Please recommend a linux os for my pc

Hi,

I'm looking for a linux os to use or maybe replace my xp os in my pc. It'd be nice if the linux os is faster, lighter and more up-to-date than the xp.

PC : Acer AO532h 1.66Gzh atom processor, 1GB RAM XP Home.

Any suggestions, recommendations and advice are heartily welcome.

Best Wishes,
Amit

 

Go to Distrowatch. Read about different distros. Download & burn several LiveCDs. Try out the different distros for hardware compatability & ease of use. Then install dual boot or wipe XP. Your PC make your own well informed choice.

 

I can recommend Linux Mint 14 Xfce. It's nice and light, and has pretty much everything you need right out of the box. Take a look at the live cd and see what you think. It should run on your hardware.... but you'll know for sure if you try the live cd.

 

Linux Mint 13 Maya
Xubuntu 12.10
Ubuntu 12.04

Right, Mrk?

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/best-distro-2012.html

Of course, XP is still a better option if you play lots of commercial games (although you're already missing all commercial games that require DirectX 10/10.1/11/11.1, lol).

If you are totally novice to the Linux world, I would advise Ubuntu 12.04 as it is one of the "long term support releases" and Canonical apparently cares more about them. By using the most popular distro (also backed by a billionaire), you can also expect a better level of support from both Canonical and other parties (when compared to other Linux distros).

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-desktop-long-term-support

.

 

that' s not gonna work on the Amit's machine:

 

It works, see:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop#System_Requirements

He has 1 GB of memory, while the minimum for Ubuntu 12.04 is 384 MB of memory.

Anyways, Xubuntu 12.10 (or 12.04) would probably run better on that old hardware.

Regular release (18 months of support) - Xubuntu 12.10: http://xubuntu.org/news/12-10-release/

Long Term Support release (three years of support) - Xubuntu 12.04: http://xubuntu.org/news/12-04-release/

Download: http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/

 

Here you'll find your basic requirements http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=628

You may find this helpful, i used Linux Mint 9 Isadora for my Distro.. these are some tools you may find handy, another way you can do this and run XP next to Linux is by way of a Virtual Clone Drive, anyways there are some good tutorials out there

MD 5 Reborned Hasher https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/md5-reborned-hasher/?src=ss

Virtual Clone Drive http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

Linux Mint 9 Isadora http://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=13

How To Install Linux http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/install-linux-mint-on-your-windows-computer-or-netbook/

Linux Mint http://www.linuxmint.com/


Install your Virtual Clone Drive.. this method worked for me..

MD 5 Reborned Hasher A Firefox extension

Linux Mint 9 Isadora.. Support for this Distro ends in April 2013

Tutorial .. Have fun..

 

Hi Amit did you read my post?

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=286575

The only thing holding you back is the 1GB of ram, so you should look at the desktops to try, LXDE, or Xfce, or just run a Window Manager for your desktop which can be run stand alone like OpenBox, or Fluxbox...

Of these 4 choices I've shown above they are the most commonly used in low memory situations, but there are a few other small desktops and window managers, so take the time to read the Post...

There is also Bodhi which uses Enlightenment also known as E in Linux circles amongst geeks. Bodhi is the only one out there staying on top of the E development in a distro release....

I'd still read the post, but if you want to start somewhere Mainstream Mint is really good and they put out a Xfce version you can download here;

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

CHEERS

P.S. Xfce or LXDE might be the most comfortable for you, but if they turn out slow and not up to your expectations then a small Window Manager is the only way to go and they are the FASTEST! I've personally been using OpenBox for 12 years, it's all I use and it BLAZES!

http://openbox.org/

 

Mint with the Xfce desktop is a nice starter unit. Another easy one for lower spec hardware is Puppy.

Instead of burning CDs to try them out, use a bootable USB stick. Yumi can make USB sticks bootable with several versions on it at once. It makes it a lot simpler to try different versions when you don't have to mess with CDs and DVDs.

 

Puppy Linux is my advice. Runs on really low spec hardware.

 

Recommend Linux Mint 13 xfce, if you can upgrade your RAM to 2GIG..

Try out a Live DVD first, as per zapjb advice in the 2nd post.

