What is the oldest version of Ubuntu you can still use today?

[Sega dude]

Yesterday, I tired running Ubuntu 7.10 on an old Dell Optiplex GX1 via a live cd. It ran really well. I also tried it in Virtual PC and found out that it cannot be updated anymore and therefore is pretty much useless. So what is the oldest version of Ubuntu that is still useable today? The GX1 has a 450MHZ Pentium III, a 5GB hard drive and 224MB of SDRAM. Thanks in advance.

[David D.]

Release information is located here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

[deadflowr]

You can use any version of Ubuntu, really.

But in terms of support for the desktop, Precise is currently the oldest supported version out there.

As of now, the oldest overall supported release is Lucid on the server.

I, personally, run older version for experimental purposes in VMs.
The oldest I have run is Dapper Drake(6.06).

But you could probably go even older.

[oldos2er]

Yesterday, I tired running Ubuntu 7.10 on an old Dell Optiplex GX1 via a live cd. It ran really well. I also tried it in Virtual PC and found out that it cannot be updated anymore and therefore is pretty much useless. So what is the oldest version of Ubuntu that is still useable today? The GX1 has a 450MHZ Pentium III, a 5GB hard drive and 224MB of SDRAM. Thanks in advance.

Instead of going for old, and therefore not supported with security updates, bug fixes, etc., go for light. Lubuntu 13.04 would be a good place to start.

[deadflowr]

I would definitely say +1 to using a currently supported derivative such as Lubuntu over an older unsupported release.

Though you can run an older version, persistent bugs and problems will remain throughout it's use and security issues will remain unfixed.

[Gilad_Pellaeon]

Yeah I'd say go Lubuntu 13.04 on that machine too. It's way older then even what I have by several years and Lubuntu makes this system of mine seem pretty quick in most tasks!

[Sega dude]

Ok I will try Lubuntu. Downloading it now.

[deadflowr]

Yeah, if Lubuntu doesn't work out for you, you can try looking at even lighter distros such as puppy linux, or crunchbang.

[tgalati4]

I have a GX1 with 768MB of RAM (max) running at 500MHz. It's slow but workable. I'm thinking of trying Linux Mint Mate 14 since I have it running on newer machines. I have a 250GB drive in it that has 4 distros on it: older Fedora, Suse, BSD, and Linspire!

[Yellow Pasque]

Technically, you can still upgrade 7.10 by changing the sources, but that's highly discouraged for aforementioned reasons: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades/Gutsy
The oldest thing I would run is Lucid/10.04.4