I have one old comp (P4, 500 MB RAM) for kids (online games) and it's just dead slow under Xp. Thinking about Linux. I know it will be faster than under Xp, but how much? I just need it for web browsing so that the kids can play games.

512mb of RAM should be more than adequate. With KDE 4 however, you will want to keep the number of applications that run in the background minimal.

One way to find out is to try a "Live CD". Then you boot a Linux operative system from the CD, without installing anything. You can try to navigate around and use applications included on the CD. Most "newbie"-friendly distributions should provide Live CDs nowadays.

Note that some stuff will be considerable slower on a Live CD, because it has to read data from the CD (which is slower than a hard drive). For example when you open the application launcher the first time it will takes some time for the icons to show up.

As for your actual hardware, I use a P4 with 1.5 GB RAM. It used to have 512 MB of RAM but I decided to upgrade it (I had some unused DDR cards lying around, but RAM is quite cheap anyway) and I'm pretty satisfied with the speed. If you want to run KDE Plasma Desktop I recommend to upgrade your computer memory.

aloegel wrote:[...](online games)[...]

Adobe Flash based? Forget about Linux.

aloegel wrote:[...]and it's just dead slow under Xp[...]

With KDE4 it will be super duper dead slow Here is single core A64, and simple mouse over can melt this **** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYLHVZggnlQ

aloegel wrote:I know it will be faster than under Xp

You are wrong!

If you really want to give a try, install something "light", like lxde and avoid Firefox <= 3.6 (much slower than windows version).
http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Ubuntu#Ubuntu_v ... -installed

KDE is faster than windows, especially if you turn off desktop effects and strigi/nepomuk. But for a linux system thats the lightest on resources you could check out lxde or xfce. Both are designed to be minimalist and have low requirements.

BSmith1012 wrote:KDE is faster than windows[...]

No offence, but what are you smoking?

gedgon wrote:

BSmith1012 wrote:KDE is faster than windows[...]

No offence, but what are you smoking?

At least on my system, KDE runs faster than windows.

Anyway, 512mb seems a bit short for KDE to run smoothly. You could try fluxbox, enlightenment or any other lightweight window manager

Regards

gedgon wrote:

BSmith1012 wrote:KDE is faster than windows[...]

No offence, but what are you smoking?

It is faster for me.

Damnshock wrote:At least on my system, KDE runs faster than windows.

TheBlackCat wrote:It is faster for me

Yawn, sure. Please, tell me, what is faster?

gedgon wrote:
Yawn, sure. Please, tell me, what is faster?

Please, enough with the *arrogant* attitude. Faster: do something in less time

It's faster in starting up, it's faster compressing/uncompressing files through a gui program, it's faster at browsing the web, faster at searching through my music collection (although amarok/bangarang are not strickly kde apps), faster at shutting down. And *yes*: all this "faster" things are *measurable*. Should I go on?

And not to mention that is faster at *getting my job done*.

Damnshock wrote:

gedgon wrote:
Yawn, sure. Please, tell me, what is faster?

Please, enough with the *arrogant* attitude. Faster: do something in less time

[...]

And not to mention that is faster at *getting my job done*.

LOL, so, it's not faster, it may be ergonomic or efficient for you or me, but for sure not for long time Windows user (not at the beginning).

Damnshock wrote:It's faster in starting up[...]

overall, can be with systemd, differences in seconds/day

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster compressing/uncompressing files through a gui program[...]

bullsh*t

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster at browsing the web[...]

bullsh*t

Damnshock wrote:[...]faster at searching through my music collection[...]

bullsh*t

Damnshock wrote:[...]faster at shutting down.[...]

like startup, very important for kids playing games online.

gedgon wrote:LOL, so, it's not faster, it may be ergonomic or efficient for you or me, but for sure not for long time Windows user (not at the beginning).

So you take and *extra* feature I said as if it was my main point? Yay!

Damnshock wrote:It's faster in starting up[...]

overall, can be with systemd, differences in seconds/day

It starts faster from the login manager. It may be only half a second, but it's *still* faster.

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster compressing/uncompressing files through a gui program[...]

bullsh*t

Great argument on your side!

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster at browsing the web[...]

bullsh*t

Again: great argument!

Damnshock wrote:[...]faster at searching through my music collection[...]

bullsh*t

Third time: great argument!

Damnshock wrote:[...]faster at shutting down.[...]

like startup, very important for kids playing games online.

Don't bias the discussion. Nobody said that it was important for kids, you just added it here to make yourself believe you are right.

gedgon wrote:Yawn, sure. Please, tell me, what is faster?

Shutting down is faster. Booting to a usable desktop is considerably faster (windows shows the desktop sooner, but it is not actually usable for a while after it appears). On my older laptop and on my desktop it is considerably more responsive, although the difference is less on my newer laptop.

Damnshock wrote:It starts faster from the login manager. It may be only half a second, but it's *still* faster.

Yeah, lol, it only count from login manager. Btw. It takes about 1 sec. on my XP, about 5 on Arch.

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster compressing/uncompressing files through a gui program[...]

You have tons of apps for this on Windows, 90% of them are better than Ark.

Damnshock wrote:[...]it's faster at browsing the web[...]

Konqueror? buhaha, Firefox? slow like hell on Linux, Opera? way better on Windows, Chrome/Chromium? Almost comparable.

Damnshock wrote:[...]faster at searching through my music collection[...]

Again, tons for Windows, couple for Linux. Personally, I hate Amarok.

Good enough for you?

Damnshock wrote:Don't bias the discussion. Nobody said that it was important for kids

Ahahahah, first post, my friend.

TheBlackCat wrote:my desktop it is considerably more responsive

Yeah, right, with kernel bugs like this https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12309
or Qt4 x11 native insanely slow backend? You have sample of fast and responsive KDE apps on old desktop above (YT video).

I see no point in further discussing anything at all with someone that just undervalues any opinion different than his/hers and, even worse, laughs about it.

Regards