Suggested Distros for power 486
 

I'm a brand newbie trying to see for myself the options to Gates plan for world domination:D .

I've got a rather well-configured 486 class computer that I'd like to make a dedicated linux workstation.

AMD 5x86-133 processor
96MB Ram
1 - 1GB hd
1 - 4GB hd
24x Cd-Rom

Most of the recommendations I've seen in the forums for 486s relate to versions that will operate with limited memory or HD space or no CD-ROM, and the HCLs for the current big name distros don't seem to mention if they can run on a 486.

I'm looking for suggestions on what might be the optimum distro (with a good balance of speed and features) for this machine.

Slackware 8.1, the answer to everything... :)

The BSD's (FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD) are also good for building minimal systems on old hardware, and have a much better (IMHO) package system than Slackware.

What do you mean . Linus Torvalds made it clear in his original message back in August '91
the original message can be found at http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6000

i recommend good old mandrake, or any major distro really, as mentioned above, slackware seems high on everybody's list, how about red hat and suse as well?

the main thing i would say is: instead of using KDE or GNOME as your desktop env, use XFce or WindowMaker instead (XFce is my favourite even on a 850Mhz P3).

just my two pence worth! :D

A few notes:

a. I'm running a pentium 166Mhz and KDE is reeaally slow
(at least compared to my 1.5GHz box :) )
b. If you do install Mandrake stick to TEXT MODE!!
otherwise it could take you a good 6 hours.

c. to whoever wrote the last post:

How do you uninstall KDE and put in a different
Desktop Maneger??!!

Shalom!

rpm -e --nodeps $( rpm -qa | grep -i kde) ... should work, I think :}
Since slack doesn't use rpm for installations I can't test it for you ;)

Afterwards (or before, take your pick ;}) you'll have to find out where
(in which script in /etc/rc.d) RedHat puts the start of kdm, replace that
with xdm, and build a suitable xinitrc for your new windowmanager ... :}

HIH!

Cheers,
Tink

word

Thanks, guys, for the suggestions. I guess part of the fun is trying them all. A buddy of mine just gave me a Debian CD so I might give it a try first, but I will look into Slackware.

About the '386 and compatibility issue:

While Linux can run on '386's and a lot of other processors, a lot of the distro's will compile the kernel that they use to install the distro to be Pentium specific. These distro's usually have other kernels available as well, but often arcane procedures for installing Linux using them.

My vote is for Slackware, *BSD, or pure Debian. Stay away from any of those pre-packaged "fancy" distro's like Mandrake, Suse, Caldara, Lycoris, Lindow's, etc, unless you want your computer run at a snails pace. If you need a GUI, be sure to chose among the lite-weight window managers: Fluxbox/Blackbox, WindowMaker, Icewm, Xfce, Enlightenment, etc. Stay far away from KDE! If you need a graphical web browser for this thing, I would go with Opera (www.opera.com), avoid Mozilla and it's spinoffs.

I've built a system on similar hardware with the above recommendations and it works quite well.

Thanks, I was concerned about 486 compatibility because when I checked a couple of the retail Linux boxes they required a minimum PII class processor. I guess those requirements, then, are more related to the GUI than the kernel.

No, they might be related to the kernel. For example the default install of Mandrake *is* to use an "i686" kernel (Pentium II). I think there might be i386 kernels available on the CD somewhere (I haven't used Mandrake since version 7.2, which I happen to be using right now). The kernel they use to install the system may also be an "i686" kernel (any one know for sure?) Therefore it might be tricky to get Mandrake installed, but not impossible. Everything else supposedly is compiled for 386's, but the document that claimed that might be really out of date.

And yes, all Slackwares are i386.

I ran Redhat 7.1 on a Pentium 133 32 megs of RAM and it Ran gnome great! .

I can't believe that the 32mb system above ran Gnome and Mozilla without some serious disk thrashing! I resorted to Opera instead on my 48mb system because of this.

Oh and on the 486 class machine: You might want to verify that the motherboard has enough tag ram in the memory cache to handle more than 64 mb of ram. With a lot of these it is said that you will get a performance decrease if you go over 64mb!

BTW: An AMD 133 is not a 486 it is a pentium clone