I have ubuntu on my desktop. But it was eot not lts version. But it does not boot properly. All my documents are on it. I would like to install a proper flavour of linux with all the s/w development tools, especially C/C++ development tools. I stay in Bangalore. Which flavor should I install and is there anyone in bangalore who can help ?

The first thing to do if you can not boot that computer, is to boot to a live distribution and make a backup of your files. After you do that, come back and give some information about your hardware.

How do I get a live distribution. Should it be on a pen drive. Also my desktop is core 2 Duo, so slightly old.Is it possible to download a good stable version of the s/w for that.

It needs to be on something you can insert into that computer and boot from - often a USB drive, but for older machines might be a DVD/CD.

Sometimes it is necessary to update the boot order in the BIOS.


AntiX is designed for running Live on old hardware. It can run on a PII with 256MB RAM and 3-5GB space, so should have no issues with a processor a decade newer. Another popular choice is MX Linux, which is based on AntiX but includes software with higher requirements; may be worth considering if you have at least 1-2GB RAM and 6-20GB space.

Otherwise, DistroWatch Search has "Live Medium" and "Old Computers" categories which can provide possible candidates.

A Core2Duo is not so old as to limit you to a distro so lightweight it can run on a Pentium II. What's most important is ample RAM, while it's seriously helpful to have an SSD if you plan to be compiling software. I have about a dozen Core2Duos I keep relatively up to date with more than a dozen distros each. I just now finished one with Debian 12/Bookworm using Trinity Desktop Environment, which works very nicely with 8G RAM & 500G HDD, and with various distros other than Debian, such as Fedora, Mageia, openSUSE, *buntu and others that offer full sets of development tools.