Using Elementary, read that Kubuntu runs well on older machines

[Guest]

As I said in the title, I'm currently using Elementary 0.2.1 (Luna) built on Ubuntu 12.04 on an HP Mini (Intel® Atom™ CPU N550 @ 1.50GHz × 4). Just copying from system settings there.

Anyway, things are a little sluggish using the above and I saw something using Kubuntu and i386 in the same sentence and wondered if things might run a little faster on Kubuntu.

And if that's true, can I install Kubuntu over the top of Elementary or do I have to go through a longer process?

Thanks for any help!

[claydoh]

I don't think you will see any improvement in performance with Kubuntu, and KDE/Kubuntu is not known as a desktop for older hardware (though many of us do ) My laptop is a 2009-ish dual core dell but I have upgraded to 4gb ram and a small ssd, and that makes it pretty snappy. 2gb ram is the minimum I'd recommend.

As to installing KDE on top of Elementary, that I do not know. They are based on Ubuntu, so it probably is easy, but you would have to check with their users. I do not know how much they are tied to the Ubuntu repos. Also, in my opinion, the KDE version in 12.04 is a bit more "sluggish" compared to the KDE in 14.04 LTS or 14.10

[Guest]

I don't think you will see any improvement in performance with Kubuntu, and KDE/Kubuntu is not known as a desktop for older hardware (though many of us do ) My laptop is a 2009-ish dual core dell but I have upgraded to 4gb ram and a small ssd, and that makes it pretty snappy. 2gb ram is the minimum I'd recommend.

As to installing KDE on top of Elementary, that I do not know. They are based on Ubuntu, so it probably is easy, but you would have to check with their users. I do not know how much they are tied to the Ubuntu repos. Also, in my opinion, the KDE version in 12.04 is a bit more "sluggish" compared to the KDE in 14.04 LTS or 14.10

Thanks for the info. I think my next step is to up the memory on this little guy (currently at 2gb) and see what happens. I may, in the end, change over to Kubuntu as it looks, y'know, better.

[jlittle]

I think my next step is to up the memory on this little guy (currently at 2gb)

IMO, 2 GiB of RAM is enough (for, say, Kubuntu + a browser without dozens of tabs); going to 4 won't help much, though if it was cheap, which it can be, I'd do it. I found out that 1 GiB is not enough. Some sort of graphics chip is needed. Those Atoms were really slow in Windows IME.

If Kubuntu doesn't cut it, Lubuntu runs well on oldish hardware, or Linux Lite.

[MrSteve]

my system uses an intel atom 1.6GHz cpu and runs kubuntu 14.04 LTS very well
i do turn off all the effects via system settings but it does everything that i require ...