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Suitable Distribution for my LOW MEMORY(128 MB) PC

I am looking for a Linux Distribution that will run reasonably fast on my PC. The following is my configuration:-

1) Processor : Intel Pentium 4 ,1.6GHz,256KB onboard Cache
2) Memory :128 MB SDRAM
3) External Cache Memory : 256KB
4) Video Card : SiS 300/305 with 32MB RAM

Mainly,I use my PC for :-
1) Web Browsing
2) Developing Console Applications in 'C'
3) WordProcessing
4) Writing Data to CD.
5) Listening to music(mp3 format) and Watching Movies ,and
6) As a Personal desktop

Note:-
I have already tried Fedora Core4,Ubuntu/Kubuntu 5.10 and Mandriva 2006.

Well those you've tried are quite "big" (or fat, actually) distributions with a lot of stuff you won't need and a lot of heavy graphical stuff. I'd advice you to buy a bit more SDRAM anyway, at least up to 256 (I'd make it 384, at least)

You surely can use those too, but don't try to use KDE or Gnome if you are having problems with insufficient memory; replace KDE or Gnome with XFCE (a "lightweight" desktop) or Fluxbox or some other *box, or whatever window manager pleases you. KDE and Gnome do look good, but they're memory hogs (well the whole X is anyway, I'd just use console..you can watch videos from console too, if you like).

Another thing is that you should shut down every process (service) you do not need. The distributions are quite the same, they have a kernel, a set of apps and a way to put those in some order on the disk. The thing to make a Linux faster is to lessen the amount of running processes (programs) and to use less memory-consuming programs, especially those graphical ones running under X. Switching your desktop to a lighter one will make a big difference.

Thank you for the prompt reply

you didnt say you'r hard drive space, if you can afford to have KDE isntalled but use flux as your primary window manager like bouncer said is key.

I run slackware on a pc 1/10 your speed, fluxbox as the window manager, but I can use the KDE app's if need be, and what I do is load up KDE once and strip down the eye-candy really hard, so when I'm in fluxbox and need a kde appliction, it's not all glossy, and resource intense. taking out the auto start stuff in kde is good if you do this, cuz even calling for "kedit" will make all the kde stuff load.......

I highly suggest xubuntu (www.xubuntu.org)

Check it out.

Yep, Xubuntu is the way to go. It's really improved after the last release.

I would probably suggest to go to bestbuy, buy $50 worth of ram and then install any version of your choice. It's a shame to limit a p4 with such little ram.

Else, try xubuntu. Not a bad choice.

I have no problems running KDE within 128megs of RAM using Debian 3.1 (Sarge) or Debian Testing (Etch). I find that turning off font anti-aliasing helps a lot with performance.

I used a 550mhz Pentium III system with 128megs of RAM to burn all of my DVD-ROM backups for quite some time before I got my hands on some more RAM. This was with Debian 3.1, using KDE. I was quite satisfied with its performance.

Thanks for all the responses

I have started using Vector Linux 5.1

I've made some tests lately and it's surprinsing that KDE 3.5.4 (installed from packages on a Slack) is less eating memory than XFCE or other desktops envs.

I personally thinl that latest KDE is highly optimized and will run nice in 128 RAM.

Thanks for the information. I am thinking of running KDE3.5.4 using Kubuntu 6.06.1

i suggest pclinuxos i use it now on a computer with :
128mb
intel pentium III 937

so it have to work on a 128mb with pentium 4 i think

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registered newbie : Mark1234