Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

I have an IBM R51 laptop which is about 8 years old. I have extended the RAM to 1.4GB in total and have a 160GB Hard Disk. Right Now I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 and its slow on my laptop. Also the Mic is not working (it was working on the previous versions).

Right Now I just want a simple to use preferably GNOME based and Ubuntu Based Distro which will run fast on my laptop. I should be able to run LibreOffice or OpenOffice and Google Chrome and Firefox.

Thanks...

share|improve this question
Why don't you try just previous - 11.04 (even default with Unity). It should run great according your specifications – zetah Dec 23 '11 at 8:02
I don't want Ubuntu. It runs a bit slow on my laptop anyways... Some other kind of Ubuntu derivative which is lightweight would be better... Anyways, thanks for the suggestions... – Arjun Bajaj Dec 23 '11 at 8:10
Anyways, which would be better? Linux Mint or Lubuntu? – Arjun Bajaj Dec 23 '11 at 8:14
There are many other Ubuntu derivatives, though I think that one of the problems for slow performance might be gnome itself. Have you tried LXDE, XCDE desktop environments which are more or less gnome alike? – shookees Dec 23 '11 at 8:21
Linux Mint is quite a bit heavier than Ubuntu, they say. It's not even comparable to Lubuntu. Lubuntu will run nicely with 128MB RAM. Linux Mint won't even be installable on that system. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Dec 23 '11 at 8:40
show 2 more comments

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

There's been some performance regressions in 11.10. If you feel that 11.04 was fast enough, then you might want to give Precise Pangolin a try. This is the development version that is expected to become Ubuntu 12.04LTS in April. Quite a few users have reported that performance is already much better than in 11.10 and it'll surely improve during the rest of the cycle. It is also possible that your issues are due to bad drivers for your VGA. A desktop system tends to not be faster than it looks like it is. You can try Unity 2D and see if that helps.

If you want a really light-weight distro, you can use Lubuntu. Unlike Ubuntu, it is not based on Gnome, but it is based on GTK, so things will look and feel similar. It is extremely fast, and like all other Ubuntu systems, you can install any application from Ubuntus archives, including LibreOffice.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.