I just got the go ahead to finaly put linux on the family computer. So I can now use the router I bought I can share internet with my computer and the family one. (windows 98 didn't have the cabs or software to use it.) But I've been searching around, and all of my Linux's, and the ones I've read, the system minimum req. for X is 400 Mhz, and 128megs of ram. The sad part is thats pretty much how much that computer has. (actualy 160megs of ram, i put a stick in a few months ago) Can someone give me an easy distro for users who just want to use Multimedia, gAIM, cheap games, and play flash games (like that NeoPet one?) and doesnt use too much system resources. All ideas will be great, but I need to keep windows on the same computer. just in case. NOTE: The computer specs are as is: AMD K6-2 400mhz, 160 megs of SDRam, 8mb ATI 3d rage pro, 13 gigabyte BIGfoot hard drive, doesnt say the RPM tho. This is actualy a Compaq Presario 5190. Thanx in advanced.

--EDIT--
O ya, tell me a good free software I can use to defrage the hard drive. We've never Defraged that computer, and now the computer wont defrag. (trust me, I let it sit defraging for almost 2 days, and it didnt get past 0%)

Start -> Run -> (type) msconfig
Click the Startup tab. Check off to start all programs at boot. Reboot.
Run scandisk.
Run defrag.
In msconfig, recheck to start all programs.

KDE or Gnome should run slowly with your current RAM.
Using something like ICE (familar but light weight) as your desktop (with any distro) should save some RAM.
Slackware would be snappier than Mandrake or Suse, but would need more manual configuration.
Resizing the Windows partition and doing a test drive with Linux may be best.
Good Luck.

Right now, I am accessing the internet through a NAT gateway running:

A Celeron 433 machine with 192 megs of PC66 SDRAM and a 10 gig disk
Mandrake 10 Official, complete with KDE and other bells/whistles
Crummy onboard video (4 MB onboard memory? Something like that.)
shorewall/iptables/dhcpd (for the NAT)


... and it's my mother's main desktop.

I won't pretend it's blazing fast--OpenOffice, in particular, takes a while to load. But Win98 is slow too on this machine.

Ok, Im not confident enough to install slackware or gentoo, I know how to use cfdisk, and those programs. But I'd rather try it out on my computer first before I go into my familys computer. Heres what I got on hand with easy installation and so forth...

RedHat 9
and from my friend, he has my Mandrake 10 download, and Fedora Core 1 and 2.
Tell me which of those u would suggest, or if theres something else u would say, not on this list, then tell me. Ill get my friend to download it for me. Thanx for replys so far.

Try a Live-CD such as Knoppix, available here at LQ ISO Basically a Live CD is a fully blown "Linux on a CD" that will allow you to run a fully functioning Linux installation off the CD, without writing/changing anything on your hard drive. Just put the CD in, reboot (make sure that your BIOS goes to the CD before the hard drive) and you'll be running Linux. Remove the CD, reboot, and you'll return to Linux. Once your comfort level has been reached, you can install Linux permanently. Good luck with it -- J.W.

I knew about that. I just tried the one my friend had (3.3) and everything worked except sound, so I guess ima try 3.6 since it has a 2.6.7 kernel, and also everything seems smooth, with KDE, its not blazing speed but its faster then I expected. Maybe itll be faster if I use a 2.6 kernel, and have it run from the HDD and not from the CD-ROM.

Don't be afraid to load up Slackware, or any other non-gui-install distro. Not only will you learn more, but they can be much more intuitive and give more options than most of the gui-based installs of other distros. Jump into the deep end, were all lifeguards here

You're in a bit of a Catch-22 here. You want something that has lots of GUI tools to configure... But distros designed for that usually require heavier amounts of resources.

If I could, I'll suggest Vector Linux. It's a distro based off of Slackware with some more user friendly configuration tools, designed to run well on older hardware.

--Shade

You may want to use a lighter weight window manager then the KDE or GNOME desktop environments. Windowmaker, Sawfish, AfterStep, Enlightenment, IceWM, or FVWM are alternatives which may run better for you.

If u want a MS windows like Window manager you can use XPDE. Pretty light on resources.
XPDE homepage