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I have a 5 year old notebook computer. It uses Windows XP, and as you might know, this OS now has no support at all. It has a 1.60GHz, 0.98GB of RAM.

What would you guys recommend me , in order for me to happily migrate from Windows XP to Ubuntu program.

I appreciate in advance any help you can provide me regarding this matter.

Regards

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  • personally, if I had <1 GB of ram, I'd use something other than Ubuntu, maybe Crunchbang or arch with openbox but that's just me
    – Lynob
    Apr 13, 2014 at 17:51
  • @Fischer, I totally follow you on that one. But here is something that happened in work about 2 months ago. On a computer with 700 MB and a 1.2 GHZ I used Xubuntu and Lubuntu on it. They both were somehow slow, not so fast as the Windows XP that was previously installed. So I, for the sake of testing it, installed Ubuntu 13.10. What do you know. Ubuntu booted faster than Xubuntu, Lubuntu or even Win XP and the whole user interface was snappy. My colleague was impressed. At first she thought I had bought a new PC for her. This is blasphemy.. No young padawan.. this is UBUNTU! Apr 13, 2014 at 19:26
  • @LuisAlvarado wow! My colleague is an Arch user and he makes fun of me for using Xuubntu, a bloated and slow OS :) I used to make fun of ubuntu users when I was using Crunchbang too! And now you're saying that ubuntu is faster than xubuntu! what should I say? lets dump xubuntu and go for ubuntu :)
    – Lynob
    Apr 13, 2014 at 20:50
  • @Fischer well this is the only known case for me. There may be others but this is the first time I went "What in the World!". If it helps, I have tested all Unity versions since 11.10 and I gotta say, with each new version, the hardware requirements and memory usage keep on going down. 12.04 was a very good version and so was 13.10 with big jumps in lowering resources. 14.04 looks like it will push this even further. Apr 13, 2014 at 22:20
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    @LuisAlvarado I'll try ubuntu then, xubuntu is a little slow at boot and sometimes it freezes on shutdown, I'll see how fast unity is. the new unity seems slick, I watched a youtube review, never tried it though
    – Lynob
    Apr 13, 2014 at 22:44

4 Answers 4

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Seeing the hardware you have (CPU: 1.6 GHz, RAM: 1 GB) I recommend to download Xubuntu or Lubuntu before testing Ubuntu. This is not related to which one is better but I am trying to make sure that the Ubuntu version works OK on your hardware. I also would recommend, like Devesh said, to wait until 14.04 is out (Which will happen next week on April 17, so the wait won't be long).

Here's what each of them would look like once you have them installed:

Lubuntu

Very lightweight Desktop environment (Lightweight meaning that it uses small amounts of RAM, CPU and HDD space). The menu, where all the apps can be found, is located in the same place as you have them in Windows XP.

enter image description here

Xubuntu

Another lightweight Desktop environment. The menu can be found in the top left corner so instead of going down to the bottom right corner, you would go up.

enter image description here

Ubuntu

This is the main Ubuntu distribution. It uses a bit more resources than the other two, but I have tried Ubuntu on computers with 512 MB of RAM and it has ran correctly. You would also need a good video card. Still, you would need to personally test this. From Booting time, to how fast apps opened, to how fast you can work and be productive with each Desktop environment.

enter image description here

You need to know that, independent of what Ubuntu flavor you decide to select, you can install from any of them, the other desktops to try out. What I mean with this is that, if you download Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Gnome Ubuntu or any Ubuntu official version, you can install from the Software Center (The application that manages installation of other apps and updates) any other Desktop environment. So you could have installed Xubuntu but you also wanted to try out Lubuntu, so you would go to the Software Center and download the lubuntu-desktop package. This would make your system have both, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. you can choose which one you want to use from the Login Screen.

I would also invite you to read about Start Ubuntu which guides new Ubuntu users into this open source world.

