Linux version configuration requirements

The desktop version of Linux is getting more and more popular with users, and its screen is getting more and more refined. But the configuration it needs is not as exaggerated as Windows. What is the Linux configuration requirement? The answer is: no need for too high a configuration.

Let's take a look at Ubuntu 9.04, which will be released this week. The official minimum recommended is 700MHz processor and 256MB of memory, and I think this configuration is very low. In my experience, you can run GNOME 2.26 on that slow processor, but the memory capacity is really too low. You can increase it to 512MB, of course, adding to the GB capacity will definitely make you feel better. A recent reader told me that he has a classic machine that can run Windows 7, but does not have enough performance to run today's desktop version of Linux. The official minimum recommended configuration for Windows 7 beta is 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB free hard disk space, 128MB video memory or graphics card support for DirectX 9. But I participated in multiple versions of Windows 7 testing, from Build 7000 to Build 7077, and found that Windows 7 requires at least a 1.6GHz processor, and 2GB of memory to run to an acceptable level. Of course, this is not bad, obviously better than Vista. So, there is no reason to say that a machine running Windows 7 cannot run Linux. So what about the older PC? Linux can run perfectly on it. The oldest server I use to run Linux on the current version is 1999, which proves that Linux is a better file server than Windows NT. It carries a 266MHz Pentium II processor, 64MB of RAM, and is now running openSUSE 10.3. The lowest-configured Linux desktop I am currently using is the HP Pavilion 7855 PC, which was produced in 2001 and carries a 1GHz Pentium III processor with 512MB of RAM. It is currently running Mint 6. I like to run Linux with a lightweight desktop manager on this level of PC, such as Fluxbox or KFCE, not GNOME or KDE. Many desktop Linux distributions currently do this to meet older hardware requirements. I especially like DSL (Damn Small Linux). It runs at least on 486DX processors and 16MB memory machines. I have run it myself on a 33MHz 486 PC with 32MB of RAM. The size of the DSL is about 50MB. It is not a beautiful stable, but it is a very practical, full-fledged Linux distribution. DSL uses Fluxbox as a window manager, Firefox as a browser, and an office program, IM client. There are other kinds of software. DSL is the first choice for my master system. Some of my friends also like lightweight Puppy Linux and antiX MEPIS, which can run on machines with a minimum configuration of 64MB of RAM and a 266MHz Pentium 2 processor. In short, if you have a PC that is still not old enough to be discarded, you can easily find the right desktop Linux to run.