The Linux Extremist

The Dell Dimension which has been serving as my work computer will be retired early next week; at long last, my company laptop is due. The fellows from Group IT who visited me today did seem somewhat impressed that such an old PC could be brought back to life with the help of Xubuntu; I’m not sure if it won any converts, but certainly, I think Linux on the desktop is going to get a second look.

As the end is near, it is perhaps worth reviewing the question, how well does Xubuntu perform on a low end machine such as this? As a reminder, it’s a Pentium III, 440 MB of RAM with a 10 GB hard drive. I put in a Netgear MA311 wireless card and an Nvidia GeForce 4 graphics card.

The answer is “it’s OK”. The machine has given me no major problems - it’s not its fault that the hard drive grinds loudly as it spins and the power supply is noisy. It certainly runs Firefox and Opera competently as well as Thunderbird; I really question the choice of bundling Xubuntu with the Abiword word processor (I question less the selection of Gnumeric as the spreadsheet) - Abiword has many more anomalies in interpreting Word Documents than Open Office. I understand that “lightness” was the primary concern in selecting Abiword over Open Office, however the user should have the ability to choose which Office software they prefer during the installation process.

I have had a minor issue in browsing some websites; there are some which engage Flash, which normally runs fine - however in rare instances it has caused the browser to crash. Apart from this, I can find no fault with the machine, which boots up quickly, and has been serving me well since I put it together. It certainly would make a good little machine for anyone who wanted an introduction to Linux, as such, I’m likely to keep it for my hitherto Windows saturated staff to show them they have nothing to fear. I suspect that as a long term machine, yes, it would never be a speed demon, but certainly, it does enough well for it to be considered a going concern.

Thanks again to the Xubuntu development team for helping me get through my first month in a new job and ensuring that I was productive in that space of time.

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