Ubuntu pro and cons ?

[NightrainSrt4]

I'm not sure I am going to waste much time on that rig to be honest. I just liked it as it fit in a nice empty place on my desk and is a relatively small rig (shorter then my 22" and thinner than the base width), but performance is pretty slow in just about everything, even in Ubuntu. 3.06Ghz CellyD, 512Mb ram, 40Gb IDE, ATi 9250. Feels choppy scrolling even webpages so not sure how much hassle it is really worth, and how much I would actually use it anyway.

I spent a few hours yesterday before my post trying to get the wifi working, but in the end the fact that it was 2 feet from the ethernet switch led me to give up on it. Just wanted to put a usb wifi stick lying around to use.

[Drum Thumper]

3.06Ghz CellyD, 512Mb ram, 40Gb IDE, ATi 9250. Feels choppy scrolling even webpages so not sure how much hassle it is really worth, and how much I would actually use it anyway.

More RAM may fix your issues. I've found that Ubuntu is extremely choppy with 192 megs, a bit more tolerable in the 256 to 512 range and quite nice in the 1 to 2 gig range.

[sloppyc]

Try a different video driver. I had 8.04.2 running nicely on an AMD AthlonXP 2000+ with 512MB RAM and a GeForce4 440MX card. I've since upgraded it slightly, but I see no reason your 3GHz machine can't run 8.10 nicely. Try 9.04 even. Performance improvements were a goal with that release.

[h3moglobe0]

I'm not sure I am going to waste much time on that rig to be honest. I just liked it as it fit in a nice empty place on my desk and is a relatively small rig (shorter then my 22" and thinner than the base width), but performance is pretty slow in just about everything, even in Ubuntu. 3.06Ghz CellyD, 512Mb ram, 40Gb IDE, ATi 9250. Feels choppy scrolling even webpages so not sure how much hassle it is really worth, and how much I would actually use it anyway.

I spent a few hours yesterday before my post trying to get the wifi working, but in the end the fact that it was 2 feet from the ethernet switch led me to give up on it. Just wanted to put a usb wifi stick lying around to use.

Check if theres 3D support enabled. From 7.04 chipsets under 92xx cards suposed to be supported by open drivers that come with default installation. Install drivers via envy or manulay package from ATI. There are problems with ATI and WiFi, it's well known. Should fix this choppynes.
For WiFi I got only one tip. Just find right distro and stick with avoiding updating some packages resposible for WiFi( not sure which one it'd be, almost no real exp with wireless on Linux). You can also find out which Ubuntu-based distros 'd work well with your WiFi and try this one (Mint, Morox, etc).
Canonical politic for upgrades is clearly fcked up.

Cheers