Linux Recommendations Anyone?
 

can anyone recommend a version of linux which will run on:

500mhz AMD proccesor
128mb RAM
3GB (about) Hard disk space

i've looked at DSL but im not to keen.

Are there any other ones which are easy to install and look better?

If you install a light weight GUI and disable some unnessecary daemons, you should get mostly anything to run on those specs. Other than that I can't really recomend any one distro as I don't know their system requirements. Of the top of my head I can name a few light weight distros, but I don't know how well they will suite you or your computer. Try to google them and test the ones you like ;)

- Puppy linux
- Arch linux (I am not too sure about the light-weight-ness of this one)
- Xubuntu

I also think Gentoo and Slackware can be made to be relatively light weight, but I have never tried any of them, so I don't know if this is true or how easy they are to set up.


- Findus

I would avoid gentoo, as there is loads of compiling and on a system of that speed, it might take some time. Arch may be a good option, and is built from the ground up, and is small too. My install is ~4gb excluding personal files and stuff (this size includes openoffice and kdemod). You could have a go with debian, but packages get old quickly unless you use unstable. That system is plenty quick enough to run linux, but you may need to look around. There is a minimal version of ubuntu somewhere, that you could build from the ground up too.

I did take a quick look at Xbuntu but it says i need to run after instaltion.

would it be easy to change the WM?

Um how many times are you going to post on this subject?? Your not going to be able to have this big fancy setup with the specs your pc has. BUT what you can have is a workable system that will get the job done.

If you only have 128m ram jump on ebay or go down to your local computer store and get another 128m or 256m I'm sure you can get it for $20.00 or less. If you can't afford the ram, install a linux distro that will operate on that system and live with it until you can upgrade the ram or get a better system all together.

i was only asking about this. anyways and have done alot of searching to find and was just asking amyone if they knew any distros which would work

and as I am a newbie hence i am in a newbie forum. i was asking if it is easy to change the windows manager.

and i knw my pc is bad im not going to use a new one to try linux. if i am new to linux?

So is it easy to change my WM?

Depending on your Linux knowledge I'd recommend the following (from newbie to confident):

Fluxbuntu -> Slackware -> Gentoo

You mentioned Xubuntu and switching WMs. Switching to? Rule out KDE and Gnome, that's for sure. Personally, I'd just go with Fluxbox (if you really want to torment yourself with those poor 128 megabytes you got).

Up to you.

Oh by the way..Linux ain't no hardware killer, you know.. Partition your disk properly and you're good to go.

I installed ubuntu on a P3 server at work with 128mb ram and 8GB SCSI drives (so 4GB for install) and it seemed to work ok. It wasn't snappy, but it worked. Try the liveCD out first. Barring that, maybe Knoppix???

From Knoppix:
*bling* *bling*

Go for it!
 

Take any "standard" binary distribution (i.e. not Gentoo) and install it on a spare computer. In other words, a computer that has absolutely nothing of interest to you on it now. (If you're worried about that, buy a new blank hard-drive and put it in, setting the old one aside.)

Then... dive in! :D Settle back and expect all kinds of questions and mind-blowing experiences and :eek: and all-that-rot. Go ahead, because you have nothing to "lose." If you absolutely toast everything on that hard drive, "who cares?!" "Wheeeee! Now that's what I call an explosion! Let's do that again!"

That's how you learn. No matter what, you can always start over; you can always crawl out of the pool because, believe it or not, the whole darned thing really is "the shallow end." Grab every "distro" you can find and, as you gain experience, "what the heck? Try 'em all!" "They're coming to take me away! Ha ha!!" ;)

Be prepared. You are not confining yourself to the mysterious comfort of the Windows world. There will be no "reformat everything and start-over disk." There will be no "Geek squad." And, presumably, you are prepared for this ... maybe even excited, in a "cowabunga!" Bungee-jumping sort of way that you know you could never explain to your spouse....

But you know, you're going to learn so much, not only about Linux but also about Windows and OS/X, by the "I-must-be-crazy experience" of doing this...

Don't take my post wrong, I was asking because you have 4 other threads asking the same thing, multi-threads don't help anyone.

Ok so you understand, you can install ANY linux on your system if you install just the base, (linux) then use the package manager to install the wm you want. I have a Laptop that's a PI 233mhz with 384mb ram 8gb HD I installed Slackware 11 on it. I installed Fluxbox for the wm it's not fast at all but it will do what I use it for, (learning programming) I don't care if I go online with it so that's not a problem.

As far as the way your desktop looks, that's up to you how you customize it. As for Gentoo, unless you like a challenge and are willing to work through it, I would hold off from installing Gentoo. If you do like a challenge then go for it you can customize your system with only the things you need. Fact I'm install it on a pIII as I'm answering this thread. You will get to compile the kernel install the Grub or Lilo boot loader and a ton of other things.

Well the kernel just finished compiling so it's time to go, good luck.

I have a P3 733Mhz with 160 mb ram desktop. I've found that a lot of distros recommend more RAM than they actually need to install and run. I installed Xubuntu on this system and it ran beautifully. Ubuntu also ran really quickly, but anything running KDE ran a lot slower (OpenSUSE 10.3, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS)

Recently I installed Arch. If you're willing to put the time in, Arch will have your system flying. Someone questioned the light-weightedness of this one, but question no more. If your processor is i686 (which yours is), then the Arch install gives you the most basic core system that you build upon using the pacman package manager. You only install the packages you want, leaving you with a speedy system. If you need a Desktop Environment for your specs go for Xfce. Otherwise choose a window manager and you're set.

simple distro
 

Maybe try an old version of a popular version of linux- red hat 6 etc but perhaps if you use a bare bones event then you might as well use Unix.

You did not read properly
Source: http://www.xubuntu.org/get#gutsy

So running from live CD requires 128MB, installing from liveCD requires 192MB and the alternate CD requires 64MB.

So get the alternate CD.

I had XUbuntu 6.06 installed on an AMD K6-III/450MHz with 128MB.

When advising on an older distro, please also state the implications like:
* newer HW not supported (think USB sticks)
* no security updates

The user can then take a decision if that is relevant (e.g. PC will not be connected to internet, so security is no issue)

Unless that 500Mhz AMD is an early Athlon, it is i586, Arch is compiled for i686. All K6 thru K6-3 AMD processors were i586.