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I have a similar laptop: 32-bit, 1Gb RAM, 1.6Ghz atom, purchased years ago on the cheap. I run the latest Ubuntu desktop edition and am able to run everything that I need (mostly Rails + remote services over SSH tunnels). I can even stream Hulu, though the video does sometimes lag.

I don't have personal experience with any other distros, but a friend of mine has an equally antiquated laptop running the latest Fedora which he claims is better than an abacus. YMMV.

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I see. One reason I didn't want to go that route was that the Unity bar on the left of the screen takes up too much space on a 13in screen, and I'm not confident I can get the resolution to run right, cuz I can never quite get my graphics card drivers sorted out right in Ubuntu.

From the user login screen, select the classic desktop from the bar at the bottom. This works well on my machine with roughly the same spec.

EDIT: Come to think of it, I think I heard they'd removed this in Ubuntu 11.10. It's there on 11.04, at least.

It's in 11.10 too, it's the gear right in the login box, as opposed to the bottom of the screen.

edit: I've become a fan of KDE recently, and I've been able to get it looking and working the best, so that's what it is for now.

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