[GTALUG] distro for old machine and non-expert users

[Paul King]

I don't see why that can't be tweaked to suit your chipsets. Only recently 
(around 2013) did the Linux kernel drop support for the 386 processor. Also IMO 
the 865G is not terribly "ancient". I would change to a different Linux. If you 
must have Ubuntu, I would try one of Ubuntu's side projects. I use Ubuntu 
Studio (14.10 LTS I believe) and it didn't install Unity (nor was it offered to 
me, iirc). It's using XFCE, which is probably closer to what you want.

Ubuntu Studio may not suit your needs but I am under the impression that the 
other side projects of Ubuntu may have avoided Unity in some cases. You might 
want to look into that.

If old hardware is a priority (sounds like it), I would just go with Debian, 
and avoid Ubuntu totally. Or Slackware, but only as a last resort. I mention 
Slackware since they are touted to have the best support for old hardware.

Paul King

On 30 Dec 2015 at 13:42, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

Date sent:      	Wed, 30 Dec 2015 13:42:45 -0500 (EST)
From:           	"D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh at mimosa.com>
To:             	Toronto Linux Users Group <talk at gtalug.org>
Subject:        	[GTALUG] distro for old machine and non-expert users
Send reply to:  	"D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh at mimosa.com>, GTALUG Talk 
<talk at gtalug.org>

> Machine: old P4 with 1G of RAM an 80G HDD.
> Was running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
> 
> I'm trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS but Unity is a real pig with the 
> ancient Intel 865G graphics.  Any desktop that tries to use 3D 
> acceleration will be awful.  I strongly suspect Fedora's 
> Gnome would be bad.
> 
> Is there an easy choice?  Would Mint work?
> 
> The system should be self-explanatory to casual former Windows users.
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