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I have an ancient computer about 10 years old and i'm getting obsessed with linux and ubuntu.I searched about this and i found out that Lubuntu would work better. Should i take the risk ?

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  • Try with a live USB or DVD and see if you like it. In principle it will work well, but remember: taking the road of a user-supported, volunteer-based operating system require a predisposition to learn new things and solve problems. "Better" is a big word. Remember that Windows programs, in general, will not run on Linux; you have to learn alternatives. My vote is yes, try it. But it depends.
    – Rmano
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:05

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Of course you should! Get a Lubuntu ISO now at:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu

You can either burn it to a CD/DVD or put the Live system in a USB drive with a program such as UNetBootin, available here:

https://unetbootin.github.io/

Download your ISO, install UNetBootin and run it, select to install with an existing ISO and select your USB thumb drive as the output drive. We're good to go, boot from your fresh CD/DVD/USB!

You will see a menu with several options. The first of them is "Try Lubuntu without installing". Select it and do everything you would do in an everyday OS, like creating documents and browsing the web. If everything is fine, you can proceed with the installation. You can choose to install Lubuntu alongside Windows or, why not, erase Windows and install Lubuntu over it. The second option usually leaves you with a faster OS, because it will be installed in the beginning of your disk.

After installing (the whole process should take about 20 minutes), reboot your PC and you should go directly into Lubuntu. Let me recommend you some packages considered essential by me (you can get them at Lubuntu's Software Center):

LibreOffice: this amazing office suite comes with Ubuntu but is not included in Lubuntu so it's more compact. In Lubuntu it's replaced by gnumeric and abiword, but LibreOffice is always better.

Wine: wine is a program that creates a compatibility layer to run Windows software in Linux (there is also a Mac version). With wine you will be able to run everything you need from Windows, including games. Note: Wine is NOT an emulator, it is a compatibility layer. This means that you will NOT have much performance loss. But you can always find free, open-source alternatives to Windows programs for Linux.

GIMP: this incredible program is used to edit images in a professional level, a great replacement for Adobe's Photoshop.

OpenShot: a very simple yet powerful video editor for Linux. It's very user-friendly and easy to use and has tons of features.

There is a program called "additional drivers", it comes with Lubuntu and you can find it in the applications menu. Use it to enable proprietary hardware drivers and increase even more the performance!

These are my hints for now! Don't be afraid to test, configure and use Linux. It's wonderful!

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My desktop computer is also 10 years and came with Windows XP installed. I dual booted Lubuntu 14.04 LTS on my hard drive. Before installing Lubuntu I used GParted to partition the hard drive between XP, an XP Recovery, and an extended partition for Lubuntu and a swap partition.

I can access my Windows XP partition and copy Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and photographs I've saved to my Lubuntu partition. I can use LibreOffice products to do every thing I had used MS Office to do. Other than copying a occasional file, I don't use Windows XP any more. I use Chome as my browser. You can use Firefox if you prefer.

In April, 2016, a new Long Term Support (LTS) version of Ubuntu (and Lubuntu) will be issued. At that time I'll switch completely to Lubuntu and use the disk space occupied by Windows XP and the Recovery partitions.

Follow the instruction given to generate a DVD or USB stick. Try Lubuntu. I think you will find that you can do all of your usual computer tasks just as well as you did with Windows XP. You can enjoy the updates and upgrades provided by Lubuntu, and if you have issues or problems, Askubuntu is there to find solutions.

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Make sure that you backup any pictures, files, documents or music that you want to keep on external media before installing even if you are going to install along side windows. I have found out the hard way that installations may not go the way you expect.

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