Need a Fast Distro for 333MHz HP with 256MB RAM!!

Christian3807 · 01-25-2006, 04:28 PM

I need a distro that will work fast on the old pc!!
Is this possible?
I will be using it for web surfing, word processing(Abiword), and GIMP.

I just tried Slax with KDE

on the Live CD and it was fairly the speed of windows xp(what i have now on this slow pc) but I didn't like KDE and it didn't detect my network card(Ubuntu didn't detect it either).

Thanks!!!

It will be using 1024x768 resolution.

pljvaldez · 01-25-2006, 04:50 PM

You might try Damn Small Linux, which is Debian based, or just a netinstall of debian. Then install what you like for x, window managers (try icewm or windowmaker), word processing, etc.

I've also found that recompiling the kernel on old machines really helps speed it up.

jacook · 01-26-2006, 01:22 AM

Try Puppy Linux,

it has the Gimp and heaps of other features that you sound like you are looking for

ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/

Jake

Faj · 01-26-2006, 06:24 AM

Austrumi seems interesting. MepisLite has some success too. (cf Distrowatch).

aryys · 05-09-2006, 05:56 AM

just tried austrumi, ran completly in memory and actually goes faster that my Fedora 5 install, and way way way faster than my embarassing XP partition

i might consider installing to hd but why?

lefty.crupps · 05-09-2006, 04:00 PM

A new version of austrumi (1.2) just came out with E17 as the windowmanager. Yey! Anyone know if this can be installed, or if it is just a live cd?

helm · 05-10-2006, 04:29 AM

It can be installed. I have just done so but it doesn't seem to have a package manager unless if I am looking in the wrong places. I was looking for something like apt-get or slapt-get since it is slackware based but if anyone knows how to update packages, please let me know.

BinJajer · 05-15-2006, 10:29 AM

Oh, 333 mhz AND 256 MB of RAM? And old server machine perhaps?
Slackware. The one and only

Or gentoo... if you don't mind a few... oh, well, like 10 hrs of compilation.

chrisg631 · 05-15-2006, 04:24 PM

why not try zenwalk...slimmed down slackware w/XFce...

www.zenwalk.org

jesuscakes · 05-23-2006, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christian3807

I need a distro that will work fast on the old pc!!
Is this possible?
I will be using it for web surfing, word processing(Abiword), and GIMP.

I just tried Slax with KDE

on the Live CD and it was fairly the speed of windows xp(what i have now on this slow pc) but I didn't like KDE and it didn't detect my network card(Ubuntu didn't detect it either).

Thanks!!!

It will be using 1024x768 resolution.

If it is a laptop you need to disable the ADPI power save thing.

jnev · 05-24-2006, 09:40 PM

my laptop has similar specs to your computer and I've been running xubuntu (xfce on ubuntu) on it. runs fairly quick, though I've been thinking about trying our gentoo or slack on it.

KeithE · 05-31-2006, 11:56 AM

I have a 433 MHz Celeron box with 192 Mb RAM (an ancient eMachine) that has worked perfectly with Slackware (9.0 thru 10.2), Mandrake/Mandriva (10.1 and 2005LE), Debian Sarge, and RedHat 8 over the years - all running KDE or Gnome. Personally, I'd go with Slackware or Debian. Having 256 Mb RAM makes up for the slower processor.