Dear all,
i have a system with the following spec and i need a distro that runs fast and well with it.
can u help me with that?
pentium 90Mhz
ram 16mb
hdd 700mb
can i use the X enviroment in such box or not?
what is the most suitable distro for it?
Thanks for your help.

Im no expert, but DSL might be a good option http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

I think X needs quite a bit of ram. I know I have a server 133 mhz 32 mb ram and it will install X, but its slow as all hell. Not worth it for me. Oh, I had Debian Sarge on it (500-600 mb clean install I believe). I just stuck with command line and it was fine. Bootup process takes like 5+ minutes though.

I would recommend Vector Linux 5.1 Standard

or an older version of Slackware or even an older version of Vector

For windows managers I would suggest IceWM with EmelFM file manager.

Hi!

One vote more for DSL. Just check the bootcodes, there is a kind of 'lowram' option. I think, you should do a HD install with it. There is also DeLi Linux (http://www.delilinux.de) as a distro for old computers.

thank you all,
but about vector linux: my hdd is 700mb and my ram is 16mb does it work fine?

Hi!

Don't think so... You need a 200 MHz P1-MMX with 64 MB RAM for the newer versions...

VEctor linux is weird to install. It's said to be light, but the installer doesn't let you chose anything and it unpacks 2 compressed files of about more then a GB. And my old machine didn't have that much.

Slackware runs very good tho. It boots fast, maybe in 1 minute. I'd advice slack for that machine.

Damn small linux might be your best option if you want X.
But I prefer slackware with console apps + screen as "window manager".

Debian might be good too. But it boots slower. But apt is definatly a good advantage.

By the way, here's a good article about someone running debian on a computer like yours with X: http://www.pycs.net/lateral/stories/4.html

Deli linux is indeed also a linux for older hardware. You could try it. I found it booted extremely fast on my 50mhz 486 with 20mb ram (for sure under a minute). But it doesn't have many packages, it's supposed to work with slack 7.1 packages but here it didn't. It should be good to look into deli linux tho, as I didn't try to much to get it to my liking.

greetz

I have a celeron 635mhz 256mb intel i810 what u guys recommend

Vector Linux = dont like
DSL = dont like
either =\

how about zenwalk?, its a 477MB iso with the xfce 4.2.3 de, the new 2.0.1 release has just been released check it out at www.zenwalk.org.

@RobNyc:

Perhaps Ubuntu?
I tried it on my home PC (600MHz, 192MB RAM) and found it OK.
Also, Debian can be a good solution.

Greetings!
Robert

i've tried Ubuntu hmmmmmm
no comment =\

Right now my Celeron running DesktopBSD uptime 3days

haven't tried it...

try TINY Linux it doesn't look like its GUI, but it is designed to run on i486 or above, with 16 Mb of ram. read the FAQ on their website.


I'm a , but not for long...

So far.. I tried Frugalware on both pcs (Slow/Fast) runs great the fastest distro.
Ran pCBSD/desktopbsd they both are blazin fast, but pcbsd faster cuz of freebsd 6.0 but dbsd prefer to use its more a pure freebsd
Arch / Underground well. (Frugalware runs faster than Arch even using kde 3.5 or gnome)
Gentoo u know the deal
Arcane (old h3knix) running on celeron .. w/ e17 so nice
STX Linux also running on celeron "Slackware" based but not feelin it so much anymore
Mutagenix .. waiting
NExenta waiting
Ubuntu out of the list too slow
Kanotix .. best debian
PCLOS doesnt work on my celeron cuz of the old intel i810 card but works good on p4

Again VECTORlinux - it is great .. IMO