my laptop is pretty old
233 Mhz , 32 ram , 3 gb hard drive ..

if i want to install linux on it , i want to use it for writing java and c codes , compile and run .. what do you think the best version would be ?
( does it have kwrite ?? the colored version .. i really like using this editor for my codes )

coz i installed red hat 9 , but it was quite disaster !! so slow ..


if you have a link to a good version , could you please post it here ..

cheers ..

slackware 9.1 + fluxbox + vim

I think kde might be a bit slow on a laptop like that.

is it possible to download kwrite in some other version of linux ? i just need the editor .. !

I think it's slow because (I assume) you're running KWrite under KDE. It'd probably be a lot faster if you just used the command line interface and vi or vim as your editor. If you really want to change distros though, try Slackware or Debian.

could you please post a link for the better one of these two .. i'll try them ..

what is the compiler used for these two versions ?? is it gcc ?? or gcc is just default with any linux ? and if it is .. does it support java compiling ?

i'm just trying to learn more about linux , and use it for programming purposes ..
i need it for C , Java , Python , perl .

slackware is at www.slcakware.org and debian at www.debian.org
I personally would suggest using debian since installing apps on it will be much easier for a new guy.
As for which WM to use...i would say go with fluxbox or openbox.
All these distros use gcc...any distro u use so u dont have to think much to that end.

hi , i went to the website , and i tried to find a link to install debian , but i couldn't find one .. the ones i found were like 7 links each one is about 700 MB , and it says cd1 and cd2 !!! how large is this version ?

i would really appreciate if you help me and paste a direct link to download it .. thanks alot in advance ..

what is fluxbox , and openbox ?

http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
here is a listing of all the CD images for Debian.You should read a bit about debian before u decide which CD to download.Debian is distributed into three categories.Stable(which was released long ago and has very old packages but is very stable and secure-name is woody),testing which will become the next stable release(name-sarge) and unstable which has the latest packages but does not have any kind of support from debian people...like no security patches etc.(name-SID).I use sid i find that it works just fine.
As for the download...whichever one u decide to download....u shud only need CD 1 and CD 2.These are the main CD's.The rest give packages which you can easily install through apt.
Again...i would recommend that you go about reading about debian before installing it.
Another distribution which is very lean and mean and has great documentation is Gentoo:
www.gentoo.org
they took you step to step throgh installtion of your system so you might want to look at it too.
Fluxbox and Openbox are windows managers.They run on top of X which is the Grpahical Server.
We have suggested these two since they are extremely light and fast.IF you want something like windows...you will have to go with KDE but then as people have posted before...KDE is heavy and bloated.

Thx alot .. i'm downloading debian , i'm gonna try it .. well .. i don't really care about using some thing like windows .. the whole point of installing this OS is to learn linux .. and i was asking about kwrite editor ,.. coz i just feel much more comfortable writing codes in this editor .. it's colored .. and very easy to deal with .. when you write a code i really hate to be stuck with silly things when i'm supposed to worry about other stuff .. but since no on answered this point i guess it's not possible to download kwrite on debian .. so i'll just try vi
i know ppl would be a bit surrprised , but i'm still newbie .. and i have to go further step by step .. it's ok to go two steps at a time

Kwrite will work on debian.no one is saying that it wont.I have it(though dont use it...i prefer kate).
Why people did not respond to that question or why they said that it is not worth it is 'cause you will have to install KDE to get kwrite working(maybe not if you get the libraries...i am not sure) and since KDE is very big and bloated...people suggested that you try something else out like vi or some other IDE which does not depend on KDE or GNOME.
oh and btw....if u currently have some linux distribution installed on ur debian system...i would suggest that you back up this file:
/etc/X11/XF86Config
configuring the graphical system on debian can be a bit of a pain and having this file will make that significantly easier...maybe even trivial.
i am sure you will love debian once you have it running.
enjoy

thanks alot rmanocha for making the point clear

i will try it as soon as possible ..

If you have net access use the Beta installer which is much nicer to use, here's a link:

http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/test...86-netinst.isoDebian Sarge net install

You might wan to try installing Knoppix to the harddrive on a machine like that to keep the thing small...

I'd run out of 3 GB in a hurry.

can you tell me more about this installer?IS this the one debian is developing so that the install process would be come less painful?
I have heard that debian is developing a graphical installer...never really got to see anything about it.
Got any screenshots or something.