Hello

My brother gave me an old laptop "HP omnibook XE3" with P3 processor ,800Mhz,128 MB ram and 20 gb HDD which is designed for microsoft professional 2000 only. i've tried windows Xp and found that its very slow !!!!

>>>>Later i tried "FLUXUBUNTU" (ubuntu based ).It ran very well to some extent but on installing apps like "firefox and other java based ,the apps just used to hang the system...


>>>>PLease recommend me a neat LINUX distro that can make this old laptop work again neatly without hanging etc etc..

Thanks in advance

puppy, dsl ...

I currently have an IBM T20 (650mhz processor) that I swap disks between Ubuntu 8.10 and Slackware 12.1. The only difference is 256m of memory. Both Ubuntu and Slack give acceptable performance. If you have an empty memory slot, a 128m stick is currently on ebay for 12.95 and 256m for 30-50 depending on seller. This may be the best was to get use out of that system. You may also be able to find a "parts" machine which has the memory and other parts you might find useful about the same price.

Rich

I have been running slackware 12+ on an older thinkpad for a few months now and I have been really happy with it. The install, even if you put everything in, will leave a decent amount of space still on your 20gb hdd. I think you could get away with the 128mb of ram as long as you use a lightweight wm (I have been using fluxbox, and with firefox and a few terminal windows open now I am using about that).

I do second the advice to add more ram. If you think you will be actually using it for more than just playing around in linux the investment is almost certianly worth it. If you dont want to go the ebay route, older memory is still really cheap (I got 2-gigs shipped for like $30 off newegg). Just check how much your system can hold and how many slots you have open.

>>>>After googling for some time i found out vector linux lite 5.9(slack based ).It uses fluxbox as window manager and it needs only 64 Mb ram to run .That sound great to me and i gotta giv a try ..............

>>>>> I gotta run apps like cisco's "Packet Tracer 5" and wine if possible . I really dont know whether they gonna work

>>>>> Anyways Thanks

Slackware 12.1 will run on 128m of memory, however running the applications will require more memory. Running a command line would be ok on 64m of memory, but trying to run any GUI based application would be so slow you would not want to do it. Even with a 700m - 800m processor, the more memory the better performance.

Rich

Besides the good distro suggestions already given, consider a ram upgrade. Your laptop (and most P3 systems) can probably accept 512MB. With that much ram, it could run any current linux distribution. I have an old compaq armada with a P3 650 and 512MB and it runs ubuntu 8.04 just fine. 20GB is plenty large enough for the HD.

I agree with 1wasserm. I run Kubuntu 8.04 on an IBM T20 with 512MB and a PIII 700. RAM is much more important than CPU speed with respect to having a running platform. Of course CPU and RAM can make life nice, but that's another story.

Try to figure out how much more RAM your machine can take and plug it in. Even a lightweight GUI/wm will run much better in more memory space.

>>>>yeah ur rite of course but i've already invested on my machine (display probs and etc etc etc etc) and i cant anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>>>>>with lowend distro's like DSL and vector lite and others i'm hoping that it will do well withexisting configuration!!!!!!!!!

Anyways Thank You

I run an 850MHz athalon with 256MB ram on Fedora 9, so I would at least give the mainstream distros a try.

Have you checked into Xubuntu? I have had success with 2 different older laptops. Runs fine with only 128. You might want to try one of the older versions.
I would also recommend upgrading the RAM. 256 works even better!

Happy Hunting

>>>>>Thank You

OP has already said that he can not invest much now. So that is another story. Also newegg would ship everything and charge $. living here in India, that is not very good possibility and 30$ could be cheap there but not for me at least.(1$ = ~47INR)
I guess Xubuntu is a "Give-it-a-try" distro. It has been built for low-on-resources machines.
Also as suggested DSL, Slax and Vector are good. You might want to try DreamLinux as well. That is also small and light. Puppy is something that can be considered.
If possible look out for a seconds shop in your city who can give you a used ram stick cheaply. Something he does not need would be give away for him.

>>>>>>>>>>Thanks Mate !!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish you well with Xubuntu, worked well for me. Hope you can get a good download. Ubuntu will send a free CD but Xubuntu is download only.
No Open Office but AbiWord works great. Good OS if you can live with keep it simple.
Happy Hunting