Hello all, before I get started I just want to make it clear that I have done hours of research on the question I'm about to ask, so... lol

Anyway, I am completely-totaly new to linux, of all forms, have been a Windows XP Pro guy for years now, and it's what I know inside and out.

Well that's beat, even though I still am using it, and I can't afford a new pc or a new windows cd. I'm broke for now. Besides all that, I like linux so far from what I ahve been woking with. (xubuntu)

[QUESTIONS]:

I bought a notebook from a very desperate crackhead for $20:

Compaq Presario x1000
(not much ram, i think only 256 or 512)
-It's slow as #$@%, but I managed to install Xubuntu on it, and it still sucks. Very. Very slow. I cant watch any videos on it or really do anything other than just look up websites, and that sucks too.

Sorry, nevermind that above, I am just stating that so you see what my first Linux introduction has been. This is what I have got used to so far, and I seem to like it.

I am not at all concerned with this notebook at this point. However, what I am concerned with, and this is my main question:

I have a Desktop:

P4 2.6 GHz /1.5 GB Ram
- I have XP Pro SP3 installed on the 1st partition and I installed Ubuntu v14.xxx (very latest version) on the 2nd partition.

It's extremely slow, but XP runs just fine. I chose the first option upon install where it does the auto-setup running alongside XP.

So far I do not really like it. I have no start menu like I had on the notebook in the upper left hand corner, and I kind of like that.

Well through messing around I'm guessing that is something called: xfce ? Not sure.

Anyway, sorry for rambling about, but here is my MAIN QUESTION:

What Distro of Linux should I install on this PC where it will run nice and fast/smooth?

~thankyou.

Sorry - but if you want a heavyweight picturesque GUI on your Pentium, it is going to be a bit sluggish.

I'd suggest you replace Ubuntu with Mint (based on Ubuntu) and try various Desktops (choose at login time) you will get a very decent
look to your Desktop.
It will be a little slow because of your CPU - but 1.5GB RAM is quite sufficient.

There aren't likely to be any distributions which run markedly better than Xubuntu in your setup. If you're willing to have a less customisable (or, at least, less easily) you could try Lubuntu which ought to be lighter still.
When it comes down to it though something like video will probably either work or not largely regardless of the desktop environment or distribution you choose.

Try Zorin OS 9 Lite:

Review:

http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.co.uk...best-lxde.html

Download:

http://zorin-os.com/free.html

For the Desktop. Ubuntu 14.04LTS based

http://www.linuxliteos.com/download.html

or http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page


or

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/mx

Should be OK.

I am confused as to if you are asking about the first notebook or the desktop?

I was in your shoes a year ago and put Xubuntu 14.04 on my XP laptop with 1 GIG ram and it works great for me. However, it sounds like your notebook has too little for that. You could try Lubuntu if it does have the 512 RAM, but lower than that and you will need other suggestions.

If you like the Xubuntu, why did you not try it on the second machine? Regular ubuntu has the "Unity" desktop, which is quite a bit different than you are used to. You could also try Mint, which will be very familiar right out of the box (XFCE or Mate versions).

Just a note: if you try Lubuntu or Xubuntu, get the 14.04 version, which is the long term support version and also seems to be more stable than the new 14.10 which is just a short term support of 9 months.

Edited my post above. Using this one to show my IBM A22M P3 512MB ram laptop screenshots
running AntiX.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2/#post4529400

http://oi44.tinypic.com/nld6r8.jpg
My post location for the above screenshot.

Edit: This is worth a read also.
http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/view...p?f=94&t=37810

Hi...

Welcome to the forum

Interms of speed and "weight," I think a distribution like Puppy (many flavors to choose from,) Slitaz or AntiX (as rokytnji mentioned) would probably be the best bet.

Regards...

+1 for AntiX
http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?title=Main_Page