Non graphical distributions for slow puters
 

Hey everybody,

Before I ask my question, I would like to compliment the admins, mods, and users of this wonderful forum. LinuxQuestions.org is everything I could have hoped for. Great work!

Anyhow, for the last few years I have always had an interest in Linux. I completed a number of failed/non-working installations of Debian 2.0 on an old Laptop. It was a disaster, none of the hardware was recognized properly and the install was messy.

I got into something I didnt really understand, and like many Newbs, ended up formating my HD and reinstalling windows. :(

Now I have a very very fast home computer setup running XP. I use it for work and play. I need XP for several work programs, so I need it.

I was thinking about trying to partition the HD, and run a dual installation of XP and Linux, but this would be a horrible idea for a newb like me.

So I went on ebay and bought new old-stock parts to build a little computer to run linux on. It has the following specs:

Motherboard: ASUS TX97 XE
Processor: 200MHZ Pentium MMX
RAM: 64 MB SDRAM
Video Card: ATI Rage IIC 4MB PCI
Hard Drive: IBM 2GB

As you can see, all the components were very popular during there prime, especially the motherboard and processor, and I suspect they will be readily supported by Linux.

So, I am looking for a non-graphical distribution of linux that I can install and tinker with on a PC with these specs. I want to be able to setup little test servers and play around. Basically, this will be a platform to learn good linux skills on. So what is a good distribution to run? What will work on the PC?

Also, can anyone suggest a PCI ethernet card that will work with linux?

And what is a good book to read to learn linux install procedures and command line operations?

Any help and suggestions greatly appreciated,
Cassidy

Well actually with the specs of that machine you have, you shouldn't have any problems running any distro of Linux. I have the same motherboard and processor running a Data/FTP server for my own network which hasn't given me any problems. Actually it ran for 163 days til I had a stupid power outage. :(
But you should be able to run even the latest distro that are out there. If you want the most popular and most used, go with Redhat. If you really want to learn Linux I would go with Slackware or Debian to get your hands dirty. And of course to not go with a non-graphical interface, just be sure to do a custom install and leave out X.
For a NIC, I would recommend Linksys LNE100TX, they're cheap and very reliable. Those are what I use on my own machines. Or you can't ever go wrong with 3com cards, very reliable and about all of them work with Linux.

Welcome to LQ by the way and thanks for the compliments. Hope you find this site very useful and friendly. Good luck with your Linux choice and learning as well.

Hi Cassidy,

The hardware you have is not bad at all … you will be amazed at how much you can get out of an old Pentium. Since you opt for a non-graphical install, I would recommend Turbolinux 6.5 server. It has very good text based configuration tools (turboservice, turbonetcfg, turbotimecfg ... etc) and best of all, it’s a single CD! It’s a very nice distribution to start with. As far as network cards go, the majority are supported (even the $9 no-brand that I have) but you can’t go wrong with 3Com, SMC or D-Link (however do a little research on the specific model that you intend to buy).

Best of luck with your experiments :)

With those specs you might even be able to run X if you want to. Perhaps not kde or gnome, but maybe a llightweight, blackbox based one. You shouldn't have any trouble installing, but if you do make sure you post, these people can fix anything.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody!

I have just spent a few hours researching distros and hardware compatibility, and have decided to install the most recent version of slackware.

I checked ebay for the linksys NIC you suggested, and found new ones for 4.99! I think I will order one tonight.

Thanks everybody!

You could install XWindow, and use the icewm window manager together with the ROX file manager. I used to use fluxbox instead of icewm, but found that icewm was equally fast and had more features. I have a 233 MHz Toshiba laptop, which I have used for a long time. It is only a question of finding the lightweight applications, for example dillo, opera, xmms, aumix, latex (instead of StarOffice), emacs, and so on. It is also good to use X and gtk based applications instead of Gnome and KDE applications.