I have an old computer that is placed in a real nice place in my home so I can work alone, I use it to see films, series and work with my photos.
I've put it out all my hardware details (2GB DDR2 RAM, 146GB disk space on /dev/sda1
) for you to check it.
I am currently using Ubuntu 18.04. but I've been told that I should be using Lubuntu.
I am not expert so, seeing my hardware outputs, what do you think? Should I remove Ubuntu 18.04 and install Lubuntu 18.10?
lspci
output
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82946GZ/PL/GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82946GZ/GL Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01) 00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01) 00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) 00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01) 00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 01) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01) 06:04.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter (rev 10) 06:05.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11) 06:05.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A1 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82946GZ/GL Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2972] (rev 02) Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions 82946GZ/GL Integrated Graphics Controller [1734:10b5]
lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio" 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01) Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 24 Memory at d0300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) -- 06:05.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11) Subsystem: Pinnacle Systems Inc. PCTV pro (TV + FM stereo receiver, audio section) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 33, IRQ 22 Memory at d0001000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_bt87x Kernel modules: snd_bt87x
lspci -nnk | grep net -A2 06:04.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter [10ec:8139] (rev 10) Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter [1734:10b1] Kernel driver in use: 8139too Kernel modules: 8139cp, 8139too
Here is my memory capacities.
~$ sudo lshw -class memory *-firmware:0 description: BIOS vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS // Phoenix Technologies Ltd. physical id: 0 version: 6.00 R1.03.2660.A1 date: 10/05/2007 size: 105KiB capacity: 448KiB capabilities: pci pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification *-firmware:1 description: BIOS physical id: 513 size: 1022KiB capabilities: edd int13floppytoshiba *-firmware:2 description: BIOS physical id: 2800 date: Cache size: 1007KiB capacity: 4864KiB capabilities: isa mca vesa bootselect socketedrom int13floppy360 int13floppy720 int17printer int10video biosbootspecification netboot *-cache description: L3 cache physical id: 7 slot: L3 Cache size: 2MiB capacity: 16MiB capabilities: burst internal write-back unified configuration: level=3 *-memory description: System Memory physical id: 24 slot: System board or motherboard size: 2GiB *-bank:0 description: DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns) physical id: 0 slot: Slot-1 size: 1GiB width: 40968 bits clock: 667MHz (1.5ns) *-bank:1 description: DIMM DDR2 Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns) physical id: 1 slot: Slot-2 size: 1GiB width: 41992 bits clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
And just in case someone needed it... hard drive:
sudo df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev 963M 0 963M 0% /dev tmpfs 199M 1,8M 197M 1% /run /dev/sda1 146G 12G 127G 9% / tmpfs 993M 56M 937M 6% /dev/shm tmpfs 5,0M 4,0K 5,0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs 993M 0 993M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/loop1 88M 88M 0 100% /snap/core/5328 /dev/loop0 141M 141M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/74 /dev/loop6 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/45 /dev/loop9 35M 35M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/319 /dev/loop2 2,3M 2,3M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/238 /dev/loop3 2,4M 2,4M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/199 /dev/loop4 43M 43M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/701 /dev/loop5 88M 88M 0 100% /snap/core/5662 /dev/loop7 13M 13M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/124 /dev/loop8 13M 13M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/103 /dev/loop10 13M 13M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/117 /dev/loop11 141M 141M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/70 /dev/loop13 3,8M 3,8M 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/57 /dev/loop12 2,3M 2,3M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/222 /dev/loop16 88M 88M 0 100% /snap/core/5548 /dev/loop18 200M 200M 0 100% /snap/brave/34 /dev/loop14 3,8M 3,8M 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/54 /dev/loop15 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/43 /dev/loop17 3,8M 3,8M 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/51 /dev/loop19 200M 200M 0 100% /snap/brave/33 /dev/loop20 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/40 tmpfs 199M 16K 199M 1% /run/user/121 tmpfs 199M 28K 199M 1% /run/user/1000
At one time Lubuntu had lower minimum hardware requirements than Xubuntu, but this is no longer the case. Today, there is only one good reason to choose Lubuntu over Xubuntu, and that is because Lubuntu is more frugal than Xubuntu about RAM usage as shown by the below chart.
RAM Usage of different flavors of 18.04 under baseline conditions (Click image to enlarge)
As you can see in the chart, Lubuntu 18.04 uses a full 1GB of RAM less than Ubuntu 18.04 under baseline conditions with no other applications running. This is a big reduction in RAM usage for an old computer from the Windows XP era that has only 2GB RAM.
To get a smooth experience in Xubuntu when running multiple applications in parallel on the desktop, it is recommended to have at least 1GB of memory.
The advantage of Lubuntu 18.04 is that it is a Long Term Support (supported until April, 2021) release. The advantage of Lubuntu 18.10 is that its LXQt desktop is nicer than LXDE in 18.04.