What distro is best for a slower computer

gloryfalls

I'm currently having malware issues with my older winxp system. i'm trying to get it fixed, but in case i can't, i'm looking at sweeping my drive and going with a distro of linux. one of my friends had ubuntu for a while and seemed to like it decently well, but i never actually sat down and got familiar with the system and that's probably the closest i've been to linux. so needless to say, i'm an amature when it come to any distro of the os. i've been online reading as much as i can about the distros and i just had a few more questions.

the main one is, what will work best on a machine that's not the newest. it a computer i bought about 4-5 years ago. it is running around a 1ghz centrino processor with probably 20gb free of hd (should be near 100gb if i erase the drive) and about 512mb of ram.

from what i've read, i'm really liking linuxmint. it seems like it has taken ubuntu and improved on it. also, all of the distro's i've been looking at (mint, ubuntu, kubuntu, openSuSE) seem to be the ones that are easier to get used to. so what would you guys recommend for a person that is brand new to linux? i don't know too much about opensuse, but it seems to have it fans as well. are there really any huge differences between any of these distros?

and finally, i read the the difference between ubuntu and kubuntu is the graphic interface that it uses. one uses the GNOME and the other KDE. i really don't understand the difference between the two. they both look pretty similar to me. so what is the difference between them and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each.

thanks!

amnesia

The blessed thing about linux is, it doesn't care.
granted the faster the PC in any given situation the faster things will be processed. However *NIX/*BSD, etc can run on basically any setup provided you have enough space to install it. If you're planning on using it as a desktop, your best bet is minimal installation with minimal services etc.. But linux is NOT windows, and it ultimately comes down to your XWindows environment
KDE 3.x, XFCE, so on so forth.. You should probably stay away from KDE 4 due to the fact that it's a fat pig. But, ultimately be as it may -- all the options are yours to explore

BTW: 'Compositing', i.e. 'Desktop' graphics and eye-candy isn't exactly what one should use -- so, if any situation should arise that you feel your computer is running slowly -- You should probably disable those particular features if they are enabled.

Anywho -- heh, Slackware!

markding

I think you should choose ubuntu like your friend, It's easy and simple enough take you into linux worlds.
You can communicate with your friend when you have some troubles.

PS:Ubuntu have the best compatibility at present.

kryptikos

Mark has a good suggestion. It also is good to note too that it has one of the strongest community forums to help you resolve any potential issues you run across as you make the jump into Linux. Ubuntu is an excellent distribution to start with.

amnesia

Linux is a package game, pick what you want trash what you don't.

if it isn't in /etc/rc.d/rc.*;/etc/rc.M;/etc/init.d, etc, and isn't loaded at boot, it isn't a significant problem other than harddrive space.. With that said, ANY LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM can potentially be good for what you want... You don't have to limit yourself to a select few systems that claim they are 'BEST SUITED FOR LOW-END pc's..'
if that were the case, you should use Damn Small LINUX..

Note:
This also depends on your kernel compilation

The smaller the better.

Jing

if you are a newbie, I suggest you to try some popular distro, openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. when you're more experienced and want a simple system, I suggest you to try archlinux.

actually all different distroes are almost same. they use the same kernel, similar boot scripts, similar tools and applications. but there are some different package systems, .rpm, .deb, etc. you should choose a favorite one.