Is your Hardware getting too old for the latest version of your favourite Distro ??

[xyzzyman]

My Pentium 4 3.0 ghz w/ 2 gig of ram and a GeForce 7300 GS w/512 vram works great with 10.04 other than it really struggles with the playback of HD video from my HD Flip camera. I tried installing 11.10 first in a dual boot then by itself and it just did not work. I like the LTS Ubuntus. I hope 12.04 works with my computer.

I've dealt with new netbooks that struggle with HD video playback if they don't have the drivers set up to do hardware-accelerated playback off the video card.

If you are comfortable setting up dual-boots, it wouldn't hurt to try to install a daily build of 12.04 (If you can spare 8-10GB's to a partition that's way more than enough.) That way if there is a problem, you can report it back. If you have any questions or issues their is a subforum here http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412. I know there are people running the alpha full time with less than a 3Ghz P4 and integrated video so you should be good, especially if you have hyper-threading in that model.

[xyzzyman]

At work, I get a new machine every few years when Windows bumps up its requirements, even though I run Kubuntu. I haven't *felt like* my machine needed an upgrade the last two times, but who would say 'no' to MORE POWER!!??!?

At home, we run our machines into the ground. Which was pretty easy to do for a while, what with the capacitor plague of the early 2000's.

I think the move to 3D-accelerated desktops, along with the general development reboot of major desktop projects, has "obsoleted" a lot more hardware in the last few years than the regular progression of software development normally would have. Then again, I guess there's always some new development that comes along.

Oh those capacitors. The clam-shell case Dell Dimensions were almost always guaranteed to have bulging ones. I was always glad in a secretive way, because then I didn't have to explain why RAMBUS was so expensive and hard to get.

I hear you about not turning down more power. I would have been on my P4 for a few more years if I hadn't just wound up getting impossible to beat deals a few times on closeout OEM desktops that were cheaper than buying the parts on newegg. The only reason I caved and got my first notebook was a woman on craigslist was selling hers for $250 that she'd paid $600 6 months previous, because she wanted an iPhone... I hope she regretted that.

[LinuxFan999]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: This is my main computer:
Make/Model: Gateway LX 6810-01
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHZ
RAM: 8GB DDR2-800
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 120
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB (nearly 3 years old, but has 0 bad sectors)
Current OS: Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit (originally Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64 bit)

This computer was originally bought in February 2009 to replace a "dead" HP computer (revived a few months later). I installed Ubuntu onto it fairly recently (January 12, 2012). Everything worked great in Ubuntu from the beginning, and Ubuntu 11.10 is very fast on this computer, even with Unity 3D. I think it will be at least one more year before I need to upgrade, although Ubuntu 14.04 would probably run well on it. This computer is nearly 3 years old, and is still running well. As mentioned in the specifications I provided, the hard drive has no bad sectors (the average hard drive will likely have a few of them after being used for that long), which is a good thing (S.M.A.R.T indicated, however, that the spin up time increased to 4.9 seconds from the 4.8 seconds it took to spin up yesterday, so I am not sure how much longer this hard drive will last). Overall, It is running very well, and i probably will not need to get a new computer for quite a while.

[OGpmpdog]

No, my desktop, 4 years old, is still chugging along.

My Specs:

Core 2 Duo Allendale 2.4 GHz
775 Socket MSI Mobo
500W Antec PSU
2 GB RAM
GT 210 Nvidia Video Card
ASUS DVD Burner
5 HD's (from 80G to 1.5 TB)

I have Intrepid, Karmic, Lucid, Natty, and Precise installed...and will probably install Terrific Titmouse (14.04) in 2014.

I've replaced the PSU and heatsink/fan within the last 6 months...the system began to "hang" during POST.

As far as desktops, Precise is the most polished Ubuntu Alpha release I've tested...

This is funny to me; I also have a newer desktop (to eventually phase out my core2duo) with Sandy Bridge and 1155 chipset...and the mobo is ALREADY bad (it was probably defective, wish I woulda known sooner)...so, this is a case of my hardware being too NEW

[Dragonbite]

My current laptop is a 5-6 year old Pentium M @ 1.8 GHz (back when systems only hand one core) maxed out at 2 GB of Ram and with ATI video.

It runs Unity and Gnome-shell alright, though it does hesitate when pulling up the overlay. I'll probably give KDE a try for comparison and if all else fails, go to XFCE.

Oh, and it runs Windows 7 too.

[Shazaam]

Not to old for me. Upgraded from this...
Soyo KT-600 mb
Athlon XP 3200+
BFG 7800 GS
2gig DDR

To this (total cost-less than $100 US)...
MSI K9n6 mb
Athlon X2 5000+
XFX 9800 GSO
2gig PC-5400

It's amazing what a dual-core does for Virtualbox.

[hhh]

6 year old El Cheapo Compaq Presario SR2010NX desktop, upgraded to 1G RAM. Doing fine on Debian wheezy, thank you.

[TeamRocket1233c]

Well, my current hardware is 13 years old almost, and it runs my fave distro, Crunchbang, pretty much perfectly, although a tad slow.

The hardware that I want to put Tiny Core on is about 12 years old.

However, if I get a decent desktop with current hardware and a laptop with current hardware, I'm putting Crunchbang 10 on the laptop and Lubuntu 11.10 or Fedora 16 LXDE spin on the desktop (or whichever release is out at the time).

May put GhostBSD, full-blown Ubuntu, or Fedora 16 Gnome on something.

[momist]

How old is my PC? I don't know . . .
The newest part is the hard drive, WD Caviar Green 1TB about June 2010. The oldest part would the case, new in 1998. My SCSI scanner dates from 1999. All the other parts have been changed and added piecemeal over the years, and I know the MB is long in the tooth (Asus A8V Deluxe), but that was bought 'used' and I don't know it's age.

The original poster in this thread was questioning how long his hardware would support the operating system developments. Mine has just failed, in the sense that the video card (Nvidia FX 5200) will not run Unity 3D. Maybe nVidia will update the drivers for this (10 year old?) card, but I'm not counting on it. My conundrum is that the AGP interface on the MB is limiting my choices in replacement card, and I don't know what the available drivers will support. Another limitation is my reluctance to consider a card with a cooling fan (I like a quiet PC). Changing the MB is an expensive option which would result in a new processor, new memory, and possibly a new scanner if I can't get something that interfaces to SCSI.

So I will stick with what I've got, and try to find a video card to suit, and I think Ubuntu will not change so much in the next couple of years as to get beyond my PCs capabilities. It all depends on how much you are willing to mess around with it, rather than throw it away and buy something new.

[mips]

So I will stick with what I've got, and try to find a video card to suit...

The current drivers support the Geforce 6xxx and up.

When it comes AGP your options stretch as far as the Geforce 7xxx series cards, beyond that it's all PCIe.

Your best bet is the 66xx-68xx & 76xx-78xx GT/GTX cards. The higher the second digit the better the performance. I would not consider anything with a second digit lower than 6, ideally you want to go for a 8.

New these cards are expensive so I suggest you shop around for second hand. I got a 7600GT for free the other day but it was PCIe.