Hi, I have just bought 2 Compaq laptops with vista basic home edition (1gig ram). I am disgusted with the speed of the os (or lack of it) Do I (a) fool around removing stuff or (b) change to Linux (ubuntu)? Many thx
vista vs. ubuntu
Archived thread 1022890 from Recurring Discussions. Markdown source: Recurring_Discussions/thread_1022890_vista_vs._ubuntu.md
As you've effectively paid for vista, I would either A) Keep it in a dual boot configuration with ubuntu or B) Image/clone the vista drive onto an external device before getting rid of it. Mind you, I have found vista not to be worth using, even though I kept it when I purchased a laptop. Wish I could have purchased a laptop with no OS installed, but in Australia that was not an option. By the way, vista runs at a reasonable (not fast) speed with 2gb ram. I had to make a tripe boot with vista/xp/ubutnu - had to install xp because some programs I need for study would not work on vista. If I had not paid any money for having it on the computer, it would have been gone the first day.
You're going to get biased opinions here methinks....
Yes, try Ubuntu by all means.
There's nothing to lose and much to gain.
tradedog said: Hi, I have just bought 2 Compaq laptops with vista basic home edition (1gig ram). I am disgusted with the speed of the os (or lack of it) Do I (a) fool around removing stuff or (b) change to Linux (ubuntu)? Many thx
What about (c) duel boot and do both (a) and (b)?
I have never bought a windows OS but I would never give up one that I paid for. I would dual boot. On my mac I stripped the mac OS down to less than 3 GB and have it on a 5 GB partition and almost never use it but it is mine and when I want it it is there. I have found that I can do so much more in Ubuntu than in both of the others there is seldom need to run on windows or mac.
lets put it this way
vista home premium requires a bare minimum of 1GB ram (with only 1GB it is definatly not fast or responsive and you will be swapping hard) (with about 2GB you will get fairly smooth operation, but sometimes it will still swap) (with 4GB or more swap will dissapear)
ubuntu requires a minimum of about 256mb (with about 512MB you will have perfectly smooth operation, but it will sometimes swap) (with 1GB you would be able to completely load up all four workspaces with apps, and then some, without ever even touching the swap)
Vista can work "reasonably" well on 1gig...if you know how to tweak it. It would require a lot of manhours + some knowledge of vista internals though. If your going to put loads of time into this "problem" then why not use it to learn linux?
(Don't burn you bridges though. Eiter dual boot/clone the vista drive like the others said)
tjwoosta said:
vista home premium requires a bare minimum of 1GB ram (with only 1GB it is definatly not fast or responsive and you will be swapping hard) (with about 2GB you will get fairly smooth operation, but sometimes it will still swap) (with 4GB or more swap will dissapear) Not really no. What your seeing isn't swapping, its superfetch + indexing + background defrag...all of which calm down after vista has been installed for a few weeks.
That being said, I ended up switching off search/indexing...the algo is fairly stupid and tries to index huge amounts of data on the fly while the PC is in use.:confused:
Moved to recurring discussions.
Each and every OS has advantages and disadvantages. My advise is that you evaluate your needs and choose the OS with the best fit.
Think about your needs. definitely, try ubuntu, but remember, most windows apps do not run in linux. So, think what would you be missing, and if its nothing, swap to ubuntu. You might try ubuntu inside vista with wubi, before making a choice.
wubi-installer.org
And i personally did not mind losing my xp license when switchcing to ubuntu. keep in mind i also had a Office Full License. But there is no price for freedom ;).
vista needs at least 2gb ram to run halfway decent if it has a decent processor i suggest investing in more ram see if that speeds it up
if you need windows, get windows XP. Vista is just a huge memory hog. But vista uses the memory better than xp if you got at least 3-4gb,.
sportscrazed2 said: vista needs at least 2gb ram to run halfway decent if it has a decent processor i suggest investing in more ram see if that speeds it up
Not completely true.
