Score:0

Ubuntu

What is better for the old laptop (Lubuntu or Xubuntu)?

Mahler

12/7/23, 7:00 PM

It is an old Dell laptop, 2014. Lubuntu is installed. Is it reasonable to install Xubuntu instead of Lubuntu? HDD is very slow.

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: LXQt 0.17.1 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
  Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 5547 v: A04
    serial: <filter>
  Mobo: Dell model: 08KNCD v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI-[Legacy]: Dell
    v: A04 date: 05/09/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 39.9 Wh (100.0%) condition: 39.9/43.8 Wh (91.0%)
    volts: 12.4 min: 11.1 model: LGC DELL 1V2F6498 status: Full
Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.72 GiB used: 1.25 GiB (33.7%)
  Array-1: capacity: 16 GiB slots: 2 EC: None max-module-size: 8 GiB
  Device-1: JDIMM1 size: No Module Installed
  Device-2: JDIMM2 size: 4 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s type: DDR3
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-4210U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 798 high: 799 min/max: 800/2700 cores: 1: 798 2: 798
    3: 798 4: 799 bogomips: 19155
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell
    driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: AMD Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265 / M340/M360 M440/M445
    530/535 620/625 Mobile]
    vendor: Dell driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
  Device-3: Suyin Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-1.8:5
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu,ati,modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915
    resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-56-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell
    driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
  IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Dell Vostro 3470 driver: ath9k v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-1.5:6
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.1
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 7.67 GiB (1.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST500LT012-1DG142
    size: 465.76 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.88 GiB used: 7.67 GiB (1.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 44.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2800

435

0 + 15

xubuntu

lubuntu

22.04

Will

12/7/23, 7:04 PM

Try xubuntu in a usb live session - won’t tell you if the hdd is adequate, but will confirm how everything else performs.

ChanganAuto

12/7/23, 7:05 PM

The DE (Desktop Environment) has no impact on the HDD speed whatsoever. Your machine has some years under its belt indeed but it's still very capable. You can even run standard Ubuntu (Gnome) with the same efficiency. Instead of looking for lighter flavors you should be thinking about replacing that old HDD with a cheap SSD. Results willl be as different as night and day.

Mahler

12/7/23, 7:58 PM

Thanks. I have tested Xubuntu from the usb flash drive. It is a bit slower then Lubuntu. I think about replacing the old HDD. It is slow and has bad sectors already.

ChanganAuto

12/7/23, 8:20 PM

Yes, the HDD is the problem, nothing else.

Mahler

12/7/23, 8:55 PM

I had tried already Ubuntu, Mint, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu. I've chosen Lubuntu, and have installed 'preload' package. I will try icewm on Lubuntu. Thanks.

Mahler

12/7/23, 9:07 PM

Icewm is also as fast as LXQt.

guiverc

12/7/23, 9:49 PM

I'm a user of one of those *flavors* you mention, and a Product Manager of the other... I could not decide on the details you've provided as for me, I'd decide on a number of factors you don't even mention (esp. what user apps you'll end up running; Lubuntu is LXQt thus Qt5 where as Xubuntu is Xfce thus GTK3..., on less resource powerful machines you want the system to be *lean* and share resources!! let alone the *tastes* part of the equation etc). FYI: I'm using a 2008 dell currently & all will run.

Mahler

12/7/23, 10:10 PM

I run standard applications: Firefox, Chromium, LibreOffice, VLC, Terminal. Especially, I am interested in the performance of web browsers.

guiverc

12/7/23, 10:48 PM

The performance is web browsers is determined mostly by the RAM you have, which will be the same for both so performance should be ~identical. You want to share resources between desktop you choose & apps you'll run, thus consider as stated the Qt5 of one & GTK3 of the other & select apps that match your chosen desktop. Use which ever suits your tastes & makes you *happiest*. I still use devices from 2003-2007 (some with 1GB only of RAM) & I have both installed (same install/partition; multi-desktop) & select at login depending on apps I'll use in session, but that's not ideal for newbies.

guiverc

12/7/23, 10:51 PM

FYI: If you go with Lubuntu, I usually *tweak* the size of swap for best performance as per documentation on their discourse, esp. on devices with <5GB of RAM. The default varies on release, but `calamares` adds a *tiny* swap by default for most releases (& I usually increase it). I generally don't have to do that with Xubuntu (it uses the `ubiquity` installer).

Will

12/8/23, 7:16 AM

The other thing to say is that the hardware is quite old, but there are 2 easily upgradeable parts - as per ChanganAuto, replacing the hdd with an ssd is likely worthwhile; also, memory isn’t that expensive and you could at least double your memory relatively cheaply. Looks from the spec like you have an empty slot.

Mahler

12/8/23, 5:03 PM

Lubuntu takes up less than 4GB of memory. If I have 8GB and SSD I can think about ordinary Ubuntu with Gnome.

Mahler

1/13/24, 5:31 PM

I have installed SSD Drive. Ubuntu Gnome 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish works normally.

Mahler

5/28/24, 6:44 PM

Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster is presently running. There is inconvenience with resolution 1366x768. Maybe I change to Cinnamon desktop.

Mahler

5/28/24, 7:15 PM

I set Favorites panel horizontally, and it looks ok.

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EN: What is better for the old laptop (Lubuntu or Xubuntu)?

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