A friend has an old Compac Presario C500 on which she would like me to install a version of Ubuntu. I am currently thinking of trying a 32 bit version of Lubuntu, but perhaps someone has a better suggestion. She is a professional photographer. and ideally I would try UbuntuStudio, but I'm afraid the machine would not have enough power.

apolinsky,

There could well be an additional problem with the wifi (Broadcom?) on the Compaq C500, so something like the 32 bit version of MX-17.1 may fit the bill:

https://mxlinux.org/download-links

An earlier link for a similar machine:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ed-4175573539/

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. I aam unfamiliar with the MX-17.1 distribution. I'll look at it.

you are very precise, yet the most crucial info is missing here:

• the actual age of the machine
• a spec sheet to tell us something about the hardware

any distro recommendation must be based on that.
"old" is relative and has very different meanings for different people.

Guessing age would be about 10+ years, 32Bit Celeron processor. RAM could be anything from 512 - 2GB.

I would also give MX a go and see how well it works.

1 members found this post helpful.

I've taken a quick look at MX documentation, and being an older, retired professional programmer have a few questions about it.It seems to be a Debian variant for lower powered machines, but does not appear to have been around too long. Since I am not regularly in contact with the Compac owner, she would need an operating system that would be supported for security upgrades for some time. Ubuntu has a large number of users who could help her, and the latest version, 18.4 is a long term supported version. Can the same be said of MX? There is no question I'll try them both when she comes by, but might be hesitant to recommend something that may not be supported too long. I've been with Slackware since version 2.2, and Debian since Potato. I've found each of those distributions reliable and easy to maintain, while I abandoned Centos, when they gave up on their 32 version of the operating system (yes I am aware there is a 32 bit version supported by some contributors) and found significant difficulties with FreeBSD, even though it was the closest to the Solaris I used professionally. An addendum to the above: the computer has 2 gigs of Ram.

apolinsky,

MX and its little lightweight brother antiX are both based on Debian. I see neither disappearing from Linux World anytime soon.

antiX:
https://antixlinux.com/

antiX Forum:
https://www.antixforum.com/

1 members found this post helpful.

i totally agree.
also, they have been around for a good while, and have a well-respected standing in the community.

while mx itself has been around only 4 years, it is developed from 2 much older distros, one of them antiX, which has been around since 2007. and in fact i might recommend that one even more for matured hardware.

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For that hardware, which I'd estimate ca. 2004, I would use the lightest-weight distro you can find with a gui. Probably AntiX.

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Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions. I'll be installing the software tomorrow, and have downloaded AntiX, as well as Mx17.1. My only concern now is the compatibility and availability of software, but I'll leave that to my friend.

I followed the suggestion to try AntiX. It installed beautifully on the laptop, and once I understood the proper way to initially configure the wireless card using Wicd, everything worked perfectly. The machine is now a dual boot AntiX/Windows machine that runs quite quickly. The AntiX suggestion was wonderful. Thank you, everyone.