Hi all,

wich distro do you suggest for this old,but updated, computer ?

CPU: CELERON 533 (66mhz bus)
RAM: 512mb
HDD: 80GB
VGA: Onboard AGP VGA ( sis I think )

I want to use this computer as a "server" for P2P because it's very silent and it has low power consumption ( my english is poor...i know ), so it can stay powered on for long time.
I would like to administer it via "remote desktop"-like application from a windows based computer.
I've tried some distro on it ( xubuntu, fluxbuntu ) but they didn't satisfied me completely, not so bad, but I think linux can be faster, or I'm wrong?

P.s.: During installation of that distroes a message tells me that my bios is older and it had to force ACPI, or something like that. I've enabled PnP Os in bios setting and APM/ACPI in Power Management, do you suggest to disable?

Well, that depends mostly on personal preferences. If you (like me) enjoy tinkering with compile flags, poking around configuration files etc. and don't mind spending a whole day compiling system updates, then Gentoo surely is worth looking at, as that is about as hardware optimized as things get (although the benefit from this can be discussed).

I'm a totally newbie with linux, but i don't mind if I have to spend some times to get it work well. Some things remain obscure to me, like how to compile a kerner...but i can learn.

So gentoo is fast? Ok, let's try this!!!

Thank you!!!

Gentoo is fast, once you have compiled it (correctly), but you will be compiling an entire system in that machine, which can be slow. Also, I do not think that Gentoo is a good distribution for newbies.

You say you tried xubuntu, and that you plan to use it as a server. There are some "server" editions of ubuntu that you may like to try.

How's about VEctor & ARch???


You can get "mini" distros like puppy & DSL-N....if you'd like to start w/a crust & add onto it later...I tried dsl on an archaic Made in the USA (just to show it's OLD- when was the last time we saw one of those lol) Toshiba Satellite Pro 545 lap. It's a Pentium 133 mhz. W/ 147 mb RAM. And DSL made the system run pretty damned fast= except for the sound.

Cross Linux from Scratch

Reported for inclusion in The Utterly Improbably Huge "Which Distro" SuperMegaThread because it's the same question that has been asked an utterly improbably huge number of times and there are an utterly improbably small number of answers. But thanks for asking...........again.

..exactly what i said; it's not really a dist for anyone that doesn't mind long compile times (or who has a reasonably fast computer)..

Beg to differ on this one - Gentoo is actually the first (well second if you count a Slackware install way back) and so far best dist that I've used. If you go with Gentoo, you tend to get a really good grasp on how your system is built up, component wise, and you get to learn how to configure your system properly. It might not be the easiest dist to start off with, but if you do start with it, you'll end up knowing the ins and outs of your system really well (plus - portage is a really sweet package management system)..

If you can find it, try Mandrake 10.1 discovery to be exact. It is smaller then Windows 98 in terms of its absolute size or so I have been led to believe.

It will not recognize SATA, some Printers or wireless cards that are put out there today. However, for an old system with a IDE drive, it is perfect. Use a Wireless Ethernet bridge such as a Linksys WET54G or a Buffalo Air Station to get to the Internet. You may also need an older Ethernet card although probably not. It always recognized my PCI Ethernet cards.

Once your hardware is set up, Mandrake is friendly and fast. Installation is straight forward except for needing older hardware.

If that doesn't work, try Damn Small Linux.

TinyMe is a small-footprint version of PCLinuxOS and is perfect for Linux newbies. And would run sweetly on your old machine.

As would TinyFlux.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <DISTRIBUTIONS> for merge with the mega-thread, and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I agree with you. When I learned the most linux, it was back in 2004 (or 2005?), when I used it as my only OS (for over a year), but even then I was not completely new to linux and I'm glad I tried Gentoo only after learning the basics with "easier" distros like Mandriva or Knoppix.

Some of the older versions of Mepis such as 6.0 or even 3.5 will probably run very well on an older system as well. The thing I like about Mepis is that it has a live CD, reads and writes NTFS files out of the box, and works great with hardware.

Do give it a try. As I said before, Mandrake 10.1 is also good. I just built an older Mandrake box for a user who needed any machine at all in a hurry. I made it out of an older machine that I no longer needed. It worked out great.