Linux for an old computer?
 

I have an old pc that I want to use to learn Linux its a PII 350 mhz so really slow for these days so was wondering what Distro would be best?

I want to use it as a file server for my laptop (it having a small HDD and all) and that is running xp (did play with Linux duel boot on it but the chip set in not supported so went back to just xp). I hope to learn enough from this to build a desk top with Linux (at this point looking at Ubuntu).

Thanks in advance
Terry.

"PII 350 mhz"

Personally, I'd go for either Slackware or Vector Soho Linux.

http://www.vectorlinux.com/
http://www.slackware.com

Vector really flies on old hardware.

I do run Ubuntu 5.10 on my Laptop, and I am very satisfied with it.

One gets both great GUI and at the same time one can experiment with different linux commands in termial window.

Give it a try.

/PiTom

I second the vote for Vector. I used that on my 450 MHz desktop and it really flew. Another to give a shot would be Zenwalk. This used to be Mini Slack. I never used it on a slow machine, but it seemed much faster on my laptop than most other distros I played with.

F_M

I've got a PIII 450mhz with 192 RAM, and its running a LAMP-server.

Basically it has got a brand new SUSE10 as OS, with Apache and MySQL-database running in the background. I have to admit that using the newest KDE isn't as user-friendly as it should be, but haven't had any real problems.

Having a PII running a file server shouldn't be no problem.

I don't know about your linux experience so I recommend Ubuntu for you.
Its easy to install and easy to maintain.

If you have already some knowledge about linux, choosing Slackware could also be a great choice considering the speed of the CPU. On the other hand, Im running the state of art suse on old and crappy PC, so what ever distro you get, you'll get it running in no time.

if you really want to learn, and you want ot run a file server, try gentoo. it takes a while to install becuase its customizable to be exactly what you want, but once its on your pc youll be hooked. you wont even need a window manager if you want to run a server, and youll learn a bunch from all the command line work.

after you work with gentoo, moving to somehting like ubuntu will be alot easier, an youl have a much better grasp on whats going on...

I would say Vectorlinux 5.1std. It's very compatible with older machines and it runs very light using a non ressource demanding gui's :)