Switch to Linux or do a clean install?

[IMPERIUS]

Hello guys,

 

I recetly got gifted a pentium 4, 1 core 2.8ghz, 512mb ram laptop and I want to get the most out of it.

 

So my wishes are to get as much speed as possible out of it (mostly in terms of web browsing). Currently the poor pantium 4 gets 100% usage while loading pages in chrome (in win xp) and would the lightness of Linux help at that? Or I could just do a clean install of the os (the previous owner didnt ever do it)

 

Your suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

I think @Minibois is good with older systems?

[BottleGamer]

I would probably switch to linux because its less hardware hungry than win xp

and win xp isnt supported anymore so you should be on the safe (and faster) side with linux

[minibois]

Nah, not that good with them.

I know @tmcclelland455 and @BurgerBum are good with them (hear them talking about stuff like Pentium 4 a lot) and I think Burgerbum even knows a thing or two about Linux.

Maybe they can help.

 

And otherwise the logical thing would be doing a clean install, XP should run OK on that system and otherwise I think Linux Mint is very lightweight. 

[Albatross]

Definitely switch to Linux. It will be faster (and prettier) than XP.

[Sauron]

Linux 100%. If you can handle it, I'd say arch with xfce. Otherwise xubuntu is just fine.

[flibberdipper]

Hello guys,

 

I recetly got gifted a pentium 4, 1 core 2.8ghz, 512mb ram laptop and I want to get the most out of it.

 

So my wishes are to get as much speed as possible out of it (mostly in terms of web browsing). Currently the poor pantium 4 gets 100% usage while loading pages in chrome (in win xp) and would the lightness of Linux help at that? Or I could just do a clean install of the os (the previous owner didnt ever do it)

 

Your suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

I think @Minibois is good with older systems?

Xubuntu 12.04 would probably give it a little bit of a kick in the ass. I haven't really run it on 512MB of RAM with a Pentium 4 (I did it with a 733MHz PIII and 512MB of RAM and it wasn't too bad compared to XP). Biggest thing with older computers and Linux is trying to find a distro that actually supports the iGPU/GPU and takes full advantage of it. Like on my Dell I can't do anything higher than 12.04 (I think) because after that they remove the support for the iGPU.

 

Another OS which I can HIGHLY recommend you look at is Puppy Linux. I ran it on a TNT2 and the previously mentioned PIII and RAM). Nice and fast. Installing other browsers can be a bit of a pain in the butt.

[BurgerBum]

Nah, not that good with them.

I know @tmcclelland455 and @BurgerBum are good with them (hear them talking about stuff like Pentium 4 a lot) and I think Burgerbum even knows a thing or two about Linux.

Maybe they can help.

 

And otherwise the logical thing would be doing a clean install, XP should run OK on that system and otherwise I think Linux Mint is very lightweight. 

i know a few tiny things about linux. >_< but im still a nooby.

if you really wanna talk to someone about low end hardware and linux find @manikyath

pretty sure he has a P4 machine with lubuntu... or maybe xubuntu... *unsure*

keep in mind, the whole ''linux is so lightwieght anything can run on it'' is only true if you're using the lightwieght versions of linux.

i tried to put ubuntu 15.4 on my P4 rig and it was almost glacial. be sure to ask around with the pro's to see whats the most efficient pair of software with your hardware.

 

 

what i'd do with it, is try puppy linux, and if you dont know what else to do with it,

idfk wall mount the motherbaord with the ram and stuff isntalled. call it ahem.. *clears throat* 'moderen arrt''

from there join my project and make the P4 a necklace if its of the LGA variant.

[Nena Trinity]

Linux or get 10, XP is so outdated its no fun!

[manikyath]

pretty sure he has a P4 machine with lubuntu... or maybe xubuntu... *unsure*

i have a P4 machine (one of the late P4 versions) thats running kubuntu, and does it very well.

also have a very early P4 machine (32 bit and all the toys) thats running lubuntu, and does so decently.

