Linux - DistributionsThis forum is for Distribution specific questions.
Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Novell, LFS, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora - the list goes on and on...
Note: An (*) indicates there is no official participation from that distribution here at LQ.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I would highly recommend a distribution such as xubuntu, slackware (the best in your case) or Debian etch stable.
The reason i recommend that you go with distributions like slack and debian is that bedsides the fact that they are command line based by default you can pair them down depending upon the specifications of the host machine which to me show that the development teams at Salck and Debian have dedicated themselves to making a truly POSIX compatible operating system.
Last edited by inspiron_Droid; 07-29-2008 at 10:59 PM.
The most important variable is how much RAM the computer has. I have Debian 4.0 running on a 300Mhz laptop with 64megs of RAM. That is too little RAM to use the GNOME desktop environment (it'll load, but is hopelessly sluggish due to constant virtual memory use). I use the lightweight IceWM window manager.
If your laptop has less than 48megs of RAM, you won't be able to use a GUI unless you use very lightweight applications. I've run Firefox on an old 120mhz Pentium with 48megs of RAM, and the results aren't pretty.
If you have less than 48megs of RAM, you'll probably want to start with something like Damn Small Linux, a Debian based distribution with extreme levels of customization to minimize its size.
Slitaz and Damn Small Linux are the lightest. Puppy is pretty light.
More important, as noted above, is the CPU and RAM. If it's 800 MHz and 512 MB of RAM, your choices will be far different from 250 MHz and 64 MB of RAM.
Don't expect the same "out of the box" experience on that laptop. You're not likely to be able to run a newbie distro.
That only supports i686, so there is a good possibility that it won't work. It all depends on what the hardware is. It also requires (for practical purposes) 96 MB of RAM.
If it works, that is my recommendation, because you have complete access to the Debian repos.
That only supports i686, so there is a good possibility that it won't work. It all depends on what the hardware is. It also requires (for practical purposes) 96 MB of RAM.
If it works, that is my recommendation, because you have complete access to the Debian repos.
Ah, if the laptop is REALLY old, then yes, there is a problem.
Every time a thread like this comes up, people start recommending DSL and Puppy. I doubt that these people have actually used these distributions productively. Don't get me wrong. I especially like DSL, but it has very limited functionality. You can easily turn any recent distribution into one that will run on old hardware - all it takes is a lightweight Desktop - XFCE, or if that is too much: FVWM, WindowMaker, IceWM,...
And a lighter set of applications - which are available for all distributions:
Dillo as Webbrowser
VLC as media player
Abiword for text
You can take a look at the package selection of DSL for inspiration, but I can't recommend it as a productive system.
Every time a thread like this comes up, people start recommending DSL and Puppy. I doubt that these people have actually used these distributions productively.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Quote:
You can easily turn any recent distribution into one that will run on old hardware - all it takes is a lightweight Desktop - XFCE, or if that is too much: FVWM, WindowMaker, IceWM,...
I just got my hands on a cute little Toshiba Libretto 70CT. It has a 120mhz Pentium and 32megs of RAM. I'm running Debian 4.0 on it with IceWM. I'm even running a fancy looking IceNine/kore-black theme.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.