Newbie has a question

[misternemo]

Hello guys,girls or other...


(Background info)
I have always been interested in stuf like this just i was always afraid to do so but starting today i want to take the plunge.

my lappie specs
windos 10 64 bit
intel core2 duo cpu p8700 @2.53ghz 3.0 gb ram mobile intel 4 series express chipset family honestly this might aswel have been in chinese no idea what it means..

- My laptop doesnt have the complete miminum requerment to run the os ?
I only have 3 gb of ram i think my laptop is pretty old so i was shocked when i found this i thought ubuntu was suposed to be really good for older pc...

• 4 GiB RAM (system memory)

Does this mean i can not instal ubuntu? should i look for other linux based os that hopefully can run???


Edit
Sorry just found the existence of these two
Lightweight GUI alternative (Xubuntu and Lubuntu)

does this mean in my case i should use these ? if yes why are there two ??? and is it really neccecary with my spec laptop
also what is the difrence what would i be missing out on if i use these instead of ubuntu or do they work the same look the same but simple or something?

Edit 2
btw i put a ssd in my old lappietop i dont know if that is useful info?
oh and orginaly my laptop came with winods vista?

Thanks in advance

N

[kc1di]

Hello and Welcome to the Forums,

For that Machine. Ubuntu with gnome would not run well. But Lubuntu or even Xubuntu and Maybe Kubuntu Should work for you.
Down load the live image and give each a try and select the one that works best for you.
Good Luck.

[GhX6GZMB]

Lubuntu 20.04LTS runs fine on my 12 year old laptop with 2 GB RAM, 2 GHz CPU.
Ubuntu is too heavy, but that's due to the Gnome desktop (been there, tried that).

PS. If you choose this, www.lubuntu.me is the right download site. Don't use lubuntu.net

[Autodave]

Xubuntu is a little heavier than Lubuntu, but it gives you a little better looking desktop. I run Xubuntu on a lesser machine than yours (with an SSD) and it runs fine.

[mikewhatever]

You can install Ubuntu on that laptop. However, Xubuntu, Ubuntu-Mate and Lubuntu are better options. I suggest whaching or reading reviews to help you decide which one you like.

Ubuntu Mate --> https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/...ate-focal.html

Xubuntu --> https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/xubuntu-focal.html

[Impavidus]

Regular Ubuntu may install on your computer, but you won't have a lot of memory left for web browsing, photo editing or whatever you want to do with it.

Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu etc. are flavours of Ubuntu. They use the same software sources, so you can install exactly the same software from the official repositories in the same way. The difference is the set of applications that get installed by default. In the Linux world, the desktop environment is just another application and these flavours use different desktop environments. That's why they have very different looks and memory requirements, but under the skin they're basically the same.

Although you can install exactly the same software on all flavours, some combinations may work better than others as some combinations of software are better at sharing resources.

https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours

[guiverc]

The closest laptop I have to your specs is
motion computing j3400 (c2d-u9400, 4gb, intel mobile 4 series)

I know mine will run all Ubuntu flavors, though I have a preference for the lighter flavors of Lubuntu or Xubuntu, Kubuntu and/or Ubuntu-MATE would be next choices. What's best for you though, really only you can decide.

The best is decided I think on
- personal choice, what you like (very subjective)
- final applications you will run (esp. with limited RAM)

The second point though you won't be able to decide; with <4GB of RAM I consider the apps I plan to run in deciding my desktop; it's really critical with 1GB, significant with 2GB, with 3GB it's less so, at 4GB its somewhat optional). The wrong mix of applications can cause multiple libraries that do the same thing to need to be in memory at the same time which costs RAM, which is why each desktop provides different applications that do the same thing as different apps in other desktops. With enough RAM you can ignore this, but for you I'd suggest just ignoring it anyway.

(FYI: this is similar detail to @Impavidus, just in a more annoying, probably less readable way sorry.)

You can download an ISO with the already provided https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours link

(Optional: Verify your download https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutoria...erify-ubuntu#0 which I think is worthwhile but I think most skip; it's rarely an issue though)

Write it to thumb-drive -
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutoria...ntu#1-overview
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutoria...cos#1-overview
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutoria...ows#1-overview

(Confirm your write to media was flawless https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...IntegrityCheck which isn't necessary on any 20.04 media as it's now default behavior)

Try it before install - https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/try-ubu...re-you-install
which will apply to all flavors.

Hopefully you'll reach a decision as to which desktop best suits you... Good luck

(I'm yet to get there, so my j3400 has more than one desktop installed on it, and that just complicates things...)

[ActionParsnip]

Ubuntu will run well on 4Gb RAM. Your system is more than capable.

[kc1di]

Hello guys,girls or othe

Edit
Sorry just found the existence of these two
Lightweight GUI alternative (Xubuntu and Lubuntu)

does this mean in my case i should use these ? if yes why are there two ??? and is it really neccecary with my spec laptop
also what is the difrence what would i be missing out on if i use these instead of ubuntu or do they work the same look the same but simple or something?

Edit 2
btw i put a ssd in my old lappietop i dont know if that is useful info?
oh and orginaly my laptop came with winods vista?

Thanks in advance

N

If i was trying to use your laptop I would go with Lubuntu It's the lightest weight of the Ubuntu flavors and should work on you old laptop. The difference in the different flavors of ubuntu are mostly the Desktop being used and associated apps. Ubuntu Main, uses the Gnome Desktop and is quite intensive on the need for ram. Kubuntu Uses the KDE/ PLasma desktop and they have made great stride of late in reducing ram usage. It may work ok on your Laptop. Xubuntu, uses the XFCE desktop which is mid-weight desktop and uses less ram than ubuntu. Ubuntu -Mate uses the mate desktop and is comparable with the ram usage of XFCE but maybe a little more intensive. Laptop of you vintage may be able to run it. And Lubuntu uses the lxqt desktop which is quite light weight. Each desktop has it's own set of apps that go with it. some over laps. Again I would advise you to down load and burn the live disks for each one and try them on that machine. Find the one that does what you need to do and uses the least amount of processor and ram.

With a Laptop of that vintage you may also run into driver issues for the video card and or wifi card. You will just have to try them and see. Good luck hope this helps you understand Ubuntu a little better.

bye the way the SSD should help speed up the machine when you get a distro to work.

[SeijiSensei]

does this mean in my case i should use these ? if yes why are there two ??? and is it really neccecary with my spec laptop
also what is the difrence what would i be missing out on if i use these instead of ubuntu or do they work the same look the same but simple or something?

Windows provides a single desktop with its OS. Linux is structured very differently. The operating system and the "desktop environment" are entirely separate. The various flavors of Ubuntu use the same operating system but different desktops. Some desktop systems are more graphically demanding and may need more memory to run well. Lubuntu and Xubuntu make fewer such demands.

No matter which flavor you choose you can still use the entire array of programs available for Linux like Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and the like.

I recommend this strategy. Use Rufus on Windows to create an installation USB with, say, Lubuntu on it. Boot from it on the laptop and choose "Try Ubuntu" when prompted. You can then run a Lubuntu session without making any changes to your hard drive. Do the same with Xubuntu. Pick the one you like best.