older distros

jasonrice · 09-26-2004, 04:49 PM

Whats up guys, I somehow got my hands on an ancient Sharp Mebius mn-7030. Its pretty old, with a pentium 133. I was wondering if there were any distros that would actually work with this laptop. And if so, which ones and where can i find them.

THanks,
Jason

sether · 09-26-2004, 04:57 PM

i hear good things about VectorLinux. distrowatch.com's description sounds exactly like what you're looking for:

Quote:

"Vector Linux is a small, fast, Intel based Linux operating system for PC style computers. The creators of Vector Linux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightening fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server. The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally as pleased because the small size and memory requirements of the operating system can be deployed on older machines maybe long forgotten."

amosf · 09-26-2004, 05:35 PM

depends on memory and such... What mem does the laptop have? what about a floppy and/or cdrom? What size hard drive?

I just installed mandrake 9.2 + KDE on a P150/64meg desktop box and it runs okay and is a useable internet machine. runs mozilla and KMail.

If you don't have much memory then running a GUI interface may be hard, tho the light wm's run on small machines and you could probably use blackbox o whatever on 32 meg ram...

You don't necessarily need an old distro, just use a light one, or make a heavy one light...

sether · 09-26-2004, 05:53 PM

yeah, like amosf said, pretty much any distro will do, as long as you tweak it correctly. but if you want out-of-the-box speed try a mini-distro like Vector.

vectordrake · 10-03-2004, 09:40 AM

Vector is a good choice. Deli might be another. Both are Slack-based. You may also want to try installing Debian from the ground up. Its nice and light and packages are easier to install, as a rule (if Woody won't work, try Potato, in the "frozen" section)

edited, as usual, because i don't spell check....

sygin · 10-03-2004, 12:44 PM

Hi,

You should definetly give Vector Linux a shot. I whould suggest 4.3 or 4.0. 4.3 if you want to try the new kernel. If you can get the newer kernel 2.6.7-ide4 (default with 4.3) to support you old hardware use that - kernel 2.6 seems to be quicker to me. I would not use the SOHO edition - it contains Open Office (slow on P1 133) - use Abiword fow word processing and gnumeric for spreadsheets. For the internet use Dillo. Very fast/light web browser and use Fiefox when you have to have features. For email - sylpheed - very good/fast email client. Gaim is used for instant messeging on Yahoo, MSN, etc.

If you need applications get them from www.slackware.org

Use pkgtool to actualy install downloaded packages.

Try ICEWM as a desktop.

Good Luck