Which distro for max speed

[AdiLinux123]

Hi,

I need suggestions for a distro to run on a Celeron 2.4 with a half gig memory. I know that doesn't sound slow but I am running Ubuntu and before it was going like treacle, but now that I have got the updated version it just not moving at all....and I don't really like the new Ubuntu GUI anyway.

I really don't use my machine for much apart from the below:

Saving and viewing pictures
Web-browsing
Gmail
Google docs

I run a web based java app which is quite resource heavy and I use the machine the run a java app locally from my machine so needs to the distro needsto be bale to run the latest version of Java.

Also possible looking to get a video card which handles two monitors.

That's about it. I thought of Xubuntu and Damn Small Linux, any ideas?

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

To be honest, if you want to try Xubuntu, you can simply install Xfce and remove Gnome.
Damn Small is no longer being maintained.

I'd go with a minimal install of a distro and build from there. Arch, Slackware or Debian would do quite well there.
And if you don't mind dealing with compile times, you could also take a look at CRUX and Gentoo.
Any one of those, running a lightweight WM, would run pretty smooth.

[AdiLinux123]

Thanks, might give CRUX a try.

I see it uses KDE by default, is this less resource intensive than Gnome?

[jayd512]

Actually, the default desktop is Openbox.

DistroWatch.com: CRUX

[hazel]

I'd definitely recommend Crux for speed if that's all you're concerned about. I run it in 256 MB and it goes like greased lightning. It boots incredibly fast too.

But Crux is a bit of an expert's system. To install it, you need to be prepared to work on the command line and build your own kernel. You learn a lot about Linux that way but not everyone wants to get their hands dirty.

[elija]

Crunchbang and Antix are another couple to consider

[Dapper Dan]

What jayd512 and hazel said.

[cynwulf]

Slackware 13.37 or Debian Squeeze - with Xfce 4.6 should do the job.

[MASONTX]

For a half gig of RAM, AntiX, Lubuntu, or Crunchbang would be good choices. Modern Ubuntu needs 1 Gig to run right, unfortunately you will still see quotes of 256 mb or even less, which was what earlier versions took (like 8.04, 512, 6.04, 256).

[srdorothy]

Lots of ideas here...but my fave for speed and small size is Puppy Linux. Also very handy for doing repairs on other systems. It has saved my bacon a couple of times. Even though lots of people have a fast connection these days, there are those who still use dialup out of necessity--and Puppy is absolutely the best I've found at getting those modems to work. You can run it off the live cd or install it. Running live, you can save your sessions to a flash drive if you like. Have fun trying out various distros....