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I've got a very old laptop (Sempron 2800+ w/ 768MB RAM and SLOW disk).
I'm using Ubuntu 9.04, which seems to work okay (although a bit slow) when I have 1-2 things open. However, it quickly gets so slow as to be unusable if I open much more than that.
Is there anything non-essential that can be disabled in order to lower the resources being used by Ubuntu?
TM.
Posted 2009-07-29T03:15:41.477
Reputation: 1 270
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To add to John T's answer, Xubuntu is a distribution of Ubuntu designed for less powerful computers. It uses the Xfce window manager.
More info at http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/xubuntu
Richard Hoskins
Posted 2009-07-29T03:15:41.477
Reputation: 10 260
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Have you considered using a lightweight window manager on top of X as opposed to the full Gnome desktop environment that comes default? This can use a lot less memory.
Most of the *Box variants are very lightweight. BlackBox, OpenBox and FluxBox come to mind. XFCE is also fairly lightweight.
The desktop environment that comes with Ubuntu by default is called Gnome, it isn't exactly the best for memory use. Using just a lightweight window manager on top of X (www.X.org) doesn't have to look bad either, here's a picture of Openbox:
Gnome has a lot of features that you may not need and a lot of eye candy, especially with compiz. If you don't need this I think you'd like a small window manager.
This guide will get you up and running with a low memory environment on Ubuntu.
John T
Posted 2009-07-29T03:15:41.477
Reputation: 149 037
Could you elaborate? – TM. – 2009-07-29T03:21:24.773
fvwm2 or xmonad or awesome would be good choices as well. – Sardathrion - against SE abuse – 2011-08-30T14:06:03.447
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Seems to almost be recommended already, but I'd say just start with a light weight distro in the first place.
I think crunchbang linux crunchbanglinux [dot] org is a lightweight Ubuntu based distro.
Damn Small Linux (aka DSL) "is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution." damnsmalllinux [DOT] org IIRC
Puppy Linux is also small light weight distro puppylinux [DOT] org/main/index.php
You could also check out http://distrowatch.com/ they have a list of dang near every Linux distro out there, including a brief description and the packages available in the distro.
miker
Posted 2009-07-29T03:15:41.477
Reputation: 21
crunchbang is a very lean ubuntu based distro. I think this answer might have gotten more attention if you hadn't mentioned DSL & Puppy. Fine distros, but they have nothing to do with the question. – DaveParillo – 2009-11-25T00:42:08.987
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If you still want to stick to Ubuntu 11.04, then you can disable some of the services and startup process. For Ex, I run Ubuntu 11.04 on HP Mini and I don't use BlueTooth and therefore I disabled it. I use BUM (Bootup Manager) to enable/disable services and "StartUp Manager" to enable/disable applications at Startup. (1) has the purpose of the different services which are visible in BUM.
Praveen Sripati
Posted 2009-07-29T03:15:41.477
Reputation: 1 385
This can be done without requiring and entire new distro installation – John T – 2009-07-29T03:46:46.407
Yes. Good option for people who haven't installed yet, or who don't feel confident mucking around with X. – Richard Hoskins – 2009-07-29T04:01:21.243
To explain John T's comment: Once you have ubuntu installed, you can install the xubuntu-desktop metapackage which will install xfce and everything else you need. At the login prompt, you'll have the option to login using Gnome or Xfce. – DaveParillo – 2009-11-25T00:39:48.923