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New to the world of Ubuntu, and I've been poking around the last few days because I finally got around to trying it! It's awesome so far but it's really sluggish on this PC...

I received a 'busted laptop' from a friend, not a bad Sony Vaio with a first gen i3. However it has half the RAM in it, someone took a stick out. I thought it was 4GB (down from 8) but I was mistaken, turns out it's just 2GB. I probably should have checked first!

Anyway, it's a bit sluggish. I installed the 64bit version, so it's a bit suspect that maybe I overlooked 32bit. The reasoning was that the site for the iso says (For systems with LESS than 2GB of memory). This is right at 2GB... So, any experienced users suggest I move to 32bit based on lack of memory?

Side note/question, but may be of importance, I thought I installed 14.04, but ran updates and noticed it's at 14.10. Maybe I just downloaded the wrong version completely. Are the updates what pushed it? Feedback is GREATLY appreciated! ::)

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  • You might find this helpful: askubuntu.com/questions/206407/… running a standard update won't move you to a new version so it seems you installed 14.10 originally or performed a distribution upgrade.
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:16

2 Answers 2

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Changing to a 32-bit OS will have very little, if any, effect on the performance of your computer.

Whether it is a 32-bit or 64-bit system dictates how much memory the CPU can address. A 32-bit system can only address 4GB RAM where a 64-bit system can address much more.

See x86-x64 (Wikipedia)

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    Not true, there are performance differences. AMD64 has architectural difference, additional registers and SIMD instructions, ability to move data around more efficiently, there are realworld measurable performance improves particularly with data heavy tasks such as media encoding or data compression.
    – NGRhodes
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:41
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I love Ubuntu, its the first Linux distro that I was like 'this is how it should be!'. However from my experience now (I don't have much) it eats similar resources to that of Windows. So my inexperienced feedback is you could try the 32bit, but I imagine it may operate the same. The sys requirements page advises just the UI (they call 'Unity') its suggests 1GB, so the graphics power of your unit may be the culprit. It suggests Xubuntu or Lubuntu as lighter-weight GUI versions of Ubuntu. Otherwise I have had pretty good experiences with a distro I believe is based on Ubuntu, Mint. If you are persistent about being on straight-Ubuntu, then maybe load an older supported version (I think they call them LTE or something) that may not need as much resources

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  • Welcome to askubuntu! I think the phrase you are looking for is LTS (for long term support), not LTE. FYI Mint isn't a supported distribution here at askubuntu.com
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:18
  • Apoligies...I can reword my answer. If its not clear I just joined & honestly overlooked the terms
    – gregg
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:23
  • No worries, we all end up editing our answers for one reason or another over time. Thanks for pitching in! :-)
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:29

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