I have an old machine. Pentium 2 @266MHz 128ram and a 1gb hard drive.

Currently I am running DSL 3.0, and I dont care for it too much. I have heard a lot of good stuff about Ubuntu and Xubuntu. I tried Ubuntu, and it just dosnt fit on my hard drive. Somebody told me that Xubuntu is more lightweight, and might run on my machine.

How bit is Xubuntu? Will it fit on a 1gb drive?

It probably will and since your hardrive sounds like it has already been partitioned. Hey, why not give it a try.

There are other linux distros that do not require a lot of space.

damn small linux
vector

Check out this site and you will be able to browse many different distros.

http://distrowatch.com/

I'm gonna say no for the box but ubuntu should fit alright on ur laptop.

I would guess Xubuntu would fit on 1 GB. Or else do a server install (~500MB) and build a lightweight desktop on top of that. I build my Debian systems this way. Start with a base install (~400MB) and then build on top... Of course, I've never tried to stay under 1GB. I think the smallest drive I've ever used was 3GB.

there is an new distro called PuppyLinux, or puppyOS.
i goes under 700mb on a desktop install.(if i do remember correct)
i dont know for sertan if it runns well on older pc-s but i guess so.

I don't think it installs to the hard drive, though.
It's just a live CD.

Correct! I have the 'Puppy' Live CD and there is no installation to HD option.

Puppy's web site tells you how to install on hard disk. Basically copying a couple of files and editing grub's menu.lst. When you run from the CD, puppy creates a ram disk which it runs out of.

There is a way to install puppy linux onto the HD. I downloaded the ISO, and ran the Live CD on my computer. Puppy dosnt detect my USB mouse, and it isnt very friendly with my video card.

I found a page yesterday (I dont remember where it was) that said the Xubuntu desktop has 513 packages. The download is about 250MB and it installs to about 900MB hard drive space.This would create a problem....400MB server install, 250MB download, and another 900MB for the intstall of the desktop. 1GB 550MB for basic Xubuntu.

I dont know enough about Linux yet to build my own system. I tried to edit the menus in DSL's Fluxbox, and trashed them. I spent a few days trying to fix it, and couldnt figure it out. I have also tried to install Enlightenment(sp?) on top of a few distros, adn all that comes up is a blank desktop....with no options to add menus or icons. Im sure if I could figure out the menu files, and the commands you have to put in them, I would be fine.

Hi, just wanted to say that i installed Xubuntu on my old laptop (P200MMX)
And after the default install i had about 500 megs of free space on my 2GB harddrive.
It runs quite fast though, so if it fits somehow onto your disk I'd guess it could be quite useful.

Here is another possible solution for anyone looking for a lightweight distro:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingUbuntuLite

I've used it on an old desktop (166Mz, 64Mb, 2Gb)and it runs well, although slow compared to todays PC's.