I have a Toshiba laptop, Satellite P200 RT1 which is running Windows XP.
Should I install install the Long Term Support Release of Ubuntu 14.04, or the latest Standard Release of Ubuntu 15.04?
Should I install a different flavour of Ubuntu, such as Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, etc, given my modest hardware specifications?
Based on your specs I would go with Lubuntu 15.04:
It is more lightweight that any other Ubuntu flavour...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu
Check this article:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-Lubuntu-Is-A-Good-Alternative-To-Replace-Windows-XP
...I didn't want copy everything over, so here is the link
It might seem as overkill, but buy SSD and replace the HDD, IT WILL make a difference as well. 64 GB would be enough (but even so I would buy 120 GB) if you would store your media as movies etc. elsewhere
I'd go with the latest version 15.04 because it possibly provides better driver support than the alternative which would be the long-term-support (LTS) version 14.04.
According to the minimal system requirements, your system meets the bare minimum needed to use the regular desktop edition with Unity.
Note that you have a 32 bit processor. Do not download any 64 bit release!
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements
Ubuntu Desktop 11.04 and up uses Unity as the default GUI while the previous releases used GNOME Panel by default. In order to run Unity the system needs a more capable graphics adapter â see more here or below:
1000 ÎHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
1024 MiB RAM (system memory)
3D Acceleration Capable Videocard with at least 256 MB
From experience, we all know that it is recommended to have 2048 MiB RAM to properly run a day to day Ubuntu.
A good start should be with minimum 1024 and recommended 2048 MiB RAM.
If your Laptop has 2 Gigabytes of Ram, download the 32 bit version of Ubuntu 14.04:
Otherwise you can try these three options:
