HP G70 - replace slow Ubuntu 12.04 with Peppermint ?

Linux Support
1

Hi All, so,after Keith’s posts about moving to Peppermint 3 with an older laptop, I have the following question:-

First, a little background info…

I have an HP G70. 3 Gb memory, 120Gb HDD, Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T5800 @ 2.00GHz × 2, currently running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit with Linux 3.2.0-51-generic & GNOME 3.4.2 (!)

For a little while, it has been running slowly (after an update?), and also frequently fails to resume, in that it “freezes”. During “testing” (!), this appears to be related to high processor load at resume, and the machine will eventually return to the land of the living, if left for several minutes. Quicker to hard boot!

So, my question… would peppermint solve the problems, given the age of the machine, and the cut down nature of peppermint?

Software wise, I would need the following to work:-

  1. Libre office and calc
  2. GIMP
  3. gedit
  4. Calculator
  5. a web browser

Desktop wise, I am most familiar with gnome, and would like to stick with it.

what say ye? :slight_smile:

TIA

Sim

2

If you want to stick with Gnome, I see little point in moving to Peppermint … Peppermint is “light” because of its use of the LXDE desktop.

I’m afraid ANY distro with Gnome will be quite a bit heavier on resources than Peppermint … but if you’re after a screamingly fast distro that can run anything Ubuntu can you’ll (IMHO) find Peppermint fits the bill quite nicely.

There’s nothing (with that spec) stopping you from going for Peppermint 4 … and YES it has all those applications easily available because it uses the Ubuntu repositories :slight_smile:

But forget Gnome … it can be installed in Peppermint … but then it would just be Ubuntu/Gnome :o

On the Peppermint forum we get a few people asking “can I install the MATE desktop in Peppermint”, same answer - YES, but why bother it would be easier to start with Mint.

If you absolutely MUST have Gnome, and want an Ubuntu based distro:
http://ubuntugnome.org/download/
But again you’d effectively just have what you have now.

3

HI Mark, and thanks for the info. The must haves were the software listed - I am happy to learn a new desktop…

I am wondering if that may be the problem then with the current setup?

Sorry to be cheeky, but would you suggest a lighter desktop, which may save me the trouble of removing Ubuntu? - would LXDE be a way forward?

TIA

Sim

4

LXDE would certainly be lighter … but it’s not going to be as pretty or pre-configured as Peppermint.

There may also be other problems with your setup as it stands … but you could certainly give it a shot.

As I suggested though, please don’t judge Peppermint by the default LXDE desktop … Peppermint (particularly 4) has a LOT of tweaks to the LXDE environment to make it more appealing and easier to use.

Why n ot test drive Peppermint 4 on a LiveUSB stick, and see if it’s “for you”.

Disclosure - I’m a member of the Peppermint development team, so you may think I’m slightly biased and want to make up your own mind :wink: