I'm trying to install Ubuntu on my dad's old gateway PC. What does each distro say on their website as to minimum specifications?
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Just burn the ISO to a DVD or a USB-key / SDcard, and install it. – MrVaykadji Mar 23 '14 at 17:15
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3Could you clarify what you are trying to do? You question is very confusing. – Mr.Lee Mar 23 '14 at 17:16
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1possible duplicate of How do I install Ubuntu? – Eliah Kagan Mar 23 '14 at 20:42
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Please add more details: The model of the Gateway, memory, hard drive space, CPU and graphics card (if there is one). Sign in, click on this link http://askubuntu.com/posts/438156/edit , and add the info to your original question. – K7AAY Mar 23 '14 at 21:10
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Get the Ubuntu .iso file you wish to use and from there you can either burn it to a disk, or my preferred method, put it on a flash drive. Now if you are going to go the second route, you must find a boot downloader such as this one: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Once you download it to the usb drive (or disk), put it in the computer you wish to turn into an Ubuntu computer. From an off state, turn the computer on, but before it shows anything more than the make (yours is gateway), press f2 (It can be different on different motherboards, so if it's not f2, you will have to find it for yourself).
Now you should be at the bio's section of your computer. From here, you go to boot options, and set the boot order so that the USB (or disk) boots first, before it boots from the hard drive.
After that, save the options and continue, and it will boot from the USB, at which point you will be given several options to install the OS. These are fairly self explanatory, so you should be fine, just know, if you say replace OS with Ubuntu, your old OS will be gone from your computer.
Hope that helped.
Enahs
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Flying blind here, because you have not specified the model number of the Gateway PC, which CPU (32-bit vs 64-bit) how much RAM and hard drive space it has, which graphic card. Therefore, this is a generic answer.
Some older PCs won't boot from a USB flash drive, so start with burning a CD or DVD from the downloaded image.
There are many versions of Ubuntu Linux so I suggest you try several, and choose the version you like, from those which will run on your old Gateway. There are differences in both the desktop environment as well as the apps and utilities they use; suggest you pick the desktop you like (Unity vs Classic GNOME vs KDE vs Xfce vs LXDE)
From the Lubuntu website:
Lubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu based on the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE), as its default GUI. The goal is to provide a very lightweight distribution, with all the advantages of the Ubuntu world (repositories, support, etc.). Lubuntu is targeted at "normal" PC and laptop users running on low-spec hardware.
System Requirements
A Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MB of RAM is probably a bottom-line configuration that may yield slow yet usable system with a reduced lubuntu desktop.
The 13.10 32 bit ISO require your CPU to have Physical Address Extensions, or PAE. "PAE is provided by Intel Pentium Pro and above CPUs, including all later Pentium-series processors (except most 400 MHz-bus versions of the Pentium M)."
If you have a pre-Pentium II CPU, start from the Ubuntu 12.04 mini .iso and please consider the tips in this link
I suggest you start with the 32-bit version of Lubuntu 12.04, since this is an older PC.
If there's a different app you find in one distro which you want in another (e.g., a different file manager), you can install it later.
