Hello Everyone:
I am looking to install linux on an older Win95 computer that is currently being used in my office area, but which is slow as tar runing any program at all. My goal is to install it quietly (using boot floppy to select linux from ext2 partition, which is invisible to windows users). I need to be able to run xwindows (ICEwm is fine), firefox, thunderbird mail, a decent word processor with spellcheck, and that' s about it.
I've tried Vector linux (3.2--I think thats the last one that will work with only 32mb ram) from about a year ago, but for some reason simple functions like "tar" and the built-in app installer dont work at all, just nothing happens, so I'm ready to try something else.
The goal is to get a good distro running on this minimalist machine so I can show others in the office the benefits of Linux. I just don't know what the best "mini" distro is at this point for the setup I have and the requirements of the office.
Any suggestions appreciated. I don't wanna start a flame war over what's best, just need some suggestions that meet the needs.
Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry for the long question.

Slack will run on that.

many distro can meet your requirements as long as you don't install DE like kde and gnome. The choice is yours but in your situation I'll go for a basic install of debian with fluxbox. Programs like firefox will run fine, concerning openoffice I'm not sure but if it works it will boot *very* slowly anyway, you could try abiword...
Check out this threat: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...rocessor+light
Hope it helps,
Good luck!
A.

You might try Vector SOHO 5.0. I have it running on a 233MHZ laptop and everything works fine. It is a little slow of course but a verry nice distro.

Feather or DeLi should run smoothly on that mashine. I think boh of them have a 16MB ram minimum, so it should be okay on it. They also come wih what you need, but probably more lightweight apps.