I'm installing Ubuntu on an old PIII machine

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

I had just installed XP on it but it was kinda slow, and wouldn't play videos properly. So I decided to give Ubuntu Linux a try. I don't actually care if it can play a video or not- I plan to use it mostly for browsing and solitaire, and hopefully it will network to my XP file server so I can play the occasional mp3.

How is it on older machines? Will I notice a performance boost or will it remain sluggish?

-It has 512mb memory, but the sticking point is an old underpowered on-board video chip, and no AGP or PCIe slots.

[hobbit709]

1. How fast is the CPU?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. 850mhz

Like I said, a little age on it.

I don't expect it to act like a 4gz 64 bit machine with 4gb memory on board, but it would be nice if it would act like a real computer from time to time...

[hobbit709]

3. For what you're planning on doing,

it will probably work just fine. That will definitely browse, play music and word process without any problems. Might get a little jerky on videos but not a whole bunch.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. I was wrong- it's NOT a PIII

It's a Celeron 850mhz. A generation or two difference.

It's installed now and updating- it sees my Windoze file server but won't browse it just yet. It will need tweaking, I guess.

[hobbit709]

5. The only real difference between a Celeron

and a Pentium is smaller cache. It's like the Athlon-Duron deal. Funny thing was that on some applications the smaller cache was actually a plus.

[DS1]

6. Yeah, games and video

:)

[kineneb]

7. should work just fine

I have Kubuntu running on a Thinkpad 600e! (366Mhz, 256mb memory)...if Ubuntu/Kubuntu can run on that machine, anything faster should be just jolly...

I am using a Thinkpad T30 for my main computer (2.2Ghz, 512mb ram)...sweet and fast; I can even watch DVDs. Heh, heh...RIAA go suck eggs. With Linux, it flies.

[JCMach1]

8. upgrade the memory and you will be in good shape

almost as good as VISTA with a P4 duo.

I did exactly the same with my old Compaq PIII. Damn it works great. I use it for downloading torrents and simple word processing and DU of course.

Deluge is an awesome GFE for bittorrent.

I did slip 1 meg of RAM in though. I would recommend doing that. Memory of this type is CHEAP. I just had it lying around.