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Question

I have a 500Gib hard disk with Ubuntu 12.04. There is a free space of 80 Gib. I would like to install there some light distro of Ubuntu. Which one do you recommend?

Pentium4 2Gib RAM 4 Ghz

If you need some other data, please tell me.

I will need dual boot.

Thanks in advance.

possible duplicate of What is the lightest desktop interface for ubuntu and is Unity-2d classified as a 'light' interface? — muru, Mar 12 '15 at 14:08
Related: http://askubuntu.com/questions/112418/lighter-in-cpu-memory-usage-lubuntu-or-xubuntu — Elder Geek, Mar 12 '15 at 14:20
@muru I don't believe this is a duplicate as the OP desires dual boot, but you make a good point in that it's probably not the requirement the OP thinks it is... — Elder Geek, Mar 12 '15 at 14:31
You should be able to use any distro... I have an old Intel Centrino Duo 2x 2.0 GHz and 2GB RAM and Software rendering because of defect graphic chip and even I can run normal Ubuntu 14.10 with Unity. Btw my notebook HDD has only 60GB and I dual-boot with Kali on it... — Byte Commander, Mar 12 '15 at 14:38
possible duplicate of How do I find out which version and derivative of Ubuntu is right for my hardware in terms of minimal system requirements? — karel, Mar 12 '15 at 14:38
@user299596 You want to install a separate OS or a desktop environment in your existing installation . — Mudit Kapil, Mar 12 '15 at 14:42
@user299596 For Desktop environment you can install Xubuntu from terminal sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop — Mudit Kapil, Mar 12 '15 at 14:49
@ElderGeek deal: you vote to close as dupe of the canonical dual boot question. Both will be shown on the close banner. — muru, Mar 12 '15 at 14:55
@muru Do you think there is no value in the DE vs. Dual Boot topic brought up here? — Elder Geek, Mar 12 '15 at 14:58

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 12 '15 at 14:33

1

For a light Ubuntu distro either Xubuntu or Lubuntu would be a good choice but honestly with the specs you mention you should be able to dual boot and run pretty much any Ubuntu distribution you want.

You'll likely need to resize your existing partition with gparted to get the 80GB of free space you mention as unallocated prior to installation.

muru makes a good point in that you could simply add a light desktop environment to your existing installation and not dual boot at all but simply choose the environment you want from the login screen. This is of course a matter of preference.

answered Mar 12 '15 at 14:33

Elder Geek

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Thanks Elder Geek. It's important to know about unallocated space before installation. – user299596- Verónica B. Mar 13 '15 at 17:19
But I prefer to install apart, not beside my actual Ubuntu, that's why I was asking for dual boot. And I think 80 Gib is too little space compared with the 420 Gib of Ubuntu 12.04, that's why I am asking for a "light" Ubuntu. I don't know if you understand what I mean. My English is not so good. – user299596- Verónica B. Mar 13 '15 at 17:39
@user299596 I understand you perfectly. Your English is quite good compared to some of the questions I've seen just today! If you want to dual boot the choice you want it "Install alongside". By the way, Ubuntu 12.04 isn't taking up 420GB. Your data might be but the OS isn't that big. You could feasibly install 12.04 in about 6GB with room to spare if memory serves. See the link in karel comment above. I've dual booted Ubuntu distributions on a 32GB SSD, mounting a 500GB HDD at /home so that I can use the same documents with both distributions. – Elder Geek Mar 13 '15 at 18:11
Elder Geek Thanks for your compliment:-)Yes, of course Ubuntu 12.04 does not occupy 420 Gib,I expressed badly myself :-) I think I will try Xubuntu. More questions please: I want to have a LiveDVD, so in first place I have to burn Xubuntu on a DVD right? How and when can I indicate I want Dual-boot? You mentioned unallocated space. Now, my 500Gib HDD have 4 primary partitions. The first 3 belong to Ubuntu 12.04 and the 4th is formatted as NTFS originally for Windows. How can I convert this space in unallocated one? Is it necessary or I can format it as Ext-4 for Xubuntu? Thank you. – user299596- Verónica B. Mar 14 '15 at 20:28
Please forgive me, but that is a new question. There are numerous Q & A on the site dealing with partitioning. Gparted (full manual here: http://gparted.org/display-doc.php?name=help-manual ) is my tool of choice for working with partitions. You could use that to delete the 4th (NTFS) partition if that's your desire (after backing up any critical data)., then simply refer to http://askubuntu.com/questions/6328/how-do-i-install-ubuntu if a new question arises in the process feel free to ask – Elder Geek Mar 14 '15 at 21:48
Ah sorry Elder Geek. I am new in Ask Ubuntu. Well, Gparted is my tool too. Thank you for your answers. – user299596- Verónica B. Mar 16 '15 at 10:30

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