I recently had to buy a new computer as the motherboard of my lovely, fast XP machine went the way of the dinosaur. Of course the new computer came pre-installed with Vista. The new computer just about matches my old one in specs of processor speed and RAM. I have already noticed a huge difference in speed when using inkscape. Vista is SLOOOOOOOOWWWW. So here is my question to you guys:
Would it be worth it to try and dual boot with linux on this new machine to get better performance when using inkscape? Note that this would be the first time for me installing multiple OS's, not to mention using Linux at all. (Although I am rather proud of myself for successfully partitioning my hard drive in anticipation of doing this.)

Follow-up question: As the whole point is to gain speed and performance when using inkscape, which linux distro has the smallest footprint on resources?

Thanks in advance.

What sort of hardware specs are we talking?

I have to say, dual booting just for Inkscape makes you a hardcore Inkscape user I don't doubt that any Linux distro will probably be more responsive than Vista on slower hardware. I should think Ubuntu will be a good choice simply because it's popular and contains just the essentials.

I have to agree with the guy before me. It is interesting that you have the same hardware configuration with Vista. I believe it is not strange you have lower performance. I am using Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE look) i have to say that i am very proud on it. I have abounded Windows a year ago and i am not regretting at all. Inkscape works quite nice on my machine (AMD 3300+ 2GHz, 1 GB RAM and integrated graphic card). Have to admit when i have something more demanding i knows to work a bit slower but that is definitely because of my graphic card which is just not good for any serious job. So if you have any better graphic card i am quite sure that you will have better performance on Linux. Ubuntu/Kubuntu is definitely great choice if you need Linux since Ubuntu community is huge and growing.

Post us your configuration.

Cheers,

Specs on my old system: Pentium 4 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, no graphics card
Specs on my new system:Pentium Dual E2180 2GHz, 1GB RAM, 300GB Hard Drive (partitioned to 150 and 150GB), again only onboard graphics no card

I've been inching toward trying Linux anyway, and the inkscape performance is just another reason. Also, I should note that due to financial constraints the system I bought was pretty low end and has no more slots for a memory upgrade.

I'd also vote for Ubuntu if you're new to linux, even though Im a fedora user.

okay, now a more general question, realizing that this may not be the most appropriate forum, is it possible to have a drive partition that both Vista and Ubuntu could access? What I have in mind is having all my Vista system files on partition A, all my Ubuntu system files on partition B, and all my data files (documents, images, music, etc) on partition C such that I could get to all of my data files whether I was booted on Vista or Ubuntu. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Also, any downside to Xubuntu vs Ubuntu, as the little I've read implies that Xubuntu would be more responsive?

I have an additional USB hard drive and of course both OSes? (grammar/spelling nazi hellou) can read it.

Linux can see everything including Win partitions, but Win can't see Linux partitions (the usual "we're closed and selfcentered" flavor).
So the solution might be to keep everything on Win.

I tried to do it and I hated working on 2 OSes. Booting all the time; I make sth on Linux, then boot win to print, then realise I need to edit it further so boot up Linux again... Nightmare. I installed some driver last night (Turboprint) I hope to fix the borderless printing linux problem. If anyone knows the solution please speak up
Multi monitor setup, couple of applications ported to linux and I'm free of Win forever! I love having only one OS to work on

btw I experienced some weird behaviour in inkscape files when editing them both on win and linux. If I edited on one OS, then open the file in the other OS, the path segments didn't follow the nodes as expected, I think it was only on cusp nodes. I'm not completely sure if the problem was in the inkscape build I used or it was really because of the OSes.

Theres an app you can get that lets you mount linux drives under win, works just fine, use it at home in england. Cant remember the name of it, a quick google should find it easy enough.

Ubuntu comes with Wubi which lets you very quickly and easily dual boot your PC without worrying about partitions--it's a windows installer.

okay, now a more general question, realizing that this may not be the most appropriate forum, is it possible to have a drive partition that both Vista and Ubuntu could access? What I have in mind is having all my Vista system files on partition A, all my Ubuntu system files on partition B, and all my data files (documents, images, music, etc) on partition C such that I could get to all of my data files whether I was booted on Vista or Ubuntu. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Also, any downside to Xubuntu vs Ubuntu, as the little I've read implies that Xubuntu would be more responsive?

I have a dual-boot system at home. I have WinXP and Ubuntu Hardy. Although, I haven't booted into my Winxp in a few months. I really only keep it around for emergencies. I have 2 main Windows partitions and a different hard drive for my Linux OS. I never touch my Windows partition C while in Linux and store much of my data on partition D (now NTFS but was FAT32 for a long time). So that I can get to my Linux drive while in Windows I use (http://www.fs-driver.org). Perhaps that was the one Simarilius was referring to. No matter what OS I'm using I can get to ALL of my data regardless of which OS that I created the data on. I also have a NAS drive for backups.

Xubuntu is much faster than Ubuntu by the way. Both are so similar that you won't have a problem switching between the two if needed. You can install both if you want and choose to log into whichever.

heathenx wrote: So that I can get to my Linux drive while in Windows I use (http://www.fs-driver.org). Perhaps that was the one Simarilius was referring to.

Thats either it or something almost identical to what I have installed at home.

llogg wrote:Specs on my old system: Pentium 4 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, no graphics card
Specs on my new system:Pentium Dual E2180 2GHz, 1GB RAM, 300GB Hard Drive (partitioned to 150 and 150GB), again only onboard graphics no card

Your Vista is slow because of your 1 GB RAM. Vista needs at least 2 GB RAM to work well. So you have to chose between an annoying dual boot and buying 1 GB RAM, which is not that expensive nowadays.

No I have to choose between an annoying boot and buying a completely new system b/c as previously mentioned this system has no more slots for memory upgrade.

llogg wrote:No I have to choose between an annoying boot and buying a completely new system b/c as previously mentioned this system has no more slots for memory upgrade.

You can buy larger RAM chips to replace the ones you have now. Cheaper than buying a new system. Although not as cheap as installing Linux

If you want distro with low hardware needs I would recommend you some Pclinuxos remasters:
1) Sam Linux - with Xfce - much faster than Xubuntu, user friendly
screenshots: http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com ... isual.html
download: http://sam.hipsurfer.com/index.php?page=downloads

2) Tiny ME - extremely unassuming:
Absolute Minimum Recommended Minimum Requirements
CPU: Pentium I processor 400 Mhz or better
RAM: 64 MB 128 MB
HD: 1 GB 4 GB
Screen resolution: 640×480 800×600

screenshots: http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensour ... e%202008.1
download: http://www.tinymelinux.com/doku.php/download

Both are live cds, so try them. Every setting can be done comfortably with mouse clicking. Installation of Inkscape is easy with Synaptic manager. And with good machine you can spare much more memory and CPU time for Inkscape.