Rescue old computers by installing "Light weight distro"

[Quadophile]

Lubuntu is the answer to utilizing those old computers which you thought may not be useful. Why not try it and install Lubuntu and see if you can turn a useless machine into a spare working net surfer and light duty machine!

== What is Lubuntu ? ==

Lubuntu is an Ubuntu derivated using the LXDE desktop. It's designed to be a lightweight and easy-to-use desktop environment.

Lubuntu is actually not part of the Ubuntu family, and not build with the current Ubuntu infrastructure. This release is considered as a « stable beta », a result that could be a final and stable release if we was included in the Ubuntu family.

== Features ==

* Based on the lightweight LXDE desktop environment.
* Pcmanfm 0.9.7, a fast and lightweight files manager using gio/gvfs.
* Lxdm, a lightweight GTK display manager.
* Chromium, the open-source version of Google Chrome.
* ... and, of course, based on Ubuntu 10.10

A Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MiB of RAM is probably a bottom-line configuration that may yield slow yet usable system with Lubuntu. It should be possible to install and run Lubuntu with less memory, but the result will likely not be suitable for practical use. If you have less than 160 MiB of RAM, you will need to use the Minimal installation instructions. Please note that especially on lower powered machines (older CPU's) or low RAM systems, that the installation may seem to 'hang' at about 95%, don't worry, it has not; it can just take some time (possibly over an hour).

Lubuntu


IMPORTANT

Anyone is welcome to add their favourite light weight distro's on this thread so that those who wish to put old machine to use can find this thread helpful.

There are plenty of light weight distro's out there but they should be very user friendly and for non geeks. Some of the distro's are very small and very fast but they need a bit of tweaking and some knowledge on the part of the user, we like to avoid those here.

If enough people contribute we can make this thread a sticky. After all Linux is all about sharing and helping each other.

 

[Quadophile]

Here is the list of software that is on Lubuntu

• LXDE Components
  • Included
    • GPicView
    • Leafpad
    • LXAppearance
    • LXDE Common
    • LXDM
    • LXLauncher
    • LXPanel
    • LXRandr
    • LXSession
    • LXSession Edit
    • LXShortCut
    • LXTerminal
    • Menu-Cache
    • Openbox
    • PCManFM
  • Not Included
    • GtkNetCat
      
    • LXMusic
    • LXNM
• Applications and System Tools
  • Login Manager : LXDM
  • System monitor : LXTask
  • Windows configuration : Obconf
    
  • Networking : Network manager + nm-applet
  • Software management : Synaptic
• Graphics
  • Image viewer: GPicView
  • Paint : MTPaint
    
• PDF reader : Evince
• Multimedia
  • Music : Aqualung
    
  • Videos : Gnome-mplayer
    
  • Webcam : Cheese
    
• Internet
  • Browser :Chromium, the open-source version of Google Chrome
    
  • Email : Sylpheed
    
  • Instant Messages : Pidgin
    
  • Bittorrent : Transmission
    
  • IRC : XChat
    
• Office and related
  • Spreadsheet : Gnumeric
    
  • Wordprocessor : Abiword
    
  • Notes : Xpad
• Accessories
  • Calculator : Galculator
  • Notepad : Leafpad
    
  • Screenshot : scrot
  • CD burner : Xfburn
    
  • Terminal : Lxterminal
  • Archiver : Xarchiver
    
  • Screensaver : Xscreensaver
• Games
  • Ace of penguins

 

[floppybootstomp]

Blimey, it certainly is light, no Gimp or Open Office then?

