Good O.S. for older laptop to run beside win xp

petersonlevi88

I need to select a distro for a friends older laptop which is runnin wim xp pro. They want to keep win, but need a second O.S. cause it's soooo slow. It's an HP with 1.8GHz single core Pentium, 1 GB ram pc-100 style. Has dvd burner, built in wifi and bluetooth. I need it to support this stuff, plus be more snappy cause it's getting old and Win XP Pro is bogging it down. Please help. Thank you.

arochester

With that amount of RAM you should be able to run most distros.

You don't say what level of experience with Linux you friend has.

Distros which come with most of the codecs built in might be best.

Try any of (in alphabetical order):
Fuduntu (Based on Fedora but now Independent)
Kororaa (Fedora Based)
Linux Mint (Ubuntu based)
Mepis (Debian based)
Parsix (Debian based)

If you are looking for a Windows lookalike try:
Zorin OS (Ubuntu based)

There are also some good reports about:
SolusOS (Debian based)

petersonlevi88

Thank you much. They have no exp with Linux and I myself am somewhat of a newcomer. I love Ubuntu 64 bit but have problems with running files on Fedora 17 64 bit. If you have any advice on how to get Zorin 6 64 bit to run as install from saved file on Fedora without disc, please let me know. Thanks.

saqman2060

petersonlevi88 wrote:

Thank you much. They have no exp with Linux and I myself am somewhat of a newcomer. I love Ubuntu 64 bit but have problems with running files on Fedora 17 64 bit. If you have any advice on how to get Zorin 6 64 bit to run as install from saved file on Fedora without disc, please let me know. Thanks.

If I understand correctly, you want to install Zorin 6 64bit alongside Fedora? This is possible. All you need is a free partition or resize the drive using Zorin. If you want to access or copy files from your fedora install without installing another distro, you can use Zorin or any other liveCD of your preferred distro, boot the system and copy the files to another storage media or to a server.

My suggestions of Linux OS to use for newcommers:

Mint 13 with the mate or XFCE DE
Xubuntu 12.04
Lubuntu 12.04, if you have little memory

I am mostly a debian/Ubuntu user, but prefer ubuntu in most cases. Very user friendly and works with most modern devices with little need to install additional drivers. SolusOS is a great Debian based system with all the codecs installed to work out of the box. Use that after you are comfortable with linux.

petersonlevi88

Istimsak Abdulbasir


I apologize for my lack of clarity. I do not want to keep Fedora. I have the zorin disc image file saved on Fedora though. I am running dual 320GB SATA HDD's and I want to install zorin from the saved file on Fedora and format the rest or just replace it. I don't have raid set up though so both drives are seperate.I run Ubuntu on my other tower and love it, but don't have a disc large enough to burn zorin file on so I need to do a direct install from the saved file on Fedora. Thank you and I hope this clarifies.

petersonlevi88

Also, my pc is only lacking in graphics. Dual 320GB SATA HDD's, 8GB DDR2 RAM, 3GHz dual core Pentium D. I just want a different distro than Fedora and decided to try zorin. I abandoned Windows 7 ultimate on my other pc for Ubuntu and am not regretting it.

saqman2060

That clears things up.

You won't be able to install the iso image unless you can burn it to a DVD or usb. USBs are better since you can rewrite to them. The image is 1.3GB big which means you can use a 2GB flash drive (usb), burn the image to the flash on your fedora system and boot your fedora system using the usb drive. From there you can install Zorin 6.

There is another way to install from the image without burning it to a drive, is to use PXE boot from a network server. This is more technical and something I am still mastering....LOL

If you can find a 2GB usb drive, then you are in business.

saqman2060

You can burn Zorin 6 Light which is 695MB big to a CD or a 1GB usb drive

Zorin 6 light

saqman2060

What are the sizes or your DVDs, CDs and USBs if you have any?

Another note, if your PC is lacking in graphics then I would suggested a lighter version of linux that is not graphic intensive. Zorin 6 maybe too much. Instead try Mint 13, or, Zorin 6 light.

mint 13 xfce

mfillpot

petersonlevi88 wrote:

Thank you much. They have no exp with Linux and I myself am somewhat of a newcomer. I love Ubuntu 64 bit but have problems with running files on Fedora 17 64 bit. If you have any advice on how to get Zorin 6 64 bit to run as install from saved file on Fedora without disc, please let me know. Thanks.

You can set grub2 to boot the iso file to run it as though it is a physical disk with the instructions at http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/how-to-boot-iso-with-grub2-easy-way.html

petersonlevi88

Thank you all. I have a 1GB flash and 650MB CD-RW'S I do have a 4GB micro sd card and card readers on both PC's. Can that work???

saqman2060

Great info mfillpot, thanks :-)

saqman2060

mfillpot wrote:

petersonlevi88 wrote:

Thank you much. They have no exp with Linux and I myself am somewhat of a newcomer. I love Ubuntu 64 bit but have problems with running files on Fedora 17 64 bit. If you have any advice on how to get Zorin 6 64 bit to run as install from saved file on Fedora without disc, please let me know. Thanks.

You can set grub2 to boot the iso file to run it as though it is a physical disk with the instructions at http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/how-to-boot-iso-with-grub2-easy-way.html

Great info, but he is using Fedora not ubuntu.....:-)

saqman2060

petersonlevi88 wrote:

Thank you all. I have a 1GB flash and 650MB CD-RW'S I do have a 4GB micro sd card and card readers on both PC's. Can that work???

The 1GB and 650mb CD will work. Never tried to boot with sd cards on a laptop. If the bios can see it, then why not.

Use your 1GB usb flash and burn the image to the media and boot your laptop with it. Use the links that I have posted previously.

Zorin OS 6 light
Mint 13 that uses Mate, or xfce

linux mint 13
Zorin OS 6 light

mfillpot

Istimsak Abdulbasir wrote:

Great info, but he is using Fedora not ubuntu.....:-)

the utility listed is available for both and they both use grub2, the example still applies.

The unetbootin application that is required for the usb boot image instructions is the same that is required for the boot from Hd option, however the only real difference is that the HD option should be used if you want to retain the current os and setup a dual boot, for a new installation the usb stick option is best.

mfillpot

Unfortunately you cannot install a new OS over an old OS which contains the installation source, because the new installation will just delete your installation source when it starts the installation.

unfortunately it does not appear that zorin has an official net install image and the lite image is CD-sized. As long as you have at least the capability to burn and read a cd or a usb stick with 700Mb+ then you can install the lite opion and add the features after the initial installation.