So with everything here said and taking your hardware into consideration my recommendations would be:

  • Download Xubuntu or Lubuntu first before trying Ubuntu
  • Download ONLY the 32 Bit version. The 64 Bit needs more RAM in order to perform better.
  • If you have a low graphics card I recommend staying with Xubuntu or Lubuntu only.
  • Remember that you can test other Desktop Environments (DE) from any of the other Ubuntu versions just by installing their appropriate package (lubuntu-desktop for Lubuntu, xubuntu-desktop for Xubuntu...)
  • Run the LiveCD/LiveDVD/LiveUSB which is a Live session of Ubuntu that does not install on your computer but runs directly from CD/DVD/USB. This way you can test out the DE and how it feels to you before even installing it on your system.
  • Remember that you can install Ubuntu alongside Windows XP. There is no need to eliminate Windows XP completely. At least while you get accustomed to how the DE looks, works and behaves. The Ubuntu installer will give you an option about installing alongside in case you want this or you can be a brave warrior and go straight to Ubuntu FTW!.
  • Remember to backup anything you want to save in case you want to format the whole system and install Ubuntu only.
  • Use the SEARCH option in Ask Ubuntu when you find a problem you can't solve. There are more than 3000 questions related to Windows XP and more than 2000 related to Windows XP and the installation procedures. So there is a sure bet you will find most of the issues solved already.

So with all of this said, I applaud you and say: Welcome to Ubuntu my friend.

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  • Gracias Luis por tu valiosísima ayuda.
    – user268247
    Apr 13, 2014 at 18:26
  • @user268247 oh stop it. You'll make me blush ^^ Apr 13, 2014 at 19:21
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I would recommend you the latest upcoming version of Ubuntu, i.e. 14.04 LTS. And you have to use the 32-bit version as according to the specs you have given, you system does not supports 64-bit OSes. And Ubuntu will be a nice option because of its openness and of course, its free.

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  • WinXP is not dead yet. You can still use it especially if you make a DVD with all system updates and other software you think you can use to boost WinXP. But if you do want to migrate to Ubuntu I think the latest upcoming version of Xubuntu 14.04 or Lubuntu 14.04 would be much better choices for your machine than Ubuntu 14.04. Ubuntu uses some monstrosity they call Unity and you will be experiencing lots of issues because of Unity alone not to mention other problems. Xubuntu 32bit and Lubuntu 32bit are the lightweight versions of Ubuntu. And you won't be able to play games, that I promise you.
    – Taz D.
    Apr 13, 2014 at 17:31
  • Thanks for telling that Xubuntu and Lubuntu are lightweight coz I haven't used them much, I was only aware of their UI and I have mostly worked only on Ubuntu and Windows. Apr 13, 2014 at 17:34
  • Thank you for your invaluable help. I really appreciate it.
    – user268247
    Apr 13, 2014 at 18:28
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Since your configuration is a bit low, it would be getter if you go for the lighter version of Ubuntu called Lubuntu. its a light weight version of Ubuntu. It is a fast and lightweight operating system developed by a community of Free and Open Source enthusiasts. The core of the system is based on Linux and Ubuntu. It focus on speed and energy-efficiency. Because of this, Lubuntu has very low hardware requirements.

So in my opinion this would be the better option for you.

1.download the .iso file from this link : http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/13.10/release/

2.Then install this by burning the iso to a DVD or installing via pen drive.here's the link for the software you will need if you plan to do so: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Hope this helps

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It is not Ubuntu itself that is slowing the system down, IMHO. Go with Ubuntu and install some alternate window managers and watch an underpowered system zoom.

I like XFCE, LXDE and FluxBox, and since you can change on the fly I think of it (conceptually not literally) as going to an XP, Windows95 or an even more basic mode "as needed". You can switch window managers while running the OS and, once alternate WMs are installed, you have the option of picking one when you login to the system.

Generally I stay in the last mode I am in until I have some reason to change but the "user experience" is not something I care about too much.

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