Linux on slow computers Episode 2

This post is been migrated to  – INITCRON.org

The 2nd experiment that I did was install Xubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on my Pentium 3 256MB Ram. Comparatively to Vector Linux Standard Edition(XFCE), I liked Xubuntu better as to add/install softwares were easier and spiced up with graphics compared to Vector Linux which looked plain and old.

Speed was almost the same at first, but after I’ve downloaded and installed the softwares I needed to run on the computer (eg. Open Office, Mplayer and so on), it was slightly slower compared to Vector Linux. That’s the price we pay for graphics I guess. Overall, I would choose Vector Linux as it was faster but wait…. when I installed Vector Linux on my computer, I logged in using a different desktop environment which was Fluxbox. It was way faster and not bad looking. It will be hard at first to get used to it, but I do enjoy the speed and the graphics are ok. It has the AWN kind of dock or a dock like MAC, not exactly the same but almost and it is fast not slow like AWN.

I guess the nest would be Linux Mint(fluxbox) and Fluxbuntu. Why? It’s because it is based on Ubuntu so that means it would be easier to handle compared to Slackware and others which most people don’t want to learn. If you’re more into technology then you should try out something harder like downloading debian, gentoo, slackware or any other major distros and start from the basics.

Screenshot of Xubuntu:

Xubuntu File Management : Thunar

Linux on slow computer Episode 1

This post is been migrated to INITCRON.org

Well, I’m back at home now and I’m on holidays so I’m too free and decided to look out for old computers to try out linux and I found a Pentium III 800 MHZ 256MB Ram with 10GB hard disk (IDE).

I tried out Vector Linux (STD) on it. For those who don’t have a clue about vector linux, you can visit http://www.vectorlinux.com, it is based on Slackware, installation is in text mode and it is not that easy for a beginner (let me remind you to read the manual 1st before you try installing), XFCE interface, uses XMMS to play music, MPlayer and Xine to play videos and I must say they changed the skins and made it as default which is pretty impressive as they definately look better than downloading it yoursef with very ugly skin as default for MPlayer. I’ve never liked MPlayer because of the looks. I don’t need a very good looking player but at least lookable.

As for internet browsers, it comes with Firefox, Opera and Seamonkey. Well I sticked with Opera as it was the fastest loadin, Pidgin to connect to MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, GoogleTalk and so on. They did a good job in creating VASM (Vector Linux’s Administration and System Menu) – a graphical tool which helps configure systems and network adminitrations. K3B, Xfburn is the burning tools, ripperX and X264 is the audio and video ripper. It comes with Adobe Reader 8, Abiword(replacement for MS Word), Gnumeric Spreadsheet, Scribus and a calculator.

It comes with one of my favourite games as well, Mega Mario. It was quite good. It was running fast, graphical boot (I didn’t get that with Ubuntu), it had the basic need mostly I would say. You could even make the panels and windows transparent(like Vista effect) and it didn’t become slow. I rather install this than have any Windows installed in it. Thanks to people that created it. There are few versions on Vector Linux, but I used the standard edition as it was the fastest available for my computer because I like speed. I could have installed the KDE version but I’m not a fan of KDE so i decided to install the XFCE instead. Thank you. Next I’ll try Xubuntu. Till then.

Vector Linux Std 5.9