So I got a Pentium II 233 Mhz MMX running on 144MB RAM with a 20GB HDD. What distro would be best? I know debian is a good choice, but I want to try to avoid it. I have an SMC USB to ethernet adapter and the kernel module needs version 2.6+, which the stable release of debian doesn't have (and compiling one is tedious). So basically what I need is a modern distro that operates with the speed of debian.

I've tried aLinux and Yoper, but they both crashed during the init of the install, and Ubuntu is just a little too heavy for daily use.

I vote: Slackware but use a lighter Graphical Environment

I have Gateway PII 233 MHz, 64MB and 4.3GB
I run Slackware 10.1 and it works well, I prefer to use Fluxbox for my WM, but I can run KDE even though it's a bit of a pig. When I did the install I chose expert install and left a bunch of stuff out, like GNOME.

If both are modern, is KDE lighter than GNOME?

I wouldn't even mind running an old KDE, Debian does that, and it does it well.

I'd say they're both about the same

Any more ideas?

Ok, I personally would install gentoo, but I really didn't think you wanted to compile on that machine, so I chose my 2nd recommendation.

What are you looking for? Have you tried any/all of the suggestions?
You could try a redhat 7.3 variant which would use an older KDE/Gnome


( I cringe at the thought of recommending RH )

Ugh. I tried installing aLinux - didn't work. Tried installing Yoper - didn't work. Slackware, nope. This sucks. Ubuntu and SuSE both installed, but talk about crawling.

Maybe I should just go back to 98SE ...

debian sarge 3.1. once you compile in your kernel option that will be the best choice, imho.

Ooohhhh yeaeaahhhh, I forgot about sarge!

You caught me right on the spurt of giving up!

Awesome, debian looks really cool as I remember it, and there has been development! Sweeeeeeeeet. It's like Ubuntu without all the crap.

Have a look at Vector 4.3 as well. Was designed for a machine like you describe.

I recently installed slackware 10.1 on a 400MHz AMD k6-2 with 114MB ram and 10 GB harddisk, and I didn't have any trouble installing it, but it's good that you've found something that you like.

I would strongly suggest
NOT to use distros like suse, mandrake, ubuntu which all come bundled with heavy weight window managers as Gnome and KDE.
INSTEAD you should use knoppix remasterings like Feather linux, Damn Small Linux and others.

Recently I've found a a very good distro called COBIND, I've chosen it to run on my 500Mhz pentium and it works very well.
http://cobind.com/images/desktop_scr...fce_medium.png
Cobind is a Redhat remastering with a lightweight window manager such as XFce. It runs smoothly and offers most applications....