I'm running a Celeron 540M (slow) with 1Gb RAM with Vista Basic. Once the third party OEM trash was removed, it's quite snappy.
2Gb would result in smooth operation of Vista with Aero, but basic runs fine on 1Gb...even on a slow processor.
He needs to take about 30min per box and remove the trialware and other worthless crap that compaq has bundled.
bodhi.zazen said: Moved to recurring discussions.
Each and every OS has advantages and disadvantages. My advise is that you evaluate your needs and choose the OS with the best fit. +1
That's the beauty of the Live CD, you can try before you b ... erh ... install ;)
If you've got an external HDD or a nice big USB flash stick you can always install ubuntu on that for increased speed, and try it out.
To me Vista and ubuntu aren't all that different in regards to the tweaks you need to apply, but the end result is much better on ubuntu.
bodhi.zazen said: Moved to recurring discussions.
Each and every OS has advantages and disadvantages. My advise is that you evaluate your needs and choose the OS with the best fit. +1 I just switched my Celeron D 2.46Ghz 2GB of RAM desktop to Uduntu from XP because I did not want to try Vista on it to do some work I needed. Starting day four with Ubuntu and loving it. I have gotten some things to run "on" Ubuntu by using Virtual Box OSE. I have an XP "computer" set up and I've been throwing programs at it to see what happens. So far I'm running Microsoft Money and Office XP on it.
Like many have stated, try the using the Live CD first and see what happens. I got Vista Home Premium to run better on my Acer Aspire 5520 AMD Turion 64 x2 with 4 gb of RAM (after SP1). But it's starting to slow down due to the number of photos I have on the hard drive.
Defiantely look through this forum for more info before you make any decision. Cheers
tsali said: Not completely true.
I'm running a Celeron 540M (slow) with 1Gb RAM with Vista Basic. Once the third party OEM trash was removed, it's quite snappy.
2Gb would result in smooth operation of Vista with Aero, but basic runs fine on 1Gb...even on a slow processor.
He needs to take about 30min per box and remove the trialware and other worthless crap that compaq has bundled.
cool i often thought about using that vlite software to create a install with all the crap removed but i'm much happier using ubuntu anyway
bumanie said: As you've effectively paid for vista, I would either
A) Keep it in a dual boot configuration with ubuntu or B) Image/clone the vista drive onto an external device before getting rid of it. Mind you, I have found vista not to be worth using, even though I kept it when I purchased a laptop. Wish I could have purchased a laptop with no OS installed, but in Australia that was not an option. By the way, vista runs at a reasonable (not fast) speed with 2gb ram. I had to make a tripe boot with vista/xp/ubutnu - had to install xp because some programs I need for study would not work on vista. If I had not paid any money for having it on the computer, it would have been gone the first day.
You can get a refund for Windows Vista. I did on my T61. If you don't activate the copy, call your hardware manufacturer, and tell them you would like a refund. You'll end up calling a few numbers, including Microsoft, but you can get a refund for your copy. For Vista Basic Home Edition, I got $50.
Vista makes my great grandmother look fast >.> I switched to Ubuntu.. So fast.. I went back to Vista, everything was so slow, programs freeze and crash all the time.. Unsecure.. <3 Ubuntu. Ubuntu is soooo fast, no crashes so far. I would say switch, or at least Dual boot.
Keep both. Try Ubuntu, but if you get rid of Vista you may regret it. Besides, you payed for it, so that would be like throwing away $100+. Also, this is definitely not the place to ask that, you will most likely get biased answers.
retskrad said: if you need windows, get windows XP. Vista is just a huge memory hog. But vista uses the memory better than xp if you got at least 3-4gb,.
Not always. I tried XP on my laptop, and nothing worked. Almost all of my drivers were not recognized. Sounds like he has a new laptop, meaning none, oif his drivers may be recognized.
That's why we slipstream ;)
I've never had any problems installing XP to any laptop. That said, I still prefer Ubuntu by a longshot. Even w/o multitasking xp seems slow and a regular fridge compared to Ubuntu.