Different Linux distributions on an (let's say not so new) laptop

[Gediminas2]

Hello everybody,

I recently acquired a laptop that was used a bit. Not today's hardware:
Intel Celeron M 1500 MHz
256 - 16 MB RAM
16 - 32 MB integrated VIA graphics card
40 GB Hard disk.

I have tried running all versions of Kubuntu I had. They were too laggy to work anything.
Then I tried Ubuntu 8.04 it was IMPOSSIBLE to work with it. It was so slow.
Then I tried PCLinuxOS 2007 KDE edition. It ran perfectly as if I had a new PC. According to my superkaramba widget It used about 64 MB of RAM.

Now can anyone explain this? On the first look both distros run KDE 3 with almost identical software (the only apparent difference of one being Deb based, another RPM based).

Why is this? Is there's something I'm missing? I've been using Kubuntu for almost two years now, never realizing that there could be such a difference.

Now I mostly use my laptop with PCLinuxOS, and sometimes dual booting win xp (I need it only for autocad 2004, wine doesn't run it)

Did anyone else had felt such a huge difference between Linux Distros? Would be nice if you shared your experience.

Cheers, Gediminas

[cantab]

Re: Different Linux distributions on an (let's say not so new) laptop

Perhaps it's a graphics driver issue. I have an old laptop, worse specs than yours. MANY MANY distros failed. The ones that worked were PCLinuxOS on a 'transplanted' hard drive (once I reconfigured the X server), SuSE, Knoppix, and KANOTIX (but using the older kernel) which I have installed now. I think Debian Etch will work as well, but Lenny doesn't (haven't tried sid)

So yeah. There will be some machines that ubuntu just won't work right with. You can spend hours trying to get it to work, or you can spend hours trying different distros...

You could check the graphics driver you're using. If it's something like 'vesa' or 'fbdev' then that could explain some of the slowness, try changing it to the driver specific to your card (but be prepared for it to break X ie know how to edit at the command line)

[Gediminas2]

Re: Different Linux distributions on an (let's say not so new) laptop

I don't even want to try Ubuntu to check the driver. It cant be causing such things as:

After the splash the desktop background took ~ 2 min to load
after that ~ 2 minutes loading of the bar with apps.

I tried different drivers on PCLinuxOs, they don't cause such behavior.
Well, I don't really have much time now, maybe I'll check more distros later

[cantab]

Re: Different Linux distributions on an (let's say not so new) laptop

Well, if PCLinuxOS is working well, stick with it. I used it for a while. It's alright, though rpm is definitely inferior to deb. But you don't need to use the package manager that much anyway.

[Gediminas2]

Re: Different Linux distributions on an (let's say not so new) laptop

Yeah, I'm staying with it. It also has apt-get, so no transition problems or need to learn new stuff or whatsoever
And after using the Laptop with PCLinuxOS i realized i have working wireless