recommend me!!!!
 

hi, i`m planning to get old laptop, like 128 MB RAM, about 300 MHz processor.
i need that laptop just for playing multimedia files and internet.
so, if it possible on that machine, please, recommend me some light linux!! :cool: :cool: :confused:

Try searching for Damn Small Linux or BeaTrix.

there is also vector linux which is based on slackware

Agree with heema. VectorLinux, though not the SOHO version, which runs a bit heavier.

I would put in a plug for Slackware, Vector Linux, or Damn Small Linux, but I can't becaue only Debian users are allowed to recommend distros.

This laptop is plenty to run most distro's.. now of course, some will run faster than others, and the window manager/desktop also has a lot to do with it... you could actually run KDE on that.. but it would be slow.. Things tat would run well on there:

DamnSmallLinux (which actually has a lot of features for such a small distro)

VectorLinux is nice and fast, includes MPlayer, Firefox, Gaim, etc.. so you'de be ready to out of the box..

Debian (go with a base install and add what you want.. X, a light window manager...fluxbox or IceWM would do well..

or my personal favorite... FreeBSD.. faster than all(imho)... but takes a little more work to get all your multimedia stuff situated...

The point is, you could run most distro's pretty decently.. spare the really bloated eye candy-heavy ones like Fedora, SuSE, Mandrake, and Linspire..

try a couple... decide what you like and don't like about them.. pick your favorite... :)

good luck!

Re: recommend me!!!!
 

Playing video files having a 300 MHz CPU is questionable. Decoding a MPEG-4 file (XviD, DivX) in realtime is a CPU hog.

I would go slackware all the way on this one. My specs are PII 333Mhz, 192MB SDRAM, 32MB ATI Radeon Video Card, and 40GB hardrive. 8.5 GB dedicated to slackware (Swap and Root) and it runs wonderfully.

How much effort do you want to put in to it? lol. there is definitely an effort:speed ratio with linux distros.

You have enough to run any distro really, FC4, Mandrake, SuSE (my personal favorite) but they would all run very slow w/ KDE or GNOME. Don't get me wrong tho, i've ran KDE (granted through slackware) on a Pentium MMX 133MHz w/ only 96MB RAM and I found it very tolerable.

If you can stand some mild effort go with VectorLinux or DamnSmall Linux

If you are gung ho and want perfect optimization and such go with Slackware or FreeBSD (I prefer FreeBSD) or Debian.

If you are insane and want a perfect distro for your computer go with Gentoo or LFS (Linux from scratch)

I wonder if this is really a good idea.

Doing anything (but command line stuff) will be horrible on such a system.

In my country (and it is often cheaper abroad, you can buy a very basic system (without screen) for less than 250 euros.

I installed Slackware on my newer laptop, but for anything old I strongly recommend Vector Linux. The benefit of using it is of course the optimization for old hardware, but it also works on laptops well (I had acpi working outta the box with Standard 5.1).
The main thing you'll want to look for is a light window manager, which is probably equally or more important than the underlying distro.

i use a machine with simaliar specs
400MHz processor, 64Mb RAM and 4GB HDD
with full slakware... running KDE and it works fine the only problem i have is loackl of space on / (is a 3GB partition and 85% full!) juts make sure you provide enough swap (i have 128Mb)