A long time coming

[sports fan Matt]

Hello all, after my latest HP computer decided to die (no operating system found and the fact I can’t upgrade it to windows 11 because it is too low powered) i’ve decided to install Ubuntu 20.04 on a Toshiba L875. My question ~ are Toshiba‘s still reliable in the installation process? And the only version I have on the laptop I think is 10.04 I have to check. I know it’s obsolete, So I assume grabbing the ISO off the website is the best option? And feel free to move it to installation and upgrade if one feels the need.

[Frogs Hair]

If it is the version with 8Gb of ram and an i5 you could run any flavor of Ubuntu. See the Ubuntu Community link on the top of the page. Even with 4Gb of ram you should be fine.

[sports fan Matt]

Yeah I thought so but it’s been about three years since booted it. I’ll know tomorrow when /if The power supply works which I think it will.

[ybelin77vbern]

If it is the version with 8Gb of ram and an i5 you could run any flavor of Ubuntu. See the Ubuntu Community link on the top of the page. Even with 4Gb of ram you should be fine.

With modern needs for the web, any computer with less than 4gb is doomed to lag

[TheFu]

With modern needs for the web, any computer with less than 4gb is doomed to lag

I think this is not correct, but it would depend on what the person considers "modern needs". Just by blocking some ads, the entire web gets much faster. Disable Javascript for almost all websites and it gets even faster. Javascript is optional. Always remember that. We can use a light browser

My desktop is configured with dual cores and 4G of RAM.
Right now, it is using 1.2G of RAM with thunderbird, firefox, libreoffice, a password manager and about 10 terminal sessions (2 local, 8 to remote systems).

$ free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          3.8Gi       1.2Gi       209Mi       8.0Mi       2.5Gi       2.4Gi
Swap:         4.1Gi        17Mi       4.1Gi

It is very responsive, but I run a limited GUI, not Gnome3 and not KDE. If the correct GUI is selected, there is little that cannot be accomplished on 4G of RAM for anyone that isn't expected to edit 1080p (or higher) videos, but just wants to to normal browsing and office stuff. Any system with 1400 Passmarks, should be fine.

It is fairly stable too. I reboot when there is a new kernel, but leave it running the rest of the time - lots of things happen in the background, especially overnight. From top:

top - 16:26:42 up 3 days, 21:49,  1 user,  load average: 0.01, 0.07, 0.07
Tasks: 187 total,   1 running, 186 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  2.3 us,  0.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 97.3 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   3936.1 total,    203.6 free,   1221.2 used,   2511.2 buff/cache
MiB Swap:   4200.0 total,   4182.2 free,     17.8 used.   2431.5 avail Mem

Working fine here.

[Frogs Hair]

With modern needs for the web, any computer with less than 4gb is doomed to lag

Been running Ubuntu Budgie on systems with 4 to 8Gb of ram without any noticeable limitations for years. Now that I have built a new system with 16Gb I find it has more to due with drive speed than the increase in memory. One drive being mechanical and the other an nvme.2. I can't comment on less than 4Gb.

[T6&sfpER35%]

any computer with less than 4gb is doomed to lag

i have 3gb ram , and my machine is flying thank you

[sports fan Matt]

So I have the new parts for the supply which should be installed tomorrow just been busy with real life to focus on it but it should work. I may look into using a lighter browser I haven’t decided yet.

[TheFu]

A few friends run MX Linux and a few others run Bohdi Linux. Both of these are very light and don't have systemd's overhead, while still being ubuntu-based - so APT is still there and they use the LTS releases.

The Bohdi install is on an old, slow, Dell all-in-one (monitor + PC in a single package). It seems to use 30% less CPU when doing video stuff which doesn't use any hardware decoding from the integrated GPU.

He tried Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Mint, and a few others before deciding that Bohdi was the lighest. On his normal machine, he's a Linux-Mint user and isn't planning to change. I tried to get him to look at tinycore, but he decided that was just too hard to use - which I can't blame him. He's right. At our LUG, almost every week, we load up a new desktop distro and take a look around. Sometimes we'll put it on a VPS and provide remote desktop access into the system so people can try it out themselves with a dedicated userid.

[DuckHook]

…a few others run Bohdi Linux. Both of these are very light and don't have systemd's overhead, while still being ubuntu-based - so APT is still there and they use the LTS releases.

The Bohdi install is on an old, slow, Dell all-in-one (monitor + PC in a single package). It seems to use 30% less CPU when doing video stuff which doesn't use any hardware decoding from the integrated GPU…

Bodhi is awesome. I've installed it on a few ancient laptops belonging to friends. They love it. Gives new life to what would otherwise be e‑waste. Light on resources, fast, versatile, pretty, user‑friendly. "Dances like a butterfly, stings like a bee."

Highly recommended.