need help with linux/computer purchase

kevincadogan · 10-20-2005, 09:03 PM

i was planning on buying a used ibm thinkpad 600e laptop.(400mhz 256mb ram,cd drive,all that good stuff)my question is,do u think this laptop is gonna be good for use with linux?i need a linux distro that is light,like maybe debian/slackware.but supports sound/video/battery.watching avi/mpg videos with sound is very important(with little lag).ofcourse it will oviously work in win xp,but,iam sick of microsoft.time for a change.

ntgaston98 · 10-20-2005, 09:21 PM

ive run linux on less than that. im currently a sucker for suse (novell) look for an earlier version like 9.0 or so. with ur specs you should be able to run 9.3 comfortably

you can either get just a command line version like debian or maybe even go debian with their x-windows update the the graphics suck but if you want lite thats the way to go. i was running an IBM ThinkPad 760c (p133 40mb ram 4gb hdd)

best of luck

kevincadogan · 10-20-2005, 09:33 PM

ok thanks.maybe ill check out slackware over debian.i know that its a pretty lite distro.how well did it run on your thinkpad?any audio/video problems?i have to check out "dsl" too.

PaganHippie · 10-20-2005, 09:34 PM

I agree, that setup ought to run Linux quite well indeed. In your situation (and resources permitting), I would test-drive maybe 3 - 5 different distros to see which one best suits your needs and taste. Have you done any experimentation on your own yet?

JimBass · 10-20-2005, 09:40 PM

I have been running Debian on a IBM Thinkpad X21 for over a year. It is fine. I think the hardware on mine is like a 600 Mhz processor with 256 RAM. Any distro can run on a thinkpad, but with an older one, you may want to use a light WM instead of KDE/Gnome. That being said, mine works fine with KDE 3.3. Any distro at all will be fine, it is all a question of how you set it up, and what processes you have running.

Peace,
JimBass

danimalz · 10-20-2005, 09:46 PM

for multimedia, i'd get a bit faster processor, im afraid. For sure you want to make sure the screen on that machine is adequate.

my 2cts

kevincadogan · 10-20-2005, 09:46 PM

well,ive done some testing on a thinkpad 600 i used to have awhile ago.(300mhz,64mb ram)ive tried redhat 7-8 i think it was,had some problems with video/audio,very slow ofcourse,do to the ram.i noticed that most versions of linux,suck up alot of ram.thats what i didnt like about linux at first.ill check out a different laptop.thanks for the help

PaganHippie · 10-20-2005, 11:06 PM

I've taken some heat for suggesting this in the past, but....

You might consider finding a version of Linux that was current around the time when the computer was new. You may not get all the newest gee-whiz-bang features, but your hardware support and system speed should be more than acceptable, and if you really want bleeding-edge software, you can always install it from source.

aysiu · 10-20-2005, 11:12 PM

You may find these links helpful:

http://www.geocities.com/jleviaguirre1/linuxlaptop/
http://condor.depaul.edu/~jkristof/debian-tp600e.html
http://linux-laptop.net/hosted/thinkpad600e-fc4.html
http://pepper.linuxfocus.org/~guido/gentoo-tp600e/
http://www.mainsheet.org/thinkpad600e/
http://www.enderak.com/linux/thinkpad600/
http://www.geocities.com/netmasta10bt/tp600e.html
http://www.physics.wustl.edu/~alford/thinkpad.html

PaganHippie · 10-20-2005, 11:24 PM

aysiu, I want to have your baby. (just kidding)

kevincadogan · 10-21-2005, 06:13 AM

that helps out alot.thanks everyone.iam gonna do more research on it.