What is the easiest to use "light" distro?

Power User · 02-15-2008, 01:05 AM

I have a couple old PCs, the one in question being a DELL Inspiron 8000, which has a 700 P-III and 128 MB RAM, and I want to know, which "light" distro of Linux is the best to use? The requirements are SMALL MEMORY FOOTPRINT and ease of use. I don't like distros that I have to spend hours toiling away at comand lines or clicking through 300 menus just to read a USB memory stick. Your help is greatly appreciated, and any Anti-Windows Linux 1337ist Rants are NOT appreciated.

darkmire · 02-15-2008, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Power User

I have a couple old PCs, the one in question being a DELL Inspiron 8000, which has a 700 P-III and 128 MB RAM, and I want to know, which "light" distro of Linux is the best to use? The requirements are SMALL MEMORY FOOTPRINT and ease of use. I don't like distros that I have to spend hours toiling away at comand lines or clicking through 300 menus just to read a USB memory stick. Your help is greatly appreciated, and any Anti-Windows Linux 1337ist Rants are NOT appreciated.

Have a go at either Damn Small Linux or Puppy. DSL is very fast and memory efficient. In many ways it's a curiosity but worth a look at as it does have some productive software with it and you can download older versions of more familiar software with it which fit smaller memory configurations. Puppy Linux is a bit slower but should fit into 128 MB. It has a range of more familiar software.

SilentSam · 02-15-2008, 04:38 AM

A PIII 700 128 mb RAM should be able to run something a little more resource intensive, like Xubuntu, Vector, or Zenwalk. If you're looking for the fastest, easiest to use small distro, Puppy will fit the bill.

Power User · 02-15-2008, 09:09 AM

Is it possible to get direct rendering going in Puppy? The lappy has an ATi Radeon M4.

Power User · 02-16-2008, 12:39 AM

Actually, is direct rendering in D.S.L. possible?