I installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64 for my sister since Windows XP went out of support. Anyway I showed her MX Linux and Kubuntu on my 2nd pc recently and she liked them so I replaced her Ubuntu with Kubuntu and now her machine seems a little slower. My question is, is Kubuntu too heavy for an older Core Duo computer and would she be better off with MX Linux? Any advice appreciated, thanks. This machine only has on-board graphics.
Xubuntu is probably the lightest Ubuntu variant. Even lighter is starting with Debian or Ubuntu server, and installing the openbox desktop. But that's Spartan. And you'll need to install each GUI app that you want.
I have a 10 year old Asus Core 2 Duo with onboard Intel graphics and Kubuntu 18.04.x runs fine on it. I have also used Debian 10.1 KDE without problems as well as Manjaro KDE. Just as snappy and quick as anything else...
mirimir: "Xubuntu is probably the lightest Ubuntu variant. Even lighter is starting with Debian or Ubuntu server, and installing the openbox desktop. But that's Spartan. And you'll need to install each GUI app that you want." Would openbox be hard to install for someone with no experience with it and do you mean I also have to install openbox for each GUI app or just install the apps separately? Kerodo: "I have a 10 year old Asus Core 2 Duo with onboard Intel graphics and Kubuntu 18.04.x runs fine on it. I have also used Debian 10.1 KDE without problems as well as Manjaro KDE. Just as snappy and quick as anything else..." I didn't get much time to try it after install so I'll go back to her house and see how it's doing, could a slow internet make it feel slow, she only has 1.5mbs download? zapjb: "Might I suggest: https://distrowatch.com/search.php Distribution category - Old Computers" Thanks for the helpfull link zapjb and thank you all for the advice .
No, just the openbox desktop, and then the apps. See https://prahladyeri.com/blog/2016/02/minimal-debian-desktop-setup.html And actually, I forgot LXDE, which uses openbox: https://lxde.org/ Also, BunsenLabs Helium: https://www.bunsenlabs.org/ It's very old school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW3OMrqg4Wg
LXDE is not a distro, it's a DE. They give a link to Lubuntu, but Lubuntu has switched to LXQT now. XFCE is probably the best light DE these days, and about every distro has a version. I suggest Linux Mint with XFCE desktop.
Another thumbs up for MX, very impressed with the choices they've made, intelligent and useful. The pendrive/persistent options (which also tend to be useful for older hardware) are sensational, it's kind of superseded Puppy Linux completely.
They put out a new one every year near the latter part of the year. MX-19 was just released a few weeks ago. I just looked at their site and apparently there is no way to upgrade from 18 to 19, they say a clean install is needed to get to the latest. I'm not sure how long they support each year's release though. I usually do clean installs on everything anyhow, so I don't mind.
There's a fair bit on information on the forums about the choices and procedures. In any case, like you find, a clean install is quite therapeutic and data continuity is hardly difficult. I'd much rather they focussed attention on more important aspects than hand-holding migration, though I guess if they get more popular yet, that might be something worthwhile for the inexperienced.
According to the MX-19 .pdf user manual, it does support UEFI only with 64 bit hardware, and it recommends disabling safe boot. I have safe boot disabled on my hardware. Agreed,this is a phenomenal feature in MX. BTW, I had a highly favorable experience with Linux Lite a few years ago. Fast and stable on older hardware, although I don't know what it's like nowadays. It gets positive reviews.
Well, that was a challenge. The UFD boots with Secure Boot enabled but installed MX-19 doesn't boot with Secure Boot enabled. I thought MX-19 was based on Debian 10 which does boot with Secure Boot enabled.
It is like so many other distros, but unfortunately there are very few that support secure boot. BTW, for you and the OP, and anyone else, for that matter, MX-18/19 can make for a fantastic boot pendrive. The persistence feature works flawlessly for either or both of the root and home partitons and it's easy to set up.
These support Secure Boot and are running in my UEFI computer... Mint (Cinnamon, XFCE, Mate) Ubuntu Ubuntu Mate Kubuntu Xubuntu Lubuntu OpenSuseKDE Fedora Centos Debian Distros not supporting Secure Boot have been installed in my MBR computer.
