Cinnamon Desktop on older laptop

[mattx28025]

Hello, I'm kind of a newbie to Linux but so far Mint has been may favorite distro to use. I'm currently using (don't laugh) a older gateway laptop that originally had Windows Vista (ugh) on it. It's the Gateway Mt7607 and has a 1.66ghz 32bit processor with 2GB RAM. I currently have mint 18.3 MATE installed on a SSD for the laptop. However I really like the looks of the cinnamon desktop. The requirements say 2GB ram for comfortable use but do you think I should stick with MATE or can I use the cinnamon DE? Thanks

[Moem]

Try it out from an USB stick, and you'll know more. You can disable animations and such things, it helps.

[Mattyboy]

Na, I wouldn't even think about it it I were you.

Its not about the 'bells and whistles' its about the functionality. Stick with MATE or if you really fancy a change try Xfce.

Like a pretty partner, you'll soon grow to hate them if their personality sucks

[Hoser Rob]

Cinnamon is meant for more powerful graphics cards ... I'd never install it again unless it was on a machine with at least 1G dedicated video RAM and probably not then either.

It also takes over 1G RAM just by itself, which IMO is just ludicrous in Linux.

So no, I wouldn't touch it on an old 2G RAM computer. MInt stated minimum hardware requirements aren't any more realistic than anyone else's. I generally double them.

[arsivci]

Hello, I'm kind of a newbie to Linux but so far Mint has been may favorite distro to use. I'm currently using (don't laugh) a older gateway laptop that originally had Windows Vista (ugh) on it. It's the Gateway Mt7607 and has a 1.66ghz 32bit processor with 2GB RAM. I currently have mint 18.3 MATE installed on a SSD for the laptop. However I really like the looks of the cinnamon desktop. The requirements say 2GB ram for comfortable use but do you think I should stick with MATE or can I use the cinnamon DE? Thanks

Give it a try, if you have a separate /home partition. If you don't, I'll recommend it with a dedicated swap partition anyway, with any DE. Download Cinnamon, install it. When asked use entire disk, install alongside xxyy, etc, choose something else but do not format /home partition. If it satisfies you, fine; if not, reinstall mate or xfce. Live USB sticks might fool you.

I have been using Cinnamon on 6 year laptop with 2 celeron b-something processors, a shared graphic card with 4 GB ram and it's running like charm.

[BG405]

It might work, but it won't be fast & you will be very limited in how much you can have running. I've had Cinnamon running on a 1.66GHz single core & 1GB RAM. Slow but useable. It'll probably depend on the graphic card.

I do think, like other responders, that you'd be better sticking with MATE or Xfce on that system.

It would help to know more details of your system (especially the graphics). The standard way to post system specs in the Forum is as follows:

• Open a Terminal and enter inxi -Fxz, highlight the text, copy (CTRL+SHIFT+C).
• Then, in your post, paste the output between [CODE] & [/CODE] tags by pressing the </> button (above the reply text window) followed by CTRL+V.

The reason CODE tags are recommended for Terminal output is that it retains formatting and makes the output easier to read. It also avoids (sometimes very) long posts!

[Hoser Rob]

It might work, but it won't be fast & you will be very limited in how much you can have running. I've had Cinnamon running on a 1.66GHz single core & 1GB RAM. Slow but useable. It'll probably depend on the graphic card. ...

I've seen posts on ubuntuforums from users who've run Unity ... which is similar to Cinnamon in that it needs 3D hardware video acceleration just by itself ... in 1Gb RAM, but with a good supported video card with 1Gb dedicated video RAM. So yes, I agree it's very much about the video card with DEs like Cinnamon.

[jaymot]

I ran Mint KDE5 Plasma on an old desktop PC, as in around 10 years old. It's 64-bit (Athlon 64 x2 CPU which I think is the first generation of 64-bit AMD dual-core processors) but has just its onboard Radeon HD3200 GPU with up to 256MB of video RAM (shared memory with the system, which is 8GB of DDR2 400MHz RAM.) I think Plasma is probably pretty resource-hungry too, but it ran OK. Try the live cd on your laptop and see if it works.

[Spearmint2]

Can't you add 2 more GB of RAM instead?

http://global-download.gateway.com/GDFi ... Y&SC=PA_6G

http://www.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content ... -downloads

Seems you are limited to 2GB

http://www.memorystock.com/memory/GatewayMT6707.html

[BG405]

with a good supported video card with 1Gb dedicated video RAM

That is often overlooked. BTW I've edited my above post accordingly! found out how to use strikethrough. It's [s] & [/s].

I think Plasma is probably pretty resource-hungry too, but it ran OK. Try the live cd on your laptop and see if it works.

Plasma 4 (LM17.3 KDE) runs fine on my ageing Atom 2x1.66GHz & 2GB RAM (maximum) - it's responsive enough for my needs even with some fancy desktop effects & lots of stuff open. It would struggle with Cinnamon under this usage.

I've tested LM18.3 KDE and that runs fine, too - at least from a Live USB. I'll swap the drive later for one with LM18.3 KDE installed. It's a better choice than Cinnamon on that hardware if you don't get on with MATE or Xfce.

[Joe2Shoe]

IMHO, I would upgrade the CPU to the fastest 64-bit that would work on that mobo, then upgrade to 4GB RAM. I would then install Mate 18.3 64-bit and let it rip.
I have 4 10-year old laptops running Mate 18.3 64-bit just fine.