If Antix doesn't get the job done don't forget my suggestion of SliTaz 'loram' flavor: "Loram flavor that can start SliTaz on machines with very limited resources and needs only 80MB without disabling the cdrom" or 'loram-cdrom': "Loram flavor that can boot with only 16 MB and a little swap memory, but is unable to release the cdrom". http://www.slitaz.org/en/get/flavors.php

SliTaz started out as a quirky little project but now that LXDE is mainstream I think SliTaz would feel right at home to most users. Out of the 4 most popular "micro distros" (DSL, TinyCore, Puppy, SliTaz) I personally would choose SliTaz from that list *if* I had any really old computers lying around the house. The only "gotcha" is that support for your Windows partition might not be built in. (It was not when I used SliTaz, but that was way back version 1.0.) So you might need to install a package using their tazpkg package manager; off the top of my head it is called ntfs-tools or similar.

AntiX is great too (and I am kind of being a jerk with the 'your hardware is old!' tirade, I apologize, the fact is I myself have personally installed AntiX on old laptops with 128-256mb RAM, it can be done, it is not impossible) and as a permanent, installed system for everyday use on old computers AntiX is top-notch. You get the awesomeness of Debian (my personal distro-family of choice) plus smxi scripts plus a thoughtful collection of applications/configs. I have only good things to say about AntiX and its developer anticapitalista!

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All antiX versions, including full, fit on a 700MB cd.

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I have an old desktop box which I built 10 or so years ago, which is not dissimilar to yours and which I still use for typing. It runs on some old iteration of SuSE (9.1 I think) and has the KDE.3 desktop. Having said that, I'm typing this in bed on an old Dell netbook running antiX - which is not without flaws but with which I get on with fairly well.

I would advise you NOT to be frightened of the hardware of these big old desktop boxes - I built 2 or 3 before the price of Laptops stopped being astronomic and was forever pushing stuff in and pulling it out. Like the mechanics of old cars, it's pretty straightforward. But your probably right to be chary of laptops.

From what you say I guess you plan to use this for essays Etc., and I would guess it would be fine for that. Stick with a simple Window Manager (I use iceWM which is part of the antiX distro) and try to dig out a collection of fairly basic tools for word processing, drawing, notetaking and anything else you need. Everyone's right, your machine is geriatric, underpowered and you won't be able to play World of Warcraft on it BUT it will do for you to write up your notes on pancreatic functions.

Finally, I don't think anyone has mentioned ArchLinux as a distro. I don't know it but I believe that (like Ubuntu & antX) it's based on Debian and, while using antiX I have quite often found answers to problems on the Arch website.

Good luck!

dmk

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Burning a CD with nero wont put your system under any more stress than running a liveCD.

Just remember 'reasonable' with computers that old is virtually nothing.

More than once I've seen someone go out and buy a new CPU, RAM and sometimes other stuff and end up paying far more than it would have cost to get a much faster machine.

Intel Core Duos are decent CPUs from the time period (2006). Totally outclassed by newer CPUs with AMD 64/x86-64 support. more cache, newer processes, etc..

Lpatops are not easy to work on, and trying to find a replacement laptop motherboard can take time, some experience and is almost always more expensive than similar desktop parts. Doing a motherboard repalcement for a laptop is a _lot_ more difficult than with desktops.

A quick search for HP/Compaq nw8440 boards and I was seeing a minimum $150 and that was 'refurbished'. Its not worth the risk (you'll be out of luck if the problem is not the motherboard).

They are both the same size. One site is using a 1000x1000x1000 = MB and the other a 1024x1024x1024 = MB (or 'MB' vs 'MiB').

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebibyte

Arch is just arch, its not debian based.

Its a good distro if it suits you (rolling release, fiddly setup). I wouldn't suggest it for newbies, its pretty complex and the fact its rolling release means that if you are keeping it updated, you will probably break something sooner or later... ...

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There are things, many things in M$Windows, that doesn't apply to Gnu/Linux. Don't worry.


Yes it does automatically. At least in my years of experience it does. I don't know what others experience.
USB drivers are already compiled into the kernel, its resources are appropriated automatically at load up.

By the way, am sorry to fail to tell you this: Absolute Linux, like its mother Slackware, does not run as liveCD, the CDs come to you through download are install CDs, not liveCD. But don't worry, F2 (Help) and other clues are always there along the way; Pat V. the Slackware author has made installation as friendly as possible, AND less threatening than the redmond boys do to the clients in the blue screen.

No need to do that. Just proceed installation and use your USB ports when it reboots even the first time.



Your worries are expected from those who came from the old land.

There are many good men and women here, and even more experienced and better tutors. Just feel free to come back for anything about your getting-to-know with Gnu/Linux system. There under M$windows you obtained true "professional" help after paying; but here, to my surprise, even the most profound advice from the truly masters are given free for the sake of social growth and humanity.

