[SOLVED] general questions

[Ludwig Van]

hello and greetings from greece!
i'm an absolut beginner in the world of linux. i'm 22 years old and i used windows all my life but now i think i'm ready to move on! plus i think linux should fit my purposhes regarding computer usage as i'm currently using my pc for academic stuff and i saw there's a superbe program for electronics here (i study physics)!
right now i'm using windows xp sp3 and an ancient IBM R51 laptop - Intel Pentium M 1.5Ghz, 512 ram. i'm not exactly sure it fits the requirements as i saw in fedora page i should have >700mb ram.. will i have any problems? will my machine run smoothly even with the newest interfaces (gnome 3?) ?

thank's in advance!

[DBelton]

with 512MB of ram, you will have problems installing F15 but it will run in 512MB once installed. It seems that the installer requires more ram than the installed OS does.

There are notes on here about how to get F15 to install in 512MB if you do a search.

Also, you could install F14 easily in 512MB.

As far as Gnome 3, what video adapter do you have? If your's has the ATI Mobility chipsets, then it possibly will run the Gnome 3 shell.If your's is one that has the Intel 855GME, then it will not run Gnome 3 shell since all of the Intel 8XX series graphics have been blacklisted and it will run in fallback mode.

[Ludwig Van]

i fear i'm in the worst case scenario.. could you suggest some hardware compatible with my computer for me to upgrade?

[Adunaic]

If you are not bothered about it using the most up-to-date software you could have a look at Scientific Linux. Its latest version is 6 which I think corresponds to Fedora 14 - it also has much longer support time than Fedora 14.

[DBelton]

as Adunaic mentioned, you could try a different linux distribution that will run much better on your hardware.

But as far as upgrading yours goes, you would probably be able to only upgrade your memory, and I would bet that 2GB is your limit there but I would have to look up the specs for your machine to be certain.

If you want to run Fedora, I would recommend F14 for now, and not go to F15 until you upgrade your memory. Even with F14, you would want to look at running a desktop environment that isn't memory hungry, like possibly lxde or xfde.

[dknation]

Here is some information about text mode installation. It could work on systems with less memory. Don't know if it's the first choice for an absolute beginner though, but on the other hand text mode installation tend to be a lot easier than most people suggest.

There is also a spin available, that you might be interested in.

[Ludwig Van]

thank you all for your help! i'll do my search.. with a community like that i don't think i'll have to worry about anything!
case closed.