Packard Bell PC compatible?
 

Hi, I have this old Packard Bell desktop: Pentium with MMX technology, 32MB RAM, 1GB HD. Does anybody know where to get info. whether this PC is compatible with linux??

Thanks

Try the HCL: http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php

-Joey

Already checked HCL
 

Yes, I did checked the HCL but there aren't any categories for whole systems, it is only for hardware parts.

What else do you suggest??

Thanks

I would expect that Yes it would be compatible, but I think you would need to be realistic about what kind of system it would turn out to be. If you're talking about a Pentium running at 90Mz or 100Mz, and it's only got 32Mg RAM installed, then practically speaking I think it would be tough to get any real performance out of it. Modern distros, particularly in terms of windows managers such as KDE or Gnome, would pretty much overwhelm an older machine like that, and with 1G of disk capacity, my expectation would be that you'd need to do a custom installation to cut out any unnecessary packages. All that work might turn out to be more trouble than it's worth. That being said, if the machine were intended to be used as a server (such as a firewall or lightweight web page server, etc) then Yes, a machine like that definitely could be pressed into service.

I suppose the best thing to do would be to just give it a shot and see how you like the results. If so, I would recommend using a small footprint distro such as Damn Small Linux, or an older version of something like Slackware. Along those lines, one good central location for many of the most popular distros is LinuxISO and also distrowatch Good luck with it -- J.W.

i ran red hat linux 9 on a machine like that but it had 4gb hdd