Best App for my System

[linuxuser40351]

I have a custom build computer, but it doesn' have the greatest specs in the world. It has 256 MB of DDR2 SDRAM and an 850 Mhz AMD Duron processor. I have heard great things about Ubuntoo Linux (not sure if I spelled it right) but was wondering if anybody could suggest a distro that will run fairly decent on this system? I am using Microsoft Windows XP Pro right now because I have one game that I play obssessively (conquer online) that requires Direct X support, but I am looking to install Linux on this system and use my laptop as my Windows gaming station and was wondering what distro you guys think would make the best use of my system resources. I have tried Mandriva 2005 and while it is an awesome and powerful OS, Windows XP makes much better use of my resources. Suggestions anyone?

[genesus]

Ubuntu requires quite a bit but it is extremely easy to install and configure...you will probably want a slimmed down distro for that box, but the specs are not really that bad. Debian and gentoo both have really minimal installs and great package management systems for easy installation of applications. Gentoo is extremely customized by default...Ubuntu is Debian so you will not be that far off if you go ahead and take sarge...

Distro doesn't really matter as much as which window manager or desktop environment you use when considering performance. If you really want to see a difference stay away from gnome or kde...you could try fluxbox, blackbox, or enlightenment--in my opinion--the best of the light wms.

Plus your specs are not really that low...My wife's computer runs ubuntu with very similar specs quite well; however, its not the fastest that could be put on the box, but its what she is comfortable with...

If you want extreme speed check out damnsmalllinux, the entire distro is only 50mb, it really flies...plus is it debian so you can use the apt-get package management system.

I've also had good luck with Vector and even vanilla Slackware on older systems...check out distrowatch, your specs aren't bad, and with a light wm I'm willing to bet you could run pretty much anything...

[oz]

You might also want to check out ArchLinux:

http://www.archlinux.org/

You install a minimal base system, then install only the software you need via pacman. Fast, and easy!

[bryansmith]

Slackware or Zenwalk may be good for your system. You will have to be ready to learn the inner-workings though if you want to use one of those.

Bryan

[Weedman]

why would you use a slimed-down linux distro on his pc?

me thinks maybe FC4, that will run on your pc. You could try SuSe, but i cant give you any details on it as i havent tried it myself.

slackware would run like lightning, but it doesnt have the 2.6 kernel by default. However, that does not mean that it is not available on the net or one of the install cds.