Hello everyone,

I'm a complete newbie to Linux, and I am looking to get into Linux and learn more about it. I have been reading through alot of threads, and reading alot of documentation on the many distros available. I've narrowed it down to a decision between the following distros to start out with.....Mepis 3.4.3, VectorLinux, Suse, and Slackware.

However, the computer I am looking to install this distro on is fairly old. so I would need something that could run on fairly Low requirements. The requirements for the system I am Installing one of the distros on are posted below. My two questions are, what would be the best distro for a newbie out of the four above, and which would run best on the spec provided below. Thanks for all your help!

Cyrix 250 mhz cpu
64 mb ram
4 gig hd
Int sis grapics and sound

Dont even bother with suse with those specs. It will be way to slow. Slackware is not really for the newbie. I havent used the other two.

I've not heard of those other two but slackware has zipslack and that might run...

http://www.slackware.com/zipslack/

I'm also a newbie but I did not have a lot of proplems slackware, just took some reading and stuff.

Not on your list but given your machine specs, you might also consider DSL (Damn Small Linux) Runs from CD, USB, or install on hard drive:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Also not on your list but I thing it might possibly run is PC-BSD. I had it on a 200mhz computer but with a heck of a lot more memory then you have!

http://www.pcbsd.org/

Good luck... And I think ram is your main limitation there but you might pull it off! You could always do a full slackware install minus X and have a commandline system which is pretty boring for a desktop but sometimes it's the ultimate configuration for a server! You have to learn to type a lot of commands though.

Thank you both for your help, and advice. I'm thinking that for right now my best bet to get started will be DSL. Yeah the ram is pretty low on that machine...it was given to me from a family member who upgraded hehe. Perhaps I should think about learning Linux on my other PC which is far better lol. Thanks again for all your help!

Welcome to LQ.
If you had read the sticky there is a forum for distro questions
bottom of the page
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...isplay.php?f=5

But for some reasons this does not seem to stick with anybody

The key is light desktop manager, anything but KDE or gnome.
So you can install pretty much what you want provided
it has instead icewm, fluxbox, windowsmaker and the like
(I run mandriva on a 300 MHz)

You are low on RAM, if you could double it life would be easier
Check hdparm once installed
DSL, vector, puppy linux, all good choices, and many more (see ditrowath.org), mepis ok if lightweight manager is there
Try DSL, vector, puppy linux (in no order)

Yes, better learning curve if equipment is faster

Good luck

Vector standard edition would probably suit.

Thanks again everyone for your feedback! I appreciate your time, and assistance.

Going to Linux will be like the first time that you ever sat at Windows

1) You might want to put the Windows editions of the big Linux programs in for anwhile and get used to them first. Firefox, open office, Thunderbird, The Gimp all have Windows editions.

2) Download Mandriva 2006. It comes the closest to being an all graphics install. If you have problems, the first place to look will be drivers for peripherals. Open an extra account for yourself that you can play with. That way, if you screw it up, you can just delete the extra account and you will still have your main account.

Remember that Linux does not work with Win modems. If you have dial up, you will need to buy a more expensive external modem.

3) With your main account,Use the KDE desktop. Go to Configure desktop, look and feel, and pick all of the options with Redmond, Windows 9X, etc,. For mouse behavior, click double click.

4. But do spend time with that extra account. You will see how basic Windows is, and how much more you cando with Linux.

YOU ARE NOT OFFICIALLY A lINUX USER UNTIL YOU'VE SCREWED UP YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM BY DOING SOMETHING STUPID IN ROOT.

VERY true. Just keep this in mind, if you do screw up, it can almost always be fixed without a re-install. Unlike windoze which requires regular reboots and reinstalls on a regular basis, Linux just tends to run and run and run and run . . . . . . . you get the idea.

I wish you could graduate to Gentoo Linux on there later on. The compile times would be slow but you could optomize it so that it would run the programs faster after you get them installed. Just try to keep it light, especially the GUI part.

i would say on those specs for an easy to use system give xubuntu a go. Its ubuntu but with xfce isstead of kde or gnome. Its much lighter and still extremely functional like kde and gnome (not quite as easy to use, but certaintly still newbie friendly). It has all the applications you could want on the install and there all light weight.

If you don't want to wait for compiling, later on you might want to consider Arch. It might not be as fast as a optomized gentoo install, but it's as close as you're going to get. Plus, you won't spend two weeks compiling X and various other programs.

As much as I like Gentoo, I would seriously consider putting something else on there. The compile times would be a bit long. That said, I once put Gentoo on a Compaq server that only had a single 200MHz CPU in it. Later on I upgraded it with 3 more CPUs. It wasn't to bad but it was the only CD I had to install from. I mostly started with a GRP install then later on did a full compile. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Install, about 3 hours with no GUI. I can't remember how long it took to do the updates though.

Hope you get something good on there. Let us know what you install.

vector with XFCE window manager.

mandriva is a bit of a starter distro. If you can do a lot of things in shell, you might find things like Gentoo to be more of a hand and glove fit, later. Ubuntu, and it's twin Kubuntu (KDE destop, do not permit you to log on in root in graphics mode. If you can't work in shell, they will make it hard to do things like add user accounts. Mandriva is the closest to being an all graphics install, but the free download has a lot of last year's editions of basic things.

I have thought about Gentoo as well, though right now it seems I don't have enough ram to get it running on my current specs. I know alot of people have said that it is not Newbie friendly, and is a hard install. However, I'm not really afraid of it being a pain, and me having to learn about linux to get it going. I've read the installation documentation as well as the handbook multiple times, and I'm really liking what I've read about Gentoo.

While I understand that it's a hard distro to start with I think in a way that is what I am looking for. Something to push me to learn linux in order to get things running and working smoothly. I appreciate all the help, and advice....it's nice to be part of such a helpful, respectful, and insightful community when getting my feet wet.