I have a VERY old PC right here with me, and I want to run Linux on it...

And well how old is it? check it out:

AMD K6-300MHz
64 MB RAM

So, as you can see... I need a very light configuration.


Yesterday I thought it would be nice to install SuSE 9.1, but I've been told that it will run NO GOOD at all.

I know that KDE won't work as expected, and GNOME will "probably" do the job... but what about other D.E.s? like Fluxbox?


Some people had recommended me to use the following configurations:

-Slackware + Blackbox
-Debian + WindowMaker


But I'd like your opinion guys... please post your recommended configurarion right here in this topic... and why do you think it is the right one



Thanks!

Heh. Install screen & links and forgo X entirely, perhaps?

FVWM gets my vote for the WM. Slack, LFS, Gentoo, or DamnSmallLinux for distro choices, perhaps. . .

Slack or Damn Small Linux. If you are hardcore enough (Heh), I'd go with BadWM - it's crazy good on resources. The current release is slightly unstable, but not to a huge degree or anything. You have to get used to some simple keyboard shortcuts (mapping your own is recommended), but other than that it's great - I love it. If you insist on going with a friendlier WM, I've had no problems with IceWM - it's fast and easy to use for those who like the Windows style iinterface. Blackbox/Fluxbox works fine, too. I've ran IceWM, Blackbox, and Fluxbox on slower machines that what you have listed, with no issues (200mhz laptop with 16MB ram).

You might want to look into Vector Linux - it's pretty fast as well. It's based off of Slackware.

I wouldnt say thats very old
I'm still running some PCs running
Pentium II 350 with that amount of ram
dual booting with Win 98 and mandrake 9.0

how good your video card is will determine
if you can run gnome or kde
mine are only 4 meg video cards

My son is running an old pentium 200
with 64 meg and a 2 meg video card
it runs mandrake 7.2 with KDE
just dont expect to play tux racer
on a system like that - thats all

A system like that will run Smoothwall or Ip cop
or similar, if you want a dedeicated firewall
for the Internet

floppy

Since you got SuSE 9.1, I don't see why you can't use it. Just do a minimal installation with X. It will install Windowmaker, which is a decent wm. When installing, choose text installation (ncurse based, fast). If you got enough space, download the XFCE4.2 rpms and install it. For browsing, try Firefox, if it's too demanding, get Dillo or Links-gui.

id put in a vote for slackware/fluxbox.

i have a 366mhz pentium 2 with 128 mb ram (i know its faster than yours but keep reading) and with that setup (slack/flux) it runs faster than my other computer (an 800mhz ppc w/ 640 mb ram running macosx 10.3).


that is a very very quick setup, it really flys. i would stay away from anything rpm based personally, and generally any overly friendly distro (no ttrying to start any flamwars) is that friendly at an expense of performance.

but dont trust me, try it yourself.

btw, i think blackbox, fluxbox, windowmaker, and icewm will have very similar speeds. fvwm is slightly (very slightly) slower,but for that you get infinite configurability.

just my .02

killfire

Hey guys, thanks for the info... it has been useful.

By the time now, i think i'll choose Slackware + IceWM

And well... another thing I'd like to ask you is... what about Fedora or FreeBSD?


Thanks again!

I don't like fedora, personally. It's pretty and simple, but it leaves a lot to be desired IMHO. FreeBSD is great, but it might be a hassle for you to configure. While it can be used as a desktop OS, I really think it belongs more as a server OS.

I run Slackware + fluxbox on my older computer - 400 mhz and 32 MB RAM, and it workes quite well. I use that combo on my good computer as well

Fedora is a memory hog and probably wouldn't run on that machine very well at all. Slackware will be just fine and if you upgrade the RAM it will be even better. My Laptop is a 300MHz machine with 128MB of RAM and it runs fine with Fluxbox. Open Office runs slow, but that doesn't matter much--I write most everything in Vim (with the Latex plugin) anyway. Abiword is a nice lightweight word processor.

Debian + xfce
and that is a real D.E. not just some window manager

who needs a "real D.E." ?

all that xfce (that i could tell) adds is a bar at the bottom; you can get that with any panel in fluxbox....

and in my experiance (running both) slackware tools on debian for stability and up-to-dateness....

killfire

freebsd would probably be good; stay away from fedora!

it is very weighted down; not to say that you cant get rid of a lot, but it isnt easy...

fedora compared to slackware is a lot like kde compared to flux
it might be easier but it is so much slower!


killfire

Good choice on IceWM, I ues it on all my computers! It is quite configurable, which is very nice.

I would say go with Slackware over Debian, but of course my choice would be Fedora.

For all you people saying Fedora is "too heavy", just do what I do when I use an old PC. Minimal Install + YUM. That's it! Then all the gets installed is what you need. Heck I even do that with my personal machine which isn't all the old (one year now). It is a bit of a pain but at least you only get what you need. Plus I would go with the XFCE 4.2 release and not with the 4.0.6 that comes with Fedora. (Allows for that nifty right-click menu that is offfered by Black/Fluxbox, but also gives you the launcher bar if that is more your style.)

Use the link at the end of this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=290624.

I followed those instructions and boom, I had what I needed. Just make sure you have X installed first and you should be fine.