Best really small Linux distro

phantom_cyph · 04-19-2007, 04:32 PM

Out of the five above, which is the best, (as in stability and installation) of these minuscule distros?

Needs good hardware detection, Open office, and easy internet connecting.

phantom_cyph · 04-19-2007, 06:00 PM

Wow. No votes? Is there no one on here right now that runs a small distro?

Cogar · 04-19-2007, 06:14 PM

How you phrased your initial post is somewhat contradictory. For example, OpenOffice by itself is larger than some of these distributions, and is not normally included in a "small" distribution. If you want to use OpenOffice, you will probably get better results by installing a "normal" distribution and being very selective regarding what packages you install.

phantom_cyph · 04-19-2007, 06:48 PM

OK, then let me rephrase the question. What is the best small distro that has Open Office? The smaller the better.

IndyGunFreak · 04-22-2007, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kalabanta

OK, then let me rephrase the question. What is the best small distro that has Open Office? The smaller the better.

Whats the speed and amount of ram on this PC?

IGF

pljvaldez · 05-01-2007, 07:21 PM

Debian can be just about as small as you make it. But IndyGunFreak has a good point, how much RAM and hard disk space do you have?

phantom_cyph · 05-01-2007, 07:59 PM

Um...not quite sure. Powerbook 5300cs, very old. Floppy only.

Jan Willem Roest · 05-02-2007, 10:50 AM

Old PC (1999 Fujitsu with Biostar motherboard) + old guy (1950) and yet Puppy installs easily, boots in 30 seconds off the hard disk and runs smoothly every day. A joy! Only need the alternative Windoze98 boot for specific applications like PaintShopPro and advanced Excel. Highly recommendable for simple workhorse, no-nonsense use.

bryankaplan · 05-02-2007, 01:42 PM

Give slax a try. To be honest I have not used any of the others you listed, but I've had a very good experience with slax. It's a live distro, and it offers a lot of modules, including OOo.

phantom_cyph · 05-02-2007, 05:02 PM

Uh-I don't think you completely read my last post. It is a Powerbook, therefore Macintosh. It does not have a CD drive. I am not sure if I can hook the HDD up to my desktop and install like that, but I am going to open it today and see.

scrooge_74 · 05-02-2007, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phantom_cyph

Out of the five above, which is the best, (as in stability and installation) of these minuscule distros?

Needs good hardware detection, Open office, and easy internet connecting.

DSL has save me a couple of time when I needed to get a PC up an running during an emergency.

It will turn any PC into a ssh server so I can get files from a non booting PC

DeanLinkous · 05-02-2007, 06:58 PM

Debian.......

svalovic · 05-03-2007, 03:41 PM

If you have really only floppy, there is a plenty of distros that can be installed (or run) from floppy, try searching google with floppy linux distro, or take a look at http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/, but I don't know how they run on Powerbook.
Other option is to try Debian, that can boot from floppies and download everything from net - http://www.debian.org/distrib/floppyinst.
Or, if you have usb port, you can try usb based distros...

Good luck

hollywoodb · 05-03-2007, 04:23 PM

You forgot Zenwalk. Great little distro stemmed from Slackware.

phantom_cyph · 05-03-2007, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollywoodb

You forgot Zenwalk. Great little distro stemmed from Slackware.

You consider 423mgs a small distro? The iso alone is bigger than my Powerbook's hard drive. I'm not Zen anyway...