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I am worried about hardware compatibility. I have several older PCs with various hardware and wish to install Linux onto them. I have several ideas about what I would like to do.

first, I am a novice and know just enough to get me into trouble in a lot of areas.

  • I can not find adequate descriptions of the usage between a desktop and a server version of Linux. When would you want to choose to build a server instead of a desktop and can you change a desktop to a server if you need higher functionality?

  • I wonder if I should use 32 or 64 bit? I believe 32 bit on older (P1 or P2 systems) would be the safe way to go.

  • what is the extent can these systems be used? Can they used to play high end graphics on-line games or just simple browsing and word processing? How do I determine what programs the system can use?

  • I have pondered on the idea of linking several systems together to make one big computer. I know this can be done with some functionality improvement. Any Ideas about this?

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This site dedicated to ubuntu! All question is asked under the scope of askubuntu. You better go to linux forums such as linuxforums.org. Thanks – Ravi May 30 '12 at 16:00
This is too much offtopic for AU. Regarding #1: we use server versions of Ubuntu for webhosting. So there is no need for a desktop ... – Rinzwind May 30 '12 at 16:06
Try taking this to Unix&Linux, you'll get better answers there. – The Lord of Time May 30 '12 at 17:15

closed as off topic by jokerdino♦, Rinzwind, desgua, fossfreedom♦ May 30 '12 at 18:15

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1 Answer

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Quoting from http://stackoverflow.com "The server edition of Ubuntu is really intended to be run if you have racks of server machines on which you are deploying your application. If you are actually using this machine for development purposes, then you should simply use the regular distribution of Ubuntu instead of the server edition. That said, the only real difference is the default software; you can easily convert a server edition to an identical regular edition or vice-versa by installing/uninstalling the associated packages with the apt-get commands".

Your only option with old machines is a 32bit OS.

As far as the other thing that you are wondering about, it rally depends on the specific hardware. Example: CPU, RAM, etc..

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