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I'd suggest Damn Small Linux, although if you can expand your RAM to say 256Mg, most distros would be within reach (so long as you choose a lightweight window manager) Welcome to LQ -- J.W.
i have p 200mmx with 32ram and 3 gig OS drive for file server (with 2 x 160GB drives - thinking about software raid) and the graph card is like 4mb or less, running slackware 9.1 CLI mode and configuring it via SSH if needed. but i'm thinking about installing small window manager like xfce or fluxbox (the graph card can prolly handle it) and use VNC. so yea linux will run on anything and your pc is fine. what's the purpose of this machine?
I'll back up Red hat 7.3. I got it to run on a Cirix 130Mhz, and 30mbs (30!) of simms ram. I ran KDE with some slowness, but for the most part, it worked. Your computer will do just fine, since it has a faster processor, and 2! more megs of ram. And more then likely its not simms ram, its SDRAMM. Believe itll work.
I have used Vector Linux for years on old hardware. The 32megs of ram is going to be a stretch, but it will work. Do not use KDE or Gnome. Vector 4.3 uses IceWM as the default desktop, and has a real nice Fluxbox install by default.
The trick is to use lightweight stuff, like Abiword for wordprocessing instead of OpenOffice. Vector is very compact also, at 350megs for a full install you don't need a big hard drive. Adding ram will help though.
Distribution: Slackware, VectorLinux, Smoothwall, and PCLinuxOS
Posts: 40
Rep:
Here's another
I have a PII MMX 350 with 64 RAM and I was able to get MEPIS Linux running on it smoothly. I went with a Fluxbox Window Manager just to save resources because KDE ran a bit slow.
Distribution: Knoppix, WinXP PRO SP2, OpenSUSE 10.0 OSS
Posts: 30
Rep:
I'm not a very good Linux specialist, but if you want to use GUI and you don't have much RAM, you should try some light GUI, like IceVM, because KDE requires AT LEAST 128 MB RAM
A light window manager is definitely the answer. Check out this site: http://xwinman.org/
You're sure to find something that'll suit your needs. (IceWM is a great window manager, but it wouldn't hurt to shop around. Personally, I'm hooked on WindowMaker. Good luck!
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