Question:
Ubuntu 6.06 live CD boots up fine on our Toshiba Satellite 4030CDT but is
very heavy on the machine.
Is Xubuntu really lighter than Ubuntu's GNOME?
The box is a Pentium II with 192 Mb RAM (Toshiba Satellite 4030CDT). I can't
install it on the machine's disk (wife still wants the assurance of having
Windows around).
I need it only for temporary use while trying to make the machine actually
boot over NFS from my Debian Etch desktop.
Answer:
you could try ebuntu (enlightenment w/ ubuntu), enlightenment is
much less bloated than gnome and friends
How does it compare to Xfce (xubuntu)?
As for Jeff's comments - I only need this while configuring that laptop,
once it's setup it will boot with NFS root from my desktop.
When you say "configuring", do you mean "installing"? If that's the case,
just use the 'server' or 'alternative' install CDs. Then you won't have to
run any of the desktop environments to do the installation.
What you use day to day is really a question of comfort and requirements. If
you want slim, use a very basic window manager on its own. If you need a few
of life's pleasures, use a 'desktop shell', such as Enlightenment. If you
need all the mod cons and comfort of a complete desktop environment, use
GNOME or KDE.
Well, maybe I wasn't clear about my intentions because I tried to avoid
tiring you with details, so here is the deal:
We have this Toshiba Satellite 4030CDT (
http://linux.toshiba-dme.co.jp/linux/eng/spec.php3?model=PAS403U) which runs
Windows 98 and which behaves worse and worse every day. My wife won't let me
install Linux alone on it and it doesn't have enough disk to keep both
Windows and Linux.
So what I did is to install an NFS root environment (actually already
created something basic with debootstrap) on my Debian Etch desktop, put the
right kernel image and initrd on the windows disk and create a loadlin batch
file which will start linux from inside windows and use the nfs root.
I'm struggling with building the kernel and initrd image properly (e.g.
missed the right ethernet driver) and having Ubuntu's excellent
auto-configuration around is a great help in finding out what's wrong. But
the GNOME environment is too heavy on the poor fellow (it's even getting too
heavy on my desktop machine, which is also not so new, though not as old as
the laptop) so I'm looking for something lighter which will still give me a
convenient environment to poke around the laptop.
Once the kernel boots from the NFS root successfully I'll have to decide
whether I want it to ovver login to the other machine via XDMCP or locally
to the laptop (I'm leaning towards the former).
