Re: [tlug] Ubuntu on just 256 MB?

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

JC,

I think I can offer some insight here. I've got an old laptop, not quite 
as low spec as the one you have, but low enough to make me experiment 
with more optimized versions of Linux.

I tried Xubuntu, but it didn't help. The reason is because I wanted to 
run certain software, like OpenOffice for example, which is a memory hog 
all it's own. In that case, it doesn't matter so much whether you run 
Gnome or Xcfe or whatever, because while Xcfe might use up a sliver less 
memory, the savings is blown away depending on what application you run. 
Xcfe only saves memory and CPU cycles if you go with all their 
recommended applications, a lot of which were unsatisfactory in my 
opinion (Abiword would open my .odt files, but do odd things with them). 
And even still, it's not really that big a difference over Gnome, in my 
experience. Just looks slightly clunkier.

For me, the whole point of using a more lean window manager was to free 
up resource so that my desired applications would run a little snappier.

Instead, what I found was that I could run Gnome or Xcfe or whatever, 
that didn't matter so much. What matters more is that you go through the 
installed applications make sure to blow away any and all applications 
that might suck up time. There's a whole raft of things that *buntu 
distros add in, like printer support, bluetooth, support for modems... 
things that will load in when you boot. I managed to get a little more 
pep by squelching anything that was unneccessary for me.

So it would seem like the route to go is to try and find a Linux distro 
that is designed to be lean in that regard. Not by having a full suite 
of smaller versions of all the software available on Ubuntu, which is 
what Xubuntu does, but by having a smaller suite of software.

Unfortunately, in my case, I was unable to try Puppy or Mint Linux 
because in both cases the live CD wouldn't find my intel based video 
driver. So the drawback to the minimized distros is possibly that they 
don't have robust driver and hardware support.

Bottom line, my advice is to find the smallest distro that works on your 
laptop, and then clean house by uninstalling anything you can do away with.

Hope that helps.

--
Dave M G