Need slim version of SuSE
 

I seem to remember a few years ago somebody had made a very slim version of suse, to run on older/slower computers.

We have a bunch of P3 550's w/ 256MB RAM. They run win2000 just fine, but cant handle the latest SUSE or winxp.

During a suse 10 install, I tried to do a minimal install (looked at the packages), and honestly wasn't sure which ones I could safely toss.

It would be nice to find a slim version of gnome or kde as well, but at 256MB RAM I'll probably have to pick a slimmer desktop.

Anyone else tried this? I'd love to hear some ideas. I'd prefer to stay with suse instead of switching to something like damn small linux.

Try a minimal or custom install. Select the packages you want. If dependency problems arise, SuSE will let you know the nature of the conflict, and give you options (install packages you didn't select; not install something you selected; etc.).

To trim things down at the start, don't install office suites until later (when you know how much room you have to work with).

Install just one desktop environment instead of the default of three or more.

Avoid graphics and sound manipulation software.

Just install what you think are the bare necessities; SuSE will let you know if more is needed to make those work.

Once you have a working minimal system, you can then determine how much room you have left to work with, and what to install as *nice to have*.

256M ram should be enough; just make your swap partition two or three times that size.

Maybe I'll try the custom again and basically deselect EVERYTHING... well almost everything, and see what yast says.

btw the pc's have 6GIG HDs so space isnt a problem, its the low memory.

I looked at the projects on the opensuse site, there were two: minisuse and spike... neither one seem to have made anything available.

I was hoping to maybe see a smaller kernel, and alot of stuff stripped out. Its been years since I compiled a kernel, maybe its time for me to learn again :) I'll add that to the list after mowing the lawn :)