I got a "OLD" PC, 486DX with 8MB Ram
 

I got a "OLD" PC, 486DX with 8MB Ram, from a friend, and I don't no what distro o put on it.
I can't upgrade the memory on it.
It has a Network/Internet connection.
It has a working slow (maybe 1x or 2x) CD-ROM.
It has a floppy-drive.
It has Win95 on it.
It has a 18GB hard-drive.

So what distro can I put on this that can run X, (don't complain, because win95 even has graphics).
I mainly want to use it for browsing the web and editing documents, and maybe create a web-page with it.

Any help?:confused:

well i guess you can give Damn Small Linux (DSL) a go

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/486.html

but that 8 meg of ram is going to reduce the number of distro's that you can use, if you could get it up to abouty 16, that's open a lot more doors for you.

I cannot upgrade the memory, I think DSL has to many requirements, yeah?:scratch:
I need to know as soon as possible, cuz I want to start tomorrow. I still new at linux, so bear with me please.:D

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...x_distribution

you can go down the to section on 'What distro for an old computer?'

and read up on what it has to say.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...ions/baslinux/

http://floppix.ccai.com/index.html

http://mulinux.sunsite.dk/

Slackware and TinyX

PS with regard to web browsers:

For a very minimal and fast browser: Dillo
Fully featured browser: Netscape or Mozilla (NOT firefox)

Word processors: Abiword? (I'm not sure of one that takes a low memory footprint and also be easy to use.)

muLinux (mu meaning a thousandth or something similar) It is mentioned or reviewed in the current Linux Format tm (UK) (Other Linux Magazines are available).

I'm sorry, but nothing will run with Xorg on 8 mb ram thing. There were a LOT of GUIs that were able to run with less than 1 mb in the past, sure. But X needed more ram from a long time ago AFAIK.

8 mb ram are almost the bare minimum for a text-only, stripped-down Linux install. Even if you manage to install something on 8 mb ram, it will perhaps run somehow in text mode, but if you dare try X I guess the machine will swap as hell.

You can try something compiled with the uClibc, some floppy distro like muLinux. But that's nothing I would advice to a newbie... although if you go ahead with it, you will surely learn a lot.

i think X could run with 4mb ram at absolute minimum, i read in a old newsgroup, around linux kernal 1x days.

it was kind of ashame it was bloated in those days, of course now its the complete opposite.

muLinux WILL run on an 8mb machine.

My experience with low memory linux distros is that they're all outdated, and it's difficult to install recent software on them.
How about trying NetBSD? It works out of the box on a 386 SX with 8 MB ram I have (although it's a bit slow).

You won't get X, but otherwise you'll get an up to date environment, and there are a lot of good console programs.

2mb ram is enough for the console on linux, you can use lynx to view the web, amp to play mp3s, pine to view e-mail.

give it a go, you have nothing to loose

Does NetBSD need 8mb ram to run graphical mode? or is that text mode? can it play mp3's? can you surf the net with it? same goes for muLinux. what can it do and what can't it?

there are all kinda of programs that can almost emulation a graphical interface using a command line, like elinks for your browser, pine for your e-mail, vi/pico for text edit/HTML edit. what do you want to achieve with this box?

if your looking to learn 'Linux' then the best way to learn it is to use the command line. when i started off i just put my box in another room and used my windows machine + putty, that way i could search the net for the how-to guides and tutorials and learn samba, postfix and things like that via the command line and use webmin if i needed an interface to help me understand.

Well, now I'm thinking to play mp3's and CD's on the network. I have my own PC that I use at home and the old one at work, there on th same network to. I look at NetBSD and mulinux, but I need to know if they can do what I want, and if not then please suggest a diff. distro:D