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snowpine thanks a lot for your advice, don't worry I almost never misjudge. You're indeed right to be saying that my machine is reaaaally old, no need to apologise about it

That's great!!! anticapitalista, σε ευχαριστω παρα πολυ για την πολυτιμη δουλεια σου!! Ειμαι ευγνωμων!

I'll take your advice to heart!
That's exactly what I want it for. For browsing too if possible. But certainly not for WoW -I'm not expecting magic out of it!!
It'd better!!!

I do have that in mind.
I believe you misunderstood me. It was never my intention to replace the laptop's motherboard.We actually bought a new laptop back then.
But while I was thinking of ways to replace my old computer's hardware, the faulty HP laptop popped into my head. I thought that maybe (with someone's help) I could take functional pieces of hardware out of the laptop and use them on my old pc.

Awesome!! Thank you!

But if I download the AntiX .iso file and burn it to a CD, it will be a LiveCD right???

I'm confused. What you're suggesting is that I install AntiX in a partition of the HDD (keeping the windows partition intact) and then use my usb to mount the windows partition and copy my files?
But I don't want to have a windows partition at all.I will detere everything...So I think that the first way is what suits me best atm.
That's why I'm absolutely and unconditionally thankful and grateful for their kindness and big helping hand.
*Faith in humanity=restored*

Offtopic: Windows' 98 ScanDisk procedure found that there are cross-linked files on the HDD. I will try to correct this, but if I fail, will this affect my HDD and consequently any Linux installation?

No. In fact I am not talking about antix, I am talking about Absolute Linux.

Installing Absolute Linux:
1. Put the CD/DVD installer at dvd drive.
2. Boot machine at cd/dvd drive.
3. Press <Enter>
4. Press <Enter>
5. Type: "root" <Enter>
6. <Arrow Keys> <Space> and so on ... make your choices until finally:
7. Press <Enter>
8. Press <Enter> again. Leave the machine as it installs for about minutes depending on the speed of machine. Go get a cup of coffee and cigarette or view the BBC HardTalk.
When the installation is done the CD carriage opens, take off the CD. Press Ctl+Alt+Del to reboot, run your Absolute Linux.
Enjoy.
No mounting, no copying needed. Pat V is genius.

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Uhm guys....I tried to burn the (FULL AntiX) iso image to the 700MB CD and I got a 0x800700717 error. I tried to burn the iso using Windows 7 ISO Disc Image Burning.
Should I use Burncdcc instead?

malekmustaq, I still cannot understand whether this installation will wipe Windows 98 or not. I won't lose my files?
Thanks for the guide of course!

Hi
Why not try set it up as Home Server using Freenas

Thks

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I was not able to burn neither AntiX Full nor Base to 700MB CD.
I tried once with Windows 7 built-in Disc Image Burning
and twice with BurnCDcc at speeds 4x and 2x but kept getting the error: "The data was not transfered successfully to the disc.Consider using a slower speed setting".
I'll try one more time with another brand of CDs

Yes the installer will format the hard drive in the computer so you would want to save your data files before you install antiX. So save everything to an external hard drive before you initiate the installation.

Good luck to you!

I assumed you have already backed up important files. Back up first, preferably unto separate drive or burn the files to a read only CDs or DVDs, this is what I do at times no extra hard drive is available. Never try to gamble installing ANY Gnu/Linux/*nix without first making a sure backup of important files.

IF you know what you are doing, the absolute linux installer gives you the choices over which partition to install <I don't advise to create the partitions while running the installer, you could miss which> so prepare the partition first by way of gparted, available in almost all liveCD's or you may want to download System Rescue or Parted Magic for all preparation works; these tools are important, a must for everyone who gets into learning Gnu/Linux, for now and then you might get into trouble. That is an essential part of learning.

Hope that helps.

Goodluck.

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stelladeli,

Worthy steps at making installation for new operating system:

1. Back up existing files (including the mbr) to a separate drive or DVDs.
2. Download, burn, and run tools (like Parted Magic) to prepare the hard disk.
3. Make a plan at how to apportion the hardisk into several partitions.
4. Use Parted Magic to create partitions according to the plan.
5. Install the OS of choice.

Always check with md5 hash every ISO image you download before you burn it: make sure downloaded image is not corrupt to avoid unnecessary waste of time. How to check with the hash? Ask if you need answer to that.

Hope that helps.

τύχη

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No, you wont be able to.

Your old computer will (and I'm guessing) be a slot 1 CPU, PC-66/100 SD-RAM, using a desktop IDE HDD and optical drive.

The laptop will have a different CPU socket, different RAM, and have a laptop HDD and optical drive.

About all you could do is possibly move the laptop drive to the desktop. Dont bother.

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