Mint 13 KDE vs XFCE vs Ubuntu etc

[ksjs]

Just been looking aorund a bit at different installations and I'm a bit confused: is there any simple overview of the difference between the different versions of mint and ubuntu. I'm running Mint 13 XFCE and see KDE has just been released - how do these 2 compare? I'm after the lightest system possible as I'm running things on a low spec/ older laptop.

Thanks.

[oboedad55]

Just been looking aorund a bit at different installations and I'm a bit confused: is there any simple overview of the difference between the different versions of mint and ubuntu. I'm running Mint 13 XFCE and see KDE has just been released - how do these 2 compare? I'm after the lightest system possible as I'm running things on a low spec/ older laptop.

Thanks.

Xfce is lighter than KDE and Gnome-shell with or without Cinnamon. I just put Xfce on a friend's ancient desktop and it works great.

[RETNUH]

You may want to look at this this.

If you want Mint then your best bet is with LM 13 XFCE. It is the lightest version out for LM 13. XFCE should have no issues running. However if you want lighter still Connochaet OS ran on a really old IBM thinkpad from the late 90's. It does not have a graphical installer though.

[edwardr]

What are the specs on your laptop? (Number of processors, processor speed, amount of RAM) If it is less than 6 years old, Mint 13 Xfce should run just fine. It may run fine even if older than 6 years old.

[ksjs]

You may want to look at this this.

Brilliant - will need a cup of tea and a few mins to get into that but looks like exactly what I was after. Thanks.

[ksjs]

What are the specs on your laptop? (Number of processors, processor speed, amount of RAM) If it is less than 6 years old, Mint 13 Xfce should run just fine. It may run fine even if older than 6 years old.

Think it's much older than 6 years...

Processor : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz
Memory : 498MB (230MB used)
Operating System : Linux Mint 13 Maya

[ksjs]

And what about ubuntu, where does that fit in?

[edwardr]

Your RAM is at the minimum needed to install and run xfce. Don't get me wrong, you should be able to run xfce just fine, but if you could get some more RAM and bring it up to 1 Gig, you would be sitting pretty for years to come. I think KDE would run a bit slow on that machine. LXDE would run quicker than Xfce, but I find LXDE is not as polished as Xfce (I think Xfce strikes a good balance between providing a good user experience and not being too heavy).

Mint is derived from Ubuntu. The Mint developers take Ubuntu, strip away a bunch of stuff they don't want, like Unity, add in a bunch of generally available and custom developed stuff, like the different desktop environments, more utilities, multimedia support (mp3 playback etc) and create the Mint iso's. Ubuntu would not be a good candidate for that laptop, but Xubuntu, the Xfce version of Ubuntu, would be a candidate. However, for my personal preferences, Mint Xfce starts off much closer to my ideal system than Xubuntu. If I were to install Xubuntu, by the time I finished tweaking it, it would look a lot like Mint Xfce, so I just start with Mint. In fact I was on the verge of installing Xubuntu on my primary computer when the Release Candidate of Mint Xfce came out, and I sang a song of joy and shelved my plans for Xubuntu.

[ksjs]

If I were to install Xubuntu, by the time I finished tweaking it, it would look a lot like Mint Xfce, so I just start with Mint. In fact I was on the verge of installing Xubuntu on my primary computer when the Release Candidate of Mint Xfce came out, and I sang a song of joy and shelved my plans for Xubuntu.

Good post - thanks. Sounds like the only other thing I should maybe look at is LXDE but I had this for Mint 12 and, while I can't give any definitive info, it seems that Mint 13 Xfce runs better? Will look into the memory option but for now I'm happy even if opening Libre writer and Banshee for example can be a bit slow. Thanks to all for replies.

[cereus]

Mint is derived from Ubuntu. The Mint developers take Ubuntu, strip away a bunch of stuff they don't want, like Unity, add in a bunch of generally available and custom developed stuff, like the different desktop environments, more utilities, multimedia support (mp3 playback etc) and create the Mint iso's. Ubuntu would not be a good candidate for that laptop, but Xubuntu, the Xfce version of Ubuntu, would be a candidate. However, for my personal preferences, Mint Xfce starts off much closer to my ideal system than Xubuntu. If I were to install Xubuntu, by the time I finished tweaking it, it would look a lot like Mint Xfce, so I just start with Mint. In fact I was on the verge of installing Xubuntu on my primary computer when the Release Candidate of Mint Xfce came out, and I sang a song of joy and shelved my plans for Xubuntu.

Very informative ... thanks!

[chefbaja]

Maya XFCE is far superior to Lisa LXDE. It doesn't use too much more ram unless you tweak it too fancy. LXDE will not let you pin icons to the panel which kills it for me. Xfce has way more tools, options and is better for audio.

Here's an interesting link comparing linux distros on 512 of ram. It makes me want to try cinnamon because it seems to have mate and xfce beat!

http://thelinuxexperiment.com/tag/512mb/