I am using an old Dell desktop PC as a samba file and print server for a Windows 7 network. The version of Unbuntu I am running is 12.04 which seems to big for the RAM and disk space I have available. Unbuntu 12.04 runs very very slow, the printing over the home network works at a quite acceptable speed.

I have two problems: SLOW Ubuntu and I cannot update samba. The update manager tells me "update failed".

So my two questions:

1. Is there anything I can remove from the standard 12.04 installation to make Ubuntu run faster and
2. should I uninstall and the reinstall samba to overcome the "update failed" problem? I hesitate, as printing and file serving works somehow and I don't want to loose that.

I know I should give you more information to give me answers. But what would you need to know? I am not a natural Linux user. Windows 7 is still my home.

Thanks in advance, Gerd