Linux for old laptop
 

Hi I am a newbie to linux.I had used Ubuntu,xubuntu and lubuntu before.I have an old laptop
hp pavilion zv5000
amd 64 processor
2.19Ghz,512 MB of RAM
GeForce4 440 go 64MB video card
I want to know which linux should i use to get most performance from my lap.I prefer kde desktop.As i said,i had already used different versions of ubuntu before.It wast fast at the beggining but later went slow.so i dont need to use any derivation of ubuntu again.
thank you

Anything "lite" will do. Ever considered Puppy? Or Macpup? Xubuntu, always a winner. What will the tasks be for the "old gal"?

I just installed Macpup on a P2/128Mb/2Gb - works ... nice, albeit somewhat slower than what I'm used to...but, it works.

Luck!

Thor

@ Reply
 

Hi there,

With the specs that you gave and the OS requirement that you are looking for I guess Gentoo will work for you.

You can download Gentoo from:

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/gentoo/

With those specs I'd have though Mepis 11 would run fine! That fills your KDE criteria.

Current ubuntu versions (11.04) will not be able to use the closed drivers with the GF4 card. (96.XX drivers are currently broken, and might remain like that for some time). So even if you didnt have the slowdown problem with ubuntu, its not really an option.

You could run a 'light' distro, but its not going to help that much with decent hardware. While it might not be that new, I would count (probably) AMD64 3400+, 512MB, GF4MX as decent...

I'd go for one of the minimal version of one of the majors distros (debian, arch or slackware in particular).

Mepis 11 uses KDE 4.X, and IMO KDE 4.X doesnt run that well with GF4 cards.

If you really have to use KDE, then KDE 3.X (trinty) its probably far more usable than KDE 4.X with the old GF4MX card.

If Cascade is right about KDE 4 not doing well with your video card, have a look at
http://vectorlinux.com/news/vector-l....0-kde-classic
It calls itself "a robust system with KDE 3.5.10 at the helm".

Mepis is good.Its the only distro which had drivers for all my hardwares after the fresh install.But my lap is not able to run it.It is running very slow and got stuck at times.So i dont need it anymore.:(

I think it will be the best distro for my laptop.But as i said am just beginner,but i tried installing it and failed.It took 2 days for me to install it.And I am not in a mood to try it again.:(

You can try Arch. It's still a lightweight, "advanced" distro, but it has a dependency-handling binary pakcage manager and is simpler to install.

If you are already familiar with Ubuntu, but don't want a derivation of that again I would recommend to try Debian, it should be good with the standard install on that machine, if that is to slow you can try the XFCE-version.

The tasks for the old gal is not so much.She want to do these at a time,music player+empathy+a p2p software(qbittorrent preferred)+a browser+doc viewer/image viewer+vlc. And she should not be slow in these.
and i prefer KDE because i liked its looks.

Will I be able to use KDE with my h/w spec??

If you can use KDE is not dependent on the distro, but on KDE itself. You will not get sufficient speed in KDE with any distro, it is KDE that is the resource hog.

http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/m...eleased/antix/

Try antiX-M8.5-686.iso

as a suggestion. Great support, too!

Sorry, no KDE will work satisfactorily, but you may like IceWM -- give it a try, is all I can say.

Best wishes!

The newest release, M11, is a bit better than M8.5, all in good ways. I had a few issues with antiX the first time I tried it (8.5) but am sucessfully running and loving M11 on my laptop as we speak.