one of these pathetic i don't know what distro i need threads (sorry)

i wan to install linux on an old compaw, its a 700 mhz amd duron (or some name like that i beleive its duron im not sure) its a few years old and i want to put linux on it just for general learn to use it reasons. and after i get accustomed to it i might use it instead of windows on this machine. im going to use it for general PC stuff going on the web, typing stuff, instant messaging, playing games (ill need to find ways to get all my games to run on linux now)

at first i was about to just start downloading some distrubtions and try them all out. but i noticed they all have releases for amd64, (which i presume 64 bit processor) the computer i want to put it on isnt a 64 bit so what should i do?

btw i need a fairly user friendly linux distrobution i installed redhat before on a pentium machine without too much trouble. im good with computers but i have very little expierence with linux

Since your processor isn't a 64 bit processor, I'd suggest not using a 64 bit version. Beyond that, download one and try it out. The standard 32 bit i386 or i686 should work fine.

I use Ubuntu on a 600mhz machine. The"PC Intel x86" from here should work fine:

http://mirrors.unrealradio.org/Ubuntu/5.10/

Good luck

C

i thout i386 and i686 were for intel pentium?

They are...which is both AMD and Intel. The 486 is for pentium 4, the 386 is what you want since Duron is pentium 3.

ok thanks for clearing that up for me.

Originally Posted by mohtech They are...which is both AMD and Intel. The 486 is for pentium 4, the 386 is what you want since Duron is pentium 3.

You're way wrong check this link: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Inte...rocessors.html

One of the easiest and best ways to see what you like is to download ISOs of LiveCDs and boot from them. You can see what the distro is like without installing anything. Distrowatch.com has links to many of these and so does the live cd forum site.

Originally Posted by IceChant You're way wrong check this link: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Inte...rocessors.html

I was talking about kernel builds... for Debian you want kernel 2.4 for 386 for older, pIII computers and 486 for newer ones. I think for Linux, and I may be wrong here, that the number stands for pentium(chip) like pentium 4 (for the 86 processors)

It is different than saying I have a 386 or 486 processor on my computer.

Originally Posted by mohtech I was talking about kernel builds... for Debian you want kernel 2.4 for 386 for older, pIII computers and 486 for newer ones. I think for Linux, and I may be wrong here, that the number stands for pentium(chip) like pentium 4 (for the 86 processors) It is different than saying I have a 386 or 486 processor on my computer.

No, i386 means just what it says, compiled for 80386 and compatible processors. Likewise i486 is compiled for 486 processors. The original Pentium is a 586 processor (penta = 5) and the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III are i686 chips.

When Slackware moved from being compiled for i386 to be compiled for i486 it meant that you couldn't use it with an old 386 processor any more. It did not mean that you couldn't run Slack on anything less than a Pentium 4.