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Old 07-21-2003, 12:23 PM   #1
wgbjr
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Registered: Jul 2002
Posts: 29

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Question Loading Linux on an old Laptop


I have an old IBM Thinkpad that has been sitting in the corner collecting dust. It's a 486, but I am unclear on some of the other details because the laptop was given to me. I doubt it has anything over a 500MB hard drive. Probably has 8 or 16MB of RAM. It has an external CD-ROM (nothing I can boot from besides the floppy). Is there a Linux distribution that can be loaded on this just for play (loaded from the floppy drive probably)? I know the command line can run on it, its just a matter of getting it on there. I really just want to use it to learn commands in Linux. I have used Linux before, but I want to learn more about the command line as opposed to the GUI. I don't even want the GUI loaded on this laptop (not that it would support it anyway). It doesn't have a network card, and I have no desire to network it. Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
 
Old 07-21-2003, 12:45 PM   #2
zmedico
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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Mission Viejo, California, USA
Distribution: Gentoo
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2-Disk Xwindow embedded Linux
BusyBox
Small Linux - Small Kernel Project
tomsrtbt home page
 
Old 07-21-2003, 12:46 PM   #3
Mega Man X
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Registered: Apr 2003
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Hi!!!

Well, I've a 386 compaq with 8 Megas of RAM. I use it only for printing and word typing. I have on it Grey Cat Linux 3x. It's a pretty small distro and comes with Netscape, IceWM, printing tools, midnight commander and many other useful programs. It's installation is made by floppy disks which is cool. You don't need to create any kind of partition for it, it runs under DOS File system . It's Slackware 3 based (If I'm not mistaken) so you can download pre-compiled Slackware programs and use with it. I'm glad with it, but you can't do much. Perhaps you would like anything more powerful to learn Linux. Otherwise, here is the link:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/peterdekoning/main.htm

Good luck
 
Old 07-21-2003, 01:08 PM   #4
wgbjr
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Registered: Jul 2002
Posts: 29

Original Poster
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It's nice to see I have some choices. Thank you both for your helpful answers. They are much appreciated.
 
Old 07-21-2003, 02:18 PM   #5
aaa
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Registered: Jul 2003
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Distribution: Slack 10.1
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Zipslack:
http://www.slackware.com/zipslack/
 
  


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