Linux Suitable for my p2-350 mhz machine
 

Hi,
I have the following system config on my old computer :

p2-350 mhz processor
128 mb ram
20 gb hard disk..
Sis 6326 video card with 4 mb ram

I've used rh9 on this machine but found it rather slow and unresponsive. Suse 9.0 doesnt install at all and a Mandrake 10.0 install produced too many errors.

I'd like to know which distro/version is best suited for my architecture. I want basic desktop features, good mutimedia support alongwith full blown dev tools... The last req being the most important..

Also, it would be nice if the packages for the dev section are recent coz I really like to tinker around with stuff.( Code development, learning new languages etc..)

So does any distro fit the bill....

Hoping for some good advice,
Anant

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux - Distributions and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I can say as far as speed, I just installed slackware 10 on my PII-300 laptop (196MB ram,
2 MB video, 6.4GB hdd). Installed with defualt 2.4.x kernel. But once I upgrade to the 2.6.x
kernel on CD 2 and make the initrd - WOW what a difference in speed. Its usable now!

I spent a week sorting through what I thought would be lighter distors for better
performance, but I had what I needed all along.

Just one noob's opinion.
-tw

I also vote for Slackware 10.0 because I had it on my old system of P2, 233MHz with 192MB of RAM. However, I used XFce window manager because both Gnome & KDE were a little too slow for my taste! I just removed it to check out Mepis and it looks like Mepis is outta there! It's back to Slackware again... ;)

y2k

Welcome to linuxquestions!

I would say go for Slackware. I used this on a PII-266 with 160MB Ram and it worked fine, especially if you use on of the less memory hungry and graphically intensive window managers such as Fluxbox - which slackware comes with.

It also has a large number of apps and dev tool sin the package and you can completely customize what packages are installed!

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Steve

I put SuSE 9.0 on a system with less than what you have and it worked great. SuSE and Mandrake are my choices for beginners.

Slack's a good choice, as is Debian (Sarge is fairly current). You might wanna consider Gentoo as well, since it comes with all the necessary compiler tools to get going on. You might want to install the binaries to save time on the initial install. Then all you'd need to compile is the kernel.

Thanks for all the help guys..
Do you think recompiling the kernel for rh9 may help improve the speed ?
I did consider Slackware but since I've heard that package managment is a pain on it.. I decided against it... is it so ??

Anant

I am running ubuntu on a machine similar to this, a little older actually. The standard gnome desktop is running fine for me. It took a long time to install, but it is brilliant now.
pII 233, 128mb ram.

I'd go with Vector, Slackware or Ubuntu

Yes, out of the box, Slackware doesn't have a fancy package manager that resolves dependancies, but if you install Swaret or Slapt-get, you won't have the problems that many say are there. I've run Slack with Swaret and got along fine with it. You won't have to run for mp3 codecs right away, either :D If you're concerned about package management, give Debian a try. Once you get a taste of apt-get, you'll have a hard time going back.LOL. Recompiling your kernel might give you some speed, but turning off services will do a lot more.

debian sarge is faster than slackware in some machines (in my k6-2 with 192mb of ram for example) and has the best package management you can find (some say gentoo's portage is better, but it can be a real pain with slow computers)
Ubuntu is no bad, but gnome eats too much resources and its just debian sarge with a diferent name

Hi avaneja,

I got a very similar box and I am running Debian Sarge on it - it's a breeze. For "Real Work (TM)" I use fluxbox, it uses far less ressources and is faster. KDE only for "playing and exploring" and to access seldomly used programs and functions. Though, most of the time, I do not use GUI primarily, the box is my server.

HTH, Peter