Ubuntu - The Linux-based OS to rule them all?

a legacy reborn

Well-known member
I just installed Ubuntu on my 5+ year old laptop and quickly realized that I made the right choice. Let me give you some background on this laptop.

I have installed Ubuntu before(as well as Fedora) on this computer before, but they were just to test out Linux and therefore ran along with Windows. My computer is sporting an Intel Celeron processor clocked at 2.2GHz, with an integrated graphics card and 2GB of RAM. The HD is just a measly 250GB. I recently(like 6 months ago) purchased a Mac Mini and haven't had much need for my laptop, until now. I wanted to breathe some life back into this machine and soon realized that, while running Win7, this was impossible. I remembered the days when Ubuntu freed me of most of my lag and so I thought I might as well give it a chance. The only problem is that my Windows installation had become so sluggish that I had to make a CD to install Ubuntu, since accessing my OS to do so was out of the question. This would not have been a problem given the plethora of How-To's on the Internet as well as some past experience, but my BIOS was being, well, stupid. I had to go and fix that by changing some simple settings, but that did put me into an infinite boot loop, something that might not have been a problem had I not walked away to come back to a super hot laptop. Once I had some initial issues out of the way, the installation was a breeze. No surprises here, everything installed as it should. Now comes the part where I seek my revenge :D.

I had no plans to completely remove Windows. I was just going to dual-boot again, but I felt that with all the heartaches that it was giving that I should seek some revenge, so I installed Ubuntu as a stand alone OS, deleting Windows in the process. I guess ultimately it was a wise decision, seeing as how I couldn't really use Windows anyway. I posited that Ubuntu would be able to run on my laptop, at least better than Windows, from my past experience but it could have really gone either way, I mean, what would I have done if the installation process failed :P lol.

So, now I poise the question to you; is Ubuntu the Linux-based OS to rule them all? Have you resurrected a dying computer using Ubuntu, or for that matter any Linux-based OS?

I hope that maybe someone, somewhere will find this post and in their PC's final hour, resurrect it from its certain demise.
 
Ubuntu is pretty sweet. I've been running it on and off for yeesh I'd about 6 years now. I'm not that impressed with the new Unity interface but Ubuntu is still great. It's the main OS on my netbook because Windows 7 just chokes on it. Chrome with 2 or 3 tabs is too much for it to handle under Windows. On Ubuntu I've got Chrome and Firefox running with several tabs open plus gedit, a couple terminals, etc and it flies along..You cannot complain about that.

If you're looking for even more speed check out Xubuntu. It's basically Ubuntu with a different desktop environment that uses less resources. I installed it on my sister's netbook which has some craptastic 1.3 Ghz Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM. It flies with Xubuntu. To tell you the truth I may even install it on my netbook.
 
I've found windows 7 embedded standard to be the best of any major gui systems (comparing a handful of linux desktops, xp and normal 7) on an old 2ghz celeron laptop I used to use - it's just insanely fast on old hardware. Might as well be full-blown 7 too - there's almost no difference with some tweaks.
 
While I do have Windows 7 installed on the other hard drive, I've been using Ubuntu for over a year as my main OS. I typically use GNOME 3, but I started with GNOME 2. GNOME 3 took some getting use to, but I seem to have settled on it.

If you have no idea what GNOME is, think explorer.exe

Unlike Windows, with Linux you can change your graphic user interface (shell). So you have a wide range to pick from. For an Ubuntu noob, I would suggest Gnome 2 or 3. While Ubuntu uses Unity by default... A lot of programs seem to center around the GNOME and KDE interface. All of which are compatible with each other (between Gnome and kde).

Also I found Unity harder to use and believe me, I tried to use it. It also takes up more resources. So if you are finding things are running smoothly now... Imagine how much more smoothly they will get when you install GNOME.

Once you install either GNOME or KDE (or both), you can switch to whatever "shell" you like at the log-in menu. So if you decide you prefer Unity, it is as simple as logging out and picking Unity (no re-install or removal required).

I admit that I do prefer Debian, Ubuntu, and sometimes SuSe which as the 1st Linux I ever tried. Debian uses the least resources and I much prefer it (on servers).
 
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