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My computer is getting old and with windows 7 no longer giving support I wanted to dual install a linux version. Maybe even run it off a flash drive and or dual boot if possible. I was thinking ubuntu but after reading not sure which one I need. Will be using it every day as a regular person but with higher computer understanding but not developer level.

Hp dm3t 1100 laptop 14 inch screen laptop No dvd drive Intel core 2 duo p9300 2.26 ghz 2.27 ghz 3.00 GB ram 64 bit os Windows 7 home premium

What best version should I get?

Vick
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Ubuntu releases are year.month in nature, standard releases have a 9 month supported life, so 19.04 from 2019-April is only a week away from becoming EOL thus it's not your best choice. 19.04 will release-upgrade to 19.10 but for some people these 6-9 month upgrade cycles are too much hassle, so LTS or long-term-support releases are better choices.

Ubuntu LTS releases have support for 5 years, flavor though only 3 years. LTS releases are the first release of the even year, so Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is the most recent; ie. 2018-April release of Ubuntu.

Flavors of Ubuntu are the same Ubuntu based; but a different desktop. My q9400 (q2d) cpu will run Ubuntu fine, but I get a far better experience using XFCE (Xubuntu) or LXQt (Lubuntu), so my choice is Lubuntu (LXQt).

Software choices also play a part, as does what your user preferences are. So you must decide for yourself what best suits you. Ubuntu has many choices.

(Software choices; modern Lubuntu uses the Qt5 toolkit, so Qt based apps will be more efficient, where as modern Xubuntu uses GTK+3 so GNOME apps will be more efficient using Xubuntu. If you have enough ram & can afford to have multiple toolkits in memory that do the same thing you can ignore this - as windows users do anyway (Qt is available & used in windows software too; users of windows/mac just get told they next more ram without the why). With 3gb of RAM ; I'd consider the toolkit/libraries/software choices in your decision; my general rule of thumb is you can ignore the RAM issue if you have 4gb+, but it's far more critical on machines with 2gb only.

Best of all - you can try Ubuntu (and flavors) before you install (this document assumes Ubuntu, but works equally well with other flavors, just GUI/desktop will differ)

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#0

guiverc
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  • Ubuntu also has specialist release(s) using year format, eg. Ubuntu Core 18 which is based on 2018-April (18.04) but intended to be used in IoT device/appliances, it has no desktop as devices are usually headless (no screen). Most of use year.month major releases for our desktop, server, or even mainframe (multiple architectures are available inc. s390) – guiverc Jan 13 '20 at 02:46
  • So LTS is stable and longer than others which could not be stable right? Also what does flavor mean like lubutnu etc? How do I know which flavor to get and which one will work on my system and be usb bootable? What does all this "(Software choices; modern Lubuntu uses the Qt5 toolkit, so Qt based apps will be more efficient, where as modern Xubuntu us...." my apologies I dont understand this. Right now my biggest uses are all the browsers like firefox and chrome, maybe ms office but I can use the openoffice. I need to make sure they can work from usb drive as I dont know if I will install it? – Vick Jan 13 '20 at 03:15
  • The flavors have a different desktop, for example Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop comes with the GNOME desktop (which relies on GTK+3 or gimp+gnome toolkit version 3), all it's default programs use that desktop. Lubuntu has GTK+3 & GNOME replaced by Qt5 (Q toolkit ver 5) & LXQt desktop (light X11 Qt desktop) for latest release (19.10) but LXDE (light X11 desktop) which used GTK+2 for Lubuntu 18.04 LTS. Because of the different toolkits used by desktop, gedit or GNOME's editor was replaced with leafpad (LXDE) or featherpad (LXQt/Qt5), likewise for other programs. – guiverc Jan 13 '20 at 05:11
  • Libraries are commonly referred to as DLL's (dynamically linked libraries) in windows; There are also statically linked libraries & others beyond dynamically linked; but windows users tend to call them all DLL's to avoid confusion (even if technically incorrect). Toolkits are used by programms in developing applications, users can happily just see them as libraries used (windows users would being dll's again...) – guiverc Jan 13 '20 at 05:13
  • Is there a way to find out system requirements for each flavor so I can choose the one that works? Is there a comparison chart that lists each flavor and recommended requirements? – Vick Jan 13 '20 at 05:32
  • That wouldn't make sense. I do testing for Lubuntu & Xubuntu, and used a laptop with single-core penitum M, 1GB of ram and used it to test up 18.04, 18.10 & 19.04 until x86 images were culled. It's not what works best, it's what's best for the end-user. ie. your tastes. I like XFCE (Xubuntu) & LXQt (modern Lubuntu), and am happy to use apps that work well in those environments. A quick scan of chromium-browser & firefox show they both use GTK+3 so Xubuntu will be good. Your personal likes/tastes of DE (desktop) will really control what's best for you. With 3gb it's not as critical with 1gb – guiverc Jan 13 '20 at 05:39