less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

[iumentum]

Does anyone have an opinion, or even better, knowledge on which is less cpu/ram intensive - Ubuntu or Kubuntu? I just installed Kubuntu but opening apps is pretty sluggish. It is an older laptop but it seems like last time I tired linux, it was on an even older computer and it ran better - redhat 6 w/ gnome.
My hardware is:
HP pavillion laptop
pentium 4 - 650 Mhz
320 mb RAM
10 gig HD

[Fenyx]

Re: less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

People have mixed experiences when it comes to which is faster. Some say GNOME is faster, others say KDE is faster. I myself seem to experience a faster KDE when it comes to general operations (but a faster GNOME startup/login). But the difference in performance is not that much.

Might I suggest that you try out Xubuntu. It's perfect for slower/older machines, or for people who just want a fast desktop environment. And being GTK+ based, it means you can use your GNOME apps there. And since it's part of the Ubuntu project, you could also install KDE apps with no problems.

[iumentum]

Re: less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Yeah, thanks, I hadn't investigated Xubuntu. It looks nice. Still, it seems that my laptop which hardly ever chokes with windows XP(unless I'm editing 10 mb images in photoshop while encoding divx movies at the same time) should be able to handle Kubuntu. Atleast I can install Xubuntu with my Kubuntu disc.
I'll give it a shot.

[Fenyx]

Re: less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

You could also "tone down" Kubuntu's eye-candy effects a bit, so as to increase system performance. This includes things like bouncing cursos/icons, (big) bubble tool tips (the ones that pop up when you place your mouse over stuff on the taskbar and panel), rubber band effects, etc. You could just manually tweak those one by one, but you might want to just install a package called kpersonalizer so that you could adjust them all in one convenient GUI app.

Look for kpersonalizer in Adept, then run it by typing in kpersonalizer in the Run command dialog box (Alt+F2).

You could also try to use a widget style that is less animated and less fancy (System Settings > Appearance > Styles) and probably simpler window decorations. AFAIK, these also affect system performance.

Btw, did you setup a swap partition? The first time I installed Kubuntu (Breezy) I only had 256MB RAM (64MB lower than yours) and a 1GB swap partition. Kubuntu was a bit faster than XP (same computer, virtual memory page of 1GB). I think the swap makes a lot of difference, for a low RAM system.

[iumentum]

Re: less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Wow, 1 gig SWAP? Mine is only about 300 MB. maybe I should increase it. I'm sure I can figure some way to resize that from a live cd without having to re-install from scratch?, I hope.
Also, I did a apt-get install xubuntu-desktop on my way out this morning. Will try it out when I get home from work.
Well, I think Linux still isn't ready for the average pc user. I am more technically inclined than most and I still find it a bit troubling. Well at least I don't have to recompile my kernal like I had to get my sound working back in 1999 when I first tried linux, or guess my way through wierd unknowable questions about my videocard to get a gui.

[Fenyx]

Re: less intessive hardware req. - Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

oh crap, I forgot to tell you to use aptitude to install xubuntu-desktop, instead of apt-get. The difference is that if you installed xubuntu-desktop with aptitude, you can easily remove it later by removing it with aptitude. In apt-get, removing xubuntu-desktop will only remove that meta-package, and not everything that it installed with it.

(For more information, you could read this tutorial on how to install Xfce over Kubuntu/Ubuntu: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/xubuntu.php)

Btw, Xubuntu is indeed very nice, but I have at least 2 major issues with it after having tried it out for about half a day
1. No trash management (yet). Delete a file, and it's deleted permanently
2. No search/find utility. You have to install a package named gnome-utils so that you can use the program gnome-search-tool in Xfce. It's a GTK program, so it fits right in. But it's still a native GNOME program, not a native Xfce one.

If you haven't used GNOME at all, and you're coming directly from KDE, it might get a bit of getting used to. But don't let it scare you. It's a really fast mouse.