I am currently using XP Pro with service pack 3 on my PC. Over the years I have tried several versions of Ubuntu and have always had to go back to XP Pro. While XP Pro seems to work fine, I am always drawn to Ubuntu for some reason. Maybe it is because of the features etc... I would like some advice as to whether I should install Ubuntu 10.04 on my PC. My PC is circa 2002 with 512MB or RAM and an 80GB HD. I don't want to spend any money upgrading this old PC.
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Lucid may not be the best bet in this case. I would install Ubuntu 8.04.4LTS, run all updates for it (but do not get the distribution upgrade), set it to never upgrade to the next version (LTS or Non-LTS) and run with it as is. 8.04x is supported until April 2011. |
I was in the same position a few months ago. Over the years I've kept trying to migrate to Linux, but there was always something that forced me back to Windows. Since last fall I had been using MS's free Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Evaluation copy that was due to expire at the end of February. Well when it came time, I really didn't want to pay $400 for the license, so I tried Linux again. And finally, everything just worked. Ubuntu 9.10 installed perfectly, ran stable, never needs restarting, and has everything I need and more. 10.04 is even better. I've been on Ubuntu since February and don't expect to ever go back. |
When you fdisk windows it is gone. you use windows. why not keep it? try different linux distros until you like one. maybe ubuntu or not. run linux in virtual machine like virtual box. you can keep as long as you want or delete that virtual machine anytime you want real easy with a click or two. you can also share with read/write all you data that already is there. when ready, if ever, you can start from scratch but this way you can run windows linux and anything else all at same time simultanesouly. you can also run new windows 7 (all three xp linux windows 7 at the same time) to see if you like that too or you need to use it. |
If every game had worked flawlessly on Ubuntu, or any other Linux for that matter, i would have chosen Linux as my main OS in a heartbeat. But since i play games quite often, it would be a pain having to switch over to Windows every time i felt like playing. If you don't have alot of childish tendencies, choose Linux! :) |
Sorry for this noise message. It deletes a message accidentally posted twice despite the absence of a delete button. |
Up until feburary this year [2011], I also was running XP pro sp3 at work. I was running ms-windows ports of what ever I could. Then starting about 2 years ago, I started using ubuntu in virtual box in XP. I started this as I had just had my machine reinstalled, and wanted to keep it clean and also put on the software that was not available on ms-windows. [I used cygwin-Xfree86 to make it seemless, it is more reliable that virtual box seemless( for me).] After a short time I noticed that apps in ubuntu/virtual-box, and the apps seemed faster than when run under ms-windows [ or equivelent apps]. I also noticed that if I had had lots of apps running in ubuntu/virtual-box, it would always use less memory that outlook, and often use little cpu compared to other ms-windows apps. I see you don't have much memory so virtual box may not work properly, I allocated 512M to ubuntu, but if you use an efficent distro [I have used vector in the past, but there are other distros now], and shutdown outlook, it may work. |
You have a few options here. There is a version of Linux based on Ubuntu and Debian called Easy Peasy. You could also run any of the following 32 bit systems. Trisquel 3.5, Ubuntu 7.04LTS, Pardus 2009.1, just to name a few. If you go to http://distrowatch.com you can look at various Linux OS's and a few Open Source Software (OSS). The descriptions of each will give you what is required to run a system. 512MB of RAM will run most Linux OSS. I HOPE this HELPS.
I forgot another option is Mint 8. I know it will run on your computer.
You have the same name as my father.
I just installed Ubuntu 10.04 in VMware Fusion on my Mac. Looks good. Now I have to mke up my mind whether to install it on my PC again. I don't use any specialized software on my PC that is only XP or Windows centrix so I think I should be OK.
Ubuntu runs with a smaller memory footprint than Windows XP anything. The Linux kernel can run as small as 256kb while the Windows kernel runs no smaller than about 18MB which is 18432kb... Linux runs faster than XP and is also truly multithreaded where XP tends to attach itself to every process in the system causing lockups, freezing, and crashing. I've seen Linux systems up for over a year at a time without any need to be rebooted or shutdown. If you are on Windows it's like you have to pack up and move your office every few days... just brutal..
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