Hello,

I have an old 200 mhz pc with 32 megs of ram and I want to turn this into a web browsing / chat machine. I want the ability to install GAIM and Firefox and do basic word processing. The problem is I am a complete newbie. I tried delilinux but the default browser (dillio) was very sub par and I also could not figure out how to install anything (new browsers, etc) So I tried slackware 8.1 but the GUI seems to be a real system hog and it takes like 30 minutes for the desktop to load (then it promptly crashes)

so does anyone have any suggestions? I dont need bells and whistles just the basics! Thanks for any help you can offer

Go for Slackware again, but don't use KDE/Gnome - change that to Fluxbox (needs a little more configuring for things like menus, but definitely worthwhile) and you will see a large speed increase.

like i said, im a newbie

Would you have any idea how to change the default gui short of reinstalling? Thanks for the help

edit: nm i figured it out but fluxbox isnt an option. I guess i need to just find this thing and install it :P thanks for the help

Hey, if you only want basic functionality, I suggest you download a Knoppix IO and then install that to your hard drive. It requires very little space/ram to run, and can network, internet, etc., relatively easily, compared to slackware. Knoppix ain't bad for learning how to operate linux,either, because you don't have to config everything until you know how to...

Or, to sacrifice speed for space, go for a Knoppix live-cd. You have KDE, etc., all there, but it takes only minimal ram. However, saving is tricky.
YOu can find variations on Knoppix live cd's that will suit your needs. Google "low ram Live-cd" and you'll find ftps.

hmmi checked on knoppix and it says it needs 96 megs of ram for graphical mode

I checked a little on that flux as well but it doesnt seem to be made to run on old computers therefore im kind of in doubt whether it will or not. Still reading up on it though. Thanks for all the suggestions! anyone else have anymore?

Just install the first cd of slackware that give you fluxbox and then use swaret to install firefox ect. Can you find some more ram for it?

nah i dont have any more ram for it And this is a project box that im just messing around on so i probably wont get more :P THe person that had this before ran Windows95 and IE with no problems so i hope i can find a linux substitute. Oh yeah, I have slackware 8.1 and it didnt have fluxbox with it. There were a bunch of gui choices but no flux box I tried a low cholestral thing and its definetely faster but still to slow

Check out DamnSmallLinux. very small and should run fine on an older system.. check it out form the cd and see if it will work for you... not sure how it does with 32mb of ram.. but worth a try.

I'd suggest installing Debian. The new installer is not that difficult if you read each screen carefully. Download the Debian installer here:http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ Use the "netinst" CD image if the computer will boot from CD, otherwise, use the floppy image. An installation guide is here:http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/

When you first reboot, it will run a configuration program. When it asks you to install software for different tasks (like "desktop environment), don't select anything. After you go through the install, you will be left with a very minimal text-only linux installation with 1 user account. Log in as root and type: That will install the "x display manager" so that you have a graphical login, fluxbox window manager, firefox, and xterminal so that you can get a command line while running fluxbox. apt-get will automatically install the x window system and needed dependencies to run those programs. It should also ask you some questions about your hardware, but the resulting system should be very minimal and run OK on your machine.

hey thanks for the step by step I got dsl and working with it now but i will definetely save this and try it out if i run into problems with dsl.. I really appreciate all the help

if u use blackbox the window manager it is INCREDIBLY fast but also very ugly, but for an old machine that is going to be used for the basics, it will work wonders. Also, LFS is supposed to be good for speed but not easy for newbies.

thanks again for all the input. I got damnsmalllinux working with a nice looking gui that isnt that slow. I installed firefox with it too! Unfortunately firefox seems to crash a lot. Im trying to use the extension chatzilla and it crashes everytime. Also crashes on some webpages for no reason and is a bit slow. So now i'm searching for an alternative browser. Again thanks for the help and I will definetely try that other stuff if this doesnt work out (or even if it does!)

As you can see most poeple are Fluxbox fans (myself included) but there are some alternatives like IceWM and XFCE which are also lightweight and feature-full.

Edit: Oh, and try to use any hardware accelerated graphics that you can (eg. check you have the right driver installed), to get the most out of your CPU and graphics card.

I believe the window manager on Damn Small Linux is Blackbox...I haven't used DSL in a long time. I guess I could download it and load it into my virtual pc in windows so i dont have to burn it. anyways, ttyl.