old laptop & ubuntu

[kelliot]

Hi.

someone gave me an old laptop (Dell latitude c500) and I was thinking of putting ubuntu on it. It's only got a 6 gig HD and processor, cel-cum, 700, 128k and memory 512 maxed.

Is it worth it? It would just be used for web surfing and paper writing.

Thanks in advance.

[snowpine]

Hi Kelliot,
128mb of ram is too little for Ubuntu. I would definitely recommend upgrading to the full 512mb if possible.

I have a Dell laptop that's even a little bit older than yours (but has 384mb of ram). I originally installed Ubuntu 7.10 on it as my first Linux distro. It worked fine but was slow. Xubuntu is a little bit quicker as it uses the Xfce desktop environment. CrunchBang (an unofficial Ubuntu+Openbox remix) is faster still.

There are much faster options if you are willing to leave the Ubuntu family.

(edit) To specifically answer your question: Yes, it is worth it! Rehabilitating old computers with Linux is fun.

[kelliot]

Great! It does have the 512mb of ram already. I'm not attached to ubuntu it's just the only distro i'm at all familiar with. Do you recommend another that would work better?

Thanks. Looks like I've got a new holiday project.

[snowpine]

Great! It does have the 512mb of ram already. I'm not attached to ubuntu it's just the only distro i'm at all familiar with. Do you recommend another that would work better?

Thanks. Looks like I've got a new holiday project.

My recommendation is give Xubuntu a try first. Mostly because you can use the awesome forums here. :) It includes Abiword and Firefox so you can write papers and surf. Ubuntu and Xubuntu have the same "guts" so any existing Ubuntu knowledge you have will transfer.

If you are feeling adventurous, I really like CrunchBang (http://www.crunchbanglinux.org). But it is not for everyone--it has kind of a black-and-white minimalist vibe without much "eye candy"--and has a much smaller user base than Ubuntu/Xubuntu.

Do you know how to burn and boot from a Live CD? That is the best way to try distros, see what you like. Just keep in mind that a Live CD is slower than an actual install.

[kelliot]

ok, sounds like Xubuntu is the way to go. I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing this. I'm not a serious techy. It's got Windows 2000 on it now and I was going to wipe it and install linux (since only 6 gig hd). How do you boot from a live cd?

[icanfly0307]

Hey,
I'm running Ubuntu 8.04 on a P3 1 Ghz, 256 MB RAM machine and it works fine. I really haven't noticed a lot of difference between Xubuntu and Ubuntu. So its all up to you. I'd say that either of them would work fine.

Good Luck! :)

[snowpine]

Here's a good tutorial on burning a Live CD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Most of the time, you can just put the Live CD in your computer and turn it on. If that doesn't work, you can go into the bios (usually when you turn the computer on, it says something like F2 for setup) and change the order of boot devices so the CD drive comes before the hard drive.

[kelliot]

Thanks for your help!!!