Possible install to NEC Versa 1500Mhz laptop

[silverbirch]

I have a friend's laptop which has currently had a Windows meltdown and unable to be restored.  She is open to the idea of Linux and a computer novice and I had hoped to put Pclos onto it for her.  Unfortunately it only has 256 RAM, however I see many people do have Pclos with KDE running on that. I've tried live Pclos 2010 and Minime 2010 and both begin to load then fade off.  I wondered however if they might run installed.  Any ideas appreciated.

NEC Versa E2000 Laptop
1500Mhz Celeron processor
256 memory

Many thanks

[menotu]

Hi silverbirch,

256Mb of ram is very low for KDE. Have you considered trying the lxde version as that runs far better on lighter machines?

Do you know whether the graphics has its own memory or if it shares the main 256Mb? as that would hamper performance as well........

[silverbirch]

This colleague while a very nice person,  is not the smartest and I thought KDE would be easiest for her :-)

This is what I get on set up:
HD 4000Mb
CD/DVD
640 kb memory (system)
extended 251904
CPU celeron (R) M processor
1500Mhz

I haven't personally tried lxde, and wanted to use something I use and know a little of myself.  Will take a look at it and see.

Thanks

[parnote]

silverbirch,

LXDE can rather easily be set up to resemble KDE, and will function very well without all of the KDE bloat. And, you can follow along in The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine, since we just started a 3 month article series this month over the LXDE desktop. In fact, any of the lightweight desktops (LXDE, Xfce, e17) should run fairly well on that computer. Xfce can also be tailored to function/look more like KDE, if you like. If you want eye candy, then e17 posts HUGE returns on minimal hardware.

The NEC's 1500 MHz processor is not too light to run KDE 4. The problem is with the 256 MB RAM. If your friend could increase the RAM to at least 512 MB (the absolute minimum to run KDE 4) -- preferably more RAM, like 1 or 2 GB -- then you will be able to run KDE 4 quite nicely on that computer. It won't be a speed demon, but it should run fairly smoothly.

I hope this helps!

parnote

[menotu]

This colleague while a very nice person,  is not the smartest and I thought KDE would be easiest for her :-)

This is what I get on set up:
HD 4000Mb
CD/DVD
640 kb memory (system)
extended 251904
CPU celeron (R) M processor
1500Mhz

I haven't personally tried lxde, and wanted to use something I use and know a little of myself.  Will take a look at it and see.

Thanks

I don't know what your time-frame is on this, whether you need something urgently, but if you can delay it a day or so, it may be wise to give lxde a full run, as it is different to KDE  - maybe you could try it in Virtualbox if access to another system isn't possible.

[silverbirch]

Thanks.  I think basic, easy,  functionality is what is needed.  She knows very little about how to use the computer and what little she does know is Windows XP.  Also,  all she mainly does is email and Facebook, so I thought Firefox, Thunderbird and maybe add Open Office so she can do documents which are compatible, is she needs to have.  Oh and digikam is she has a camera.

I've been reading the thread about configuring LXDE to function like KDE and am downloading LXDE while I sleep :-)

Will install tomorrow evening NZ time, and gives me a day or so before she comes back to get the laptop going, providing the Windows failure is simply a Windows failure, and not a hardware issue.

Thanks for your input.