My first question is "How do I monitor how much ram I have at any given time?" My next question "Can I add hardware to my machine so as to increase my available memory?" The desktop that I have is a 'Dell Dimension 4100.' It is an older machine but it has been in storage for a long time and has not been abused. I look forward to adding some basic hardware such as a floppy disk device because it has an empty slot for that device and maybe another DVD device because there is a slot for that also but it does have one DVD device already. Well, I look forward to meeting some people in this forum at any given time in the future. Salud!

Hi

If you're using Ubuntu search in the dash (top left button) for "system monitor". It has lots of nice information, including RAM usage.

In general you can install RAM to your machine if there are slots available.

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That will vary a bit according to the desktop environment / distribution you're using. There are either "standalone" windows such as "System Monitor" (similar to windows "task manager") that can show you how much CPU / memory / network bandwidth you're using or there are applets you can add to your panel or "menu bar" that will give you the same info.

Not sure what you mean by that, you can probably add anything you want as long as it's compatible with your hardware itself. If you're having issues where your computer feels slow it might be that you're using a desktop environment that use too much resources and you might want to use one that is made to use less (Ubunty Unity environment takes a lot more cpu and RAM than LXDE or XFCE (aka Lubuntu and Xubuntu if you want to stay in the Ubuntu family, same basic operating system but with a different environment). You just have to find the right one for your needs and feel comfortable with.

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https://ubuntu-manual.org/downloads

Think of learning Linux like a illegal immigrant trying to learn english and all they know is spanish.
Edited for content.

Taskbar in Desktop Environments like Ubuntu show ram usage

https://www.howtogeek.com/118908/10-...unity-desktop/.

Link for adding ram

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Hi, sheconciike, and welcome to LQ.

My question back to you is "Which distro (and version) and desktop environment are you using?".

There are a large number of distros and desktop environments and the answer to your question is probably dependent on these important pieces of information.

To monitor the RAM, open a terminal and type the command "$ free -m" (without quotes).

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Hello and welcome to the forum

One option would be to open a terminal and enter this command...

Possibly, depending on how much memory is actually installed. According to this page, the maximum amount of memory your system can use is 512 MB's. Please bear in mind, though, that most distributions need more than that function smoothly without any lag or sluggishness.

Regards...

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Open up terminal and try the command htop.

Hi...

This program might need to be installed via the terminal or a package manager first. I don't recall htop ever being included by default in Ubuntu and its derivatives, not sure about any of the other distributions.

Regards...

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Now that is an old computer! But I have a laptop with the same CPU that still works. If you have already installed Ubuntu, then it must have had more memory added: it originally came with 256MB and Ubuntu wouldn't run in that.

Do you find it a bit slow? If it is, then you need a distribution intended for older computers. AntiX would be fine.

You might like to check out "Linux is NOT Windows" which should give you an insight into the differences and why you shouldn't have any Windows preconceived notions about it.

Oh! And welcome to LinuxQuestions!

Play Bonny!

I like Gkrellm as an "always open" system monitor.

I mucked about with Conky once; it makes for great eye candy to have Conky output over your desktop background (you can see a couple of screenshots here), but Gkrellm sits nicely over there ---> in the corner of the screen and doesn't get covered up by application windows.

It should be in the repos, and many Gkrellm skins are available.

sheconciike,

Welcome to LQ.

I second DavidMcCann’s recommendation for antiX.

Your old laptop is very low powered and needs something like antiX-16.1 which is based on Debian:
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

antiX is a lightweight Linux distribution specially designed for older, low-powered hardware such as this.

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

Puppy Linux is an alternative for old hardware:
http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%...%20Started.htm

NB You don't have to install Puppy (to hard disk) to use it.

Simply burn the ISO to CD/DVD and boot the PC or laptop with it.

Extract from antiX FAQs:

Instead of a heavy common Desktop Environment, antiX uses window managers to control what the end-user can see and do.

antiX comes in three flavours for 32bit (you definitely need this one) and 64 bit boxes.

antiX comes as a full distro (<700MB), a base distro (c520MB) and a core distro (<200MB) all with a kernel that will boot "antique" PII, PIII computers as well as the latest "modern" processors.

By default, antiX loads into a Rox-IceWM desktop (antiX-base into a Rox-fluxbox desktop) with a few icons on the desktop. Use F6 at the boot menu screen to choose your desktop. What you choose running live will automatically transfer if/when installed.

antiX is a very flexible linux distribution. You can run it live from a cd, live from a usb stick (with persistence i.e. changes are saved on reboot) as well as setting up a frugal-install from an internal or external hard drive. Of course, you can install to internal and external drives, sticks, cards etc. You can even run it live, add/remove applications, customize it, remaster it and then install. All your changes will carry over to install!

Full details here:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/...FAQ/index.html

To enable wifi in antiX 16.1 after installation:

Menu > Control Centre > Network > Network Interfaces (ceni) > wlan0 > follow wizard and give SSID/network name and wifi password.

**See attached screenshot for the information displayed by Rox-IceWM. This acts as a monitoring device and will show RAM and your CPU details.

Good luck!

Attached Thumbnails

 

I'm with frankbell, as an ex hardware engineer, I like to know exactly what my system's doing all the time. GKrellm docked at the right hand side of my, er.. right hand monitor is perfect; all the details of CPU core/thread activity, system clock speed, number of processes, fan speed, core and system temperatures (current set up doesn't show GPU temp but my second system does)disk and network activity. There's even a memory usage indicator and uptime display.

My

Play Bonny!

(We didn't just scare you off, did we ...?)

First of all: "Welcome To Linux!" And especially, "Welcome to LQ!"

As you will very quickly see – and, see more and more and more – "Linux is completely(!) different from Windows." I thought it might be useful to comment a bit on that.

"Windows" is really "the foundation of Microsoft Corporation's product line." It especially exists to run those products. Its core design – Windows NT – was done when the Intel 386 came onto the scene, but the entire system is the design of exactly one company.

Linux is a completely different beast. It grew – in inspiration, at least – from a system that first made its appearance in the 1970's and which has been with us ever since. Linux runs on more than twenty hardware platforms, and it has never been under the control of any one company. Although Linus Torvalds got the ball rolling (in his dorm room), and remains heavily involved, the system represents the combined labor of many thousands of people.

Although Windows is centered around a "graphic user interface (GUI)," such that it really can't run at all without one ... the old separation of Windows vs. DOS is long gone ... Linux never has been. It has not one but several(!) graphic-interface options, and these have a completely different internal design from Windows. "And/Or," it can be used with no graphic interface at all. You can see this from the fact that some of the responses you've received refer to the GUI that you are likely to be using, while others refer to the command-line.

At first, I assure you, this will feel like you are "taking a sip from a fire-hose."

... but then, little by little by little, you will begin to see "the Windows world" as being very limited by comparison.

Rest assured that everyone here is here to help you commence ... and succeed in ... your forthcoming journey away from the Dark Side.

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