[SOLVED] Advice on starting

[Felicity_X]

I have a desktop I believe to be Intel 86 with bios installed but no operating system, bought in 2004. I wish to go Linux and have an old Ubuntu cd. There is no shortage of disk space, as I have just installed a new 80 gig disk drive alongside the original 40 gig one. The Ubuntu live cd I have is working beautifully from the cd rom drive :KS, but as it is version 5.04, I presume it would be best to download a more up to date system onto my hard drive, while using the 5.04 system from my CD drive, rather than uploading the system from my install CD and then attempting implement system updates. Am I correct?

Also I would like some advice on which would be the best flavour of Ubuntu for my needs. I shall be doing lots of word processing, some desktop publishing, lots of internet and a fair amount of accounting both for home and small business finance. I will also need graphics for creating my own greetings cards, etc and software for processing photos and organising into albums. The cd rom version of Ubuntu 5.04 is working reasonably fast. Is there any possibility I will need Xubuntu for speed? Should I try Ubuntu first? Would Kubuntu have advantages for me?

Also, is the latest version of Ubuntu (8.04)watertight enough for a complete linux beginner, or should I go one or two back?

Thanks!

[pytheas22]

I'd definitely recommending installing a more recent version of Ubuntu. Using system update to get from 5.04 to 8.04 would probably be a mess and a waste of bandwidth (each individual system upgrade seems to require about one gigabyte of downloads). Just go to ubuntu.com and download the ISO for 8.04 and burn it to a CD. You can also get disks shipped to you for free (you don't even pay shipping!) or for a few dollars you can buy a disk that will arrive faster than the free ones.

All of the flavors of Ubuntu are going to give you what you need for word processing, photo management and the other things you mention. The main difference between Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu is the desktop manager; most of the major productivity applications are the same. So just pick whichever desktop manager (Gnome for Ubuntu, KDE for Kubuntu or xfce for Xubuntu) you like best. You can always install more desktop managers on top of the default one too if you end up not liking the one you get at first (e.g. you can install KDE in Ubuntu if you want, or Gnome in Kubuntu).

If your machine was new in 2004, any version of Ubuntu should run fine on it. You can use Xubuntu if you prefer it to the other two, but the other flavors should run at speeds that are more than acceptable. I run Ubuntu on two Pentium IV machines that I bought in 2003 and 2004 and it runs plenty fast.

I don't think there's any reason not to use 8.04. All Ubuntu releases are stable (once they are officially released, which 8.04 was last April); unlike some other Linux distributions (e.g. Fedora), you don't need to use older versions to get stable software. The bleeding-edge stuff is reserved for future releases, in this case 8.10.

[Felicity_X]

Thanks very much, Pythias22. All questions answered fully.:)