Pick up your distro here......

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

I have been on Isodora [Mint v9] since it came out, with an entry level first generation core 2 duo [e6300]- but I do have 2G of memory...which is essential I think.


For 1G of memory, if you can't upgrade due to the motherboard, please try Precise Puppy as a live CD [burn the ISO to CD]...

Now is a very good time to get into puppy . Precise Puppy has only "recently" come out, and bugs were found, but now the revised / updated version [5.4.2] is available here...

http://bkhome.org/blog2/?viewDetailed=00049


Some other links worth looking at regarding precise puppy....

http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/puppy-linux-54-precise-review-amazing.html

http://puppylinuxnews.org/


- cheers,
feandur.

 

well, it does work but Ubuntu is rather sluggish on my machine: a 5 years old duo-core with 3 GB of RAM.

KDE is kinda slow, no matter what distro i try.
Cinnamon is a little better.

If Amit is new to Linux Mint XFCE would probably a good starting point.
Bodhi Linux is even faster than Mint XFCE.

Puppy is also very fast, i always keep a live Puppy CD around for emergency.
it runs fast even from the live disk.
but not as pretty as Bodhi or Mint XFCE

 

elementary OS Luna - Dedoimedo hasn't reviewed it yet but its the leanest, fastest and most beautiful Linux implementation of Mac OSX that I've ever seen.

 

Bohdi is excellent advice. Forgot about that one. Amit try Bohdi!!!!

 

I'll side with the others that recommend upgrading your RAM.. Crucial has a tool that will let you know how much you can add, you can find them here

 

I would suggest Arch Linux. It is very minimalistic and does not come with any extra "baggage".

 

You want to give OP a nervous breakdown? OP has not stated their Linux experience. And Arch is better suited to the intermediate to expert Linux user.

 

Hi Zapjb,
I think it would be a good learning experience for Amit in case he really wants to explore the wide range of options.

 

Much has been said in this thread about inadequacy and antiquity of one gig of RAM. Why?

1GB Ram here and I happen to dual boot Windows XP-pro and Linux Mint 13, Mate desktop, and it seems fine in everything I do other than lack of excel and absence of my printer driver.

Amit hasn't told what sort of applications needs to use. Perhaps online gaming or something like it requires more memory than 1 gig.
Really, the only way to find out is to try several Linux variants and use one that works best/fastest.

 

It would appear that the OP has left the building.....

 

I am running a Customized(slimmed down) version of Windows 7 on my 6 year old Laptop
whose specs are
2 GHz Celeron processor
512 MB RAM
80GB HDD
a busted DVD Drive
and a Whole lot of USB drives

the Customized Windows 7 takes about 240-200 MB RAM on idle and is quite responsive.
so you could try running it

 

Can you run Linux Mint from a USB stick? Been wanting to get back into Linux myself and trying to make time for it.

Hit me up with a PM if you want to.

Thanks.

 

I have an old laptop (>8yrs) on which I installed Xubuntu 32 bit. The laptop has 512MB shared memory. I have installed ...ah.. let's call it a full house of apps. and on startup it uses only 112MB memory. See link below.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1995741&postcount=15

 

Yes, you can run Mint from a USB stick. Installed on a stick using Yumi, it will behave just like a liveCD. Yumi, available here, will let you install multiple versions of Linux on a single USB stick, as many as it will hold. I used it to compare different versions of Mint (Xfce, Mate, KDE, etc) to see what worked best on my hardware, a P4 with 1gb ram. Yumi made it much easier and faster to compare versions.

Once you find a version that you want to examine further, try it out on the Universal USB installer. It adds the ability to save settings and make some changes/additions to many versions of Linux (persistence). Don't expect speed from it. Boot times with the universal USB installer can get long, especially with a large persistence file.

Mint-Xfce will run decently on 1Gb of RAM. On my hardware, it's a bit slower than XP but it's not a fair comparison. I have XP stripped and optimized for my hardware, something I don't yet know how to do with Mint.

 

the more i use Mint the less i want to use Windows.

one thing that i have to give Windows; it feels faster than most popular Linux distros.

in my case, Mint XFCE is the only flavor of Mint that feels as fast, if not faster, than Windows.