 

the issue with P4 isnt so much that they're slow, they're far from slow actually, theres just one issue...

the fast P4's floating point performance is less than that of a 280MHz IBM powerpc (like used in the older macs)

the slow P4... froze every time i tried to benchmark floating point...

[BurgerBum]

i have a P4 machine (one of the late P4 versions) thats running kubuntu, and does it very well.

also have a very early P4 machine (32 bit and all the toys) thats running lubuntu, and does so decently.

 

the issue with P4 isnt so much that they're slow, they're far from slow actually, theres just one issue...

the fast P4's floating point performance is less than that of a 280MHz IBM powerpc (like used in the older macs)

the slow P4... froze every time i tried to benchmark floating point...

to my knowledge, the only thing holding a P4 back is its a single core, with really sad floating point.

and the fact that you mentioned floating point, made me consider it as something rather important. so yeah.

 

forgot about kubuntu there. <_>

[Kiyuubi]

Lubuntu should be fine.  The only issue you may have is getting wireless drivers to work (if its broadcom), but other than that, it should be fine.

[manikyath]

to my knowledge, the only thing holding a P4 back is its a single core, with really sad floating point.

and the fact that you mentioned floating point, made me consider it as something rather important. so yeah.

 

forgot about kubuntu there. <_>

kubuntu is really great, as long as you have the ram to back it up, which OP doesnt

 

and well... that singular core on a P4 is actually rather good, except well.. the FLOPS is well.. a flop... (bahdum tish)

[BurgerBum]

kubuntu is really great, as long as you have the ram to back it up, which OP doesnt

 

and well... that singular core on a P4 is actually rather good, except well.. the FLOPS is well.. a flop... (bahdum tish)

would you say a 1 gig or more is about right? for kubuntu?

 

lel. grate joke brah.

[manikyath]

would you say a 1 gig or more is about right?

my kubuntu box has 1GB of DDR2 ecc in it.

 

quoting windows 98's specs page here: "enough, but not for multitasking"

[as96]

Linux with a light desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE would help you.

[ohJey]

Xubuntu 15.04 

[Sintezza]

Linux with lxde desktop is what i would recommend.

THere are plenty of distro´s to choose from.

 

LXLE would be a good choice.

Lubuntu also not bad.

 

There are basicly tons of distro´s to choose from, it highly depends on personal preference.

[Jonny]

http://xubuntu.org/ - Download to a CD/USB and install.

 

If that's using little too much ram than you like, then install

http://lubuntu.net/ - Lighter than xubuntu

 

Use Firefox on linux, as it currently uses less than then chrome/chromium

 

Don't install kubuntu as it will run like ass on that GPU as its a very CPU and GPU intensive Desktop Environment, plus uses a lot of ram.

 

Choose the latest Version so 15.04 at the moment, so you get the latest drivers from the kernel.

[JefferyD90]

Hello guys,

 

I recetly got gifted a pentium 4, 1 core 2.8ghz, 512mb ram laptop and I want to get the most out of it.

 

So my wishes are to get as much speed as possible out of it (mostly in terms of web browsing). Currently the poor pantium 4 gets 100% usage while loading pages in chrome (in win xp) and would the lightness of Linux help at that? Or I could just do a clean install of the os (the previous owner didnt ever do it)

 

Your suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

I think @Minibois is good with older systems?

If you're going to install Windows dont use Windows XP.  Put Windows 10 on it.

 

If it was my computer, personally, I think I would just throw a version of Fedoria on it and call it a day.

[DevBlox]

Linux definitely, but keep in mind that software on Linux is also getting more complex and heavy with age, so is the case with the major distributions as they are being continuously updated. Go with something that is made to be very light. Or you can stick together something yourself starting with a console if you have time and skills, you can definitely end up with something light enough that will run fast on that machine. Forget about most modern software though.