Hello, I have an old desktop computer with an Intel P3 600mhz cpu, 128mb ram, a generic 3.5 floppy, and a Yamaha crw f1e cd/rw. I can't afford another computer right now and my wife has her own and uses it ALL the time so hers is NOT an option for me. I installed Ubuntu on this thing and it just overwhelms it. Everything drags like the whole system is on a 14k dial-up. I wait on the terminal window and everything else. I think the ram is the issue. Anyway, to the point. Is there a Linux distro that has a decent gui that will allow a user to browse the net, save pic, music, and video files, and play games (java in particular) online, without all the clutter of a thousand programs I'll never use, that will NOT DRAG on the system I described above? I am absolutely new to Linux but I'm not totally incompetent (some may have a different opinion ) so I don't mind if I have to do some work on a distro to get it minimal (installing java, various media programs, etc.) as long as I can get online I can figure the rest out . The smaller the distro that will allow this THE BETTER.


Thanks in advance, Rob G

Give Slackware a try. It usually runs pretty well on older machines.

With that small amount of RAM I'd suggest using a light window manager like XFCE or Fluxbox instead of KDE.

Perhaps you could add some additional RAM to the box? RAM is pretty cheap these days. Even 512MB would make a significant difference in performance.

Thanks for the rapid reply I was looking at DSL, it sounds pretty good to me, but i'll read some about slackware since you mentioned it. Thanks a lot

There is also Xubuntu, lighter window manager.
Damn Small Linux or Austrumi are good if they have all you need. Vector Linux is worth a look.
Slackware or Debian should be okay.
Adding 128 more RAM would make it better.

I installed dsl on an old dell laptop(300mhz,64 meg ram) and got pretty good results.

Give this a look :SaxenOs supposedly good for older hardware, website:

http://www.saxenos.de/wb/index.php

I have it downloaded but haven't had time to install it yet! (distro-junkie)

PCLinuxOS .92
http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/dist...glish/preview/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distr...glish/preview/

This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.

Mephis
http://www.mepis.org/


Blag
http://www.blagblagblag.org/download/

Vector Linux
http://www.vectorlinux.com/

DSL
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Puppy Linux
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=3

Slackware
http://www.slackware.com/

SLAX Live CD
http://www.slax.org/

BeaFanatIX
http://bea.cabarel.com/

Elive:
http://www.elivecd.org/

Deli
http://delili.lens.hl-users.com/

Luit Linux
http://luitlinux.sarovar.org/