadian. It *should* be able to run Ubuntu, perhaps only with XFCE, but I'd have to see first. My question is, is it worth it? I'm not familiar with older AMD processors, so I don't know how it compares to an Intel CPU. Any advice, or info would be appreciated.

-Wild

If you can find more ram for it on the internet for a cheap price, then do it!

[WildTangent]

I can probably salvage some memory out of one of the broken laptops at work (We have a pile in the back room ;) ) Right now, the laptop has windows 2000 on it, and it seems to run fine. The screen isnt perfect...its quite light in colour on one side of it, maybe its the backlight out of place, I don't know, but it's tolerable. It's quite a small laptop, its got a 12" screen, 800x600 resolution.

-Wild

[dbott67]

I'm running Ubuntu on a P2-300 with 256 MB RAM and 8 GB hard drive. Ubuntu is a touch on the sluggish side, but is definitely usable. I did a test a few months ago comparing KDE vs. Gnome vs. XFCE vs. IceWM (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=337695#post337695)(plus I also tried blackbox/fluxbox) and found that although XFCE, IceWM and Blackbox and the other "lightweight" window managers tend to be a little more responsive, once you start an app like Firefox, the machine slows considerably.

A basic Ubuntu installation plus any of the DE/WMs above all use more than 128 MB RAM, meaning that if you only have 128 MB, you will be accessing swap quite frequently. If you can get another 128 MB, go for it.

dbott@breezy:~$ free -t -m -o
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 250 246 4 0 13 71
Swap: 203 10 193
Total: 454 256 197

I still run Gnome, but I switched to Opera and my machine is much faster than with Firefox. Some people also recommend Epiphany, but personally I feel that Opera is the fastest on my computer.

-Dave

[Dr. Nick]

I have Ubuntu on a p2 366 with a 10gb hard drive and 128mb memory. I run gnome (sometimes xfce) and Firefox and just live with the slowness, plan to try epiphany or opera out soon though. And when I get around to it may try enlightnment and see how it goes.

[xequence]

Well, gnome is sluggish on my 192 MB RAM 700 Mhz celeron. XP is also slow, but 2000 runs good.

But definitally dont use firefox, go for opera. I accually find openbox more usable then XFCE. You cant get more minimal then openbox ;)

[WildTangent]

Well, you all have me convinced, I'm going to get it (If it isn't sold already). I'll put some more RAM in it, and see how it handles gnome, if it doesn't run very well, I'll just use XFCE or IceWM

-Wild

[Dr. Nick]

Gnome isnt that bad on 128, I just dont multitask much at all. When you get several apps open though it can get pretty sluggish. I may try the openbox or enlightment into gnome trick. If you use the same ram I do, I would assune so since its the same era where pc66,100,133 sodims are used. I would definatley salvage ram for free if possible but unless you go ebay a stick of 128 will run $40 or so online last I checked. If you havent got it yet check and make sure it can take more ram. My compaq only has 2 slots and maxes at 256mb. I have 2 64mb sticks so if i wanted to max mine I would have to buy all new ram which would cost near $100 which isnt worth it since you can get a new laptop for 400 or 500 after rebates or from dell sales.