 

[EvanDavis]

Cheers for this Quad. I picked up an old Packard Bell Celeron D, 512mb and 30gig HDD from the local tip over the weekend. It has XP on it, but once its updated to SP 3 etc, there is going to be next to sweet FA space left on the drive. I want to get it up and running purely as another crunhing machine. Thought about Ubuntu 10.10, but after reading this thread Lubuntu is what's going on it. Just burnt the ISO, so time to play


Edit: Ok so might have to put a holt to that. Appears my DvD Drive has snuffed it. Made a bit of a squealing noise and now won't do anything

 

[Quadophile]

Evan

Your machine is good to handle Ubuntu and you can install LDXE from it directly. The reason I am stating this is cause you cannot get the DVD drive to work so all you need to do is use the wubi link and you can install ubuntu without the disk. Here is the link to wubi

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

 

[Quadophile]

Blimey, it certainly is light, no Gimp or Open Office then?

You can install anything on this if you want, it will work and as for the speed you may need to compromise a bit. The reason I say this is because Synaptic Package manager is part of Lubuntu.

On the other hand the purpose of the machine is not heavy duty work but a simple net surfur with reasonable speed if you like, nowadays most folks spend more time surfing the web than anything else as everything is online. If you have a light weight OS a program like Open office can work on it, now as far as Gimp is concerned, if you can afford the camera you should not crimp on computer as it is part and parcel of the whole process, Gimp not only needs copious amounts of RAM but processing power as well.

 

[EvanDavis]

Evan

Your machine is good to handle Ubuntu and you can install LDXE from it directly. The reason I am stating this is cause you cannot get the DVD drive to work so all you need to do is use the wubi link and you can install ubuntu without the disk. Here is the link to wubi

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

Sorry if there was any confusion. Its the drive in my ASUS windows 7 machine the made the screaching noise. I already have Linux Mint dual booting on the ASUS machine. I am now installing Lubuntu on the Packard Bell. I just swapped out the faulty drive on the Asus machine for a spare working one I had. Lubuntu ISO has been burnt and busy installing now

 

[Quadophile]

For really slow machines there is always Puppy Linux....... read on.......

Puppy Linux is a rising star in distributions oriented for slow computers. The download size is 93 Megabytes and it is capable of being used as a live distribution that can run from a CD or USB stick. In other words "Puppy on a stick" (Flops will have a chuckle on this one) Like other distributions, you will have your office programs, web browser, and instant messaging applications readily available.


How is Puppy Different?

• Small size, ~100MB! This lends itself to some very useful and unique features.
• 'Live' booting from CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, and other portable media.
• Runs from RAM, making it unusually fast even in old PCs and in netbooks with solid state storage media.
• Very low minimum system requirements.
• Boot time is well under a minute, 30-40 seconds in most systems.
• Includes a wide range of applications: wordprocessors, spreadsheets, internet browsers, games, image editors and many utilities. Extra software in the form of dotpets. There is a GUI Puppy Software Installer included.
• Puppy is easy to use and little technical knowledge is assumed. Most hardware is automatically detected.

What are Puppy's Aims?

Puppy Linux Mission Statement (Adapted from Barry Kauler):

• Puppy will easily install to USB, Zip, hard drive or other storage media.
• Booting from CD (or DVD), Puppy can load itself totally into RAM so that the CD (DVD) drive is then free for other purposes.
• Booting from DVD (or CD), Puppy can save all work to the DVD (CD).
• Booting from USB flash drive (or other flash media), Puppy will minimize writes to extend its life.
• Puppy will be extremely friendly for Linux newbies.
• Puppy will boot up and run extraordinarily fast.
• Puppy will have all the applications needed for daily use.
• Puppy will just work, no hassles.
• Puppy will breathe new life into old PCs.
• Puppy will load and run totally in RAM for diskless thin stations.

Puppy can run with a stone age era computer very happily with its tail wagging.

Download Puppy

​

 

[Quadophile]

Sorry if there was any confusion. Its the drive in my ASUS windows 7 machine the made the screaching noise. I already have Linux Mint dual booting on the ASUS machine. I am now installing Lubuntu on the Packard Bell. I just swapped out the faulty drive on the Asus machine for a spare working one I had. Lubuntu ISO has been burnt and busy installing now

No problems, mate!


I am sorry your drive gave way