old linux distro with up-to-date software, possible?
Hi guys,
Well I had really bad luck with normal, hard drive installed (not frugal) linux distros, even puppy or austrumi installed this way are slower than my win98. What I don't try is to install a old linux distro, from the time my computer was bought, btw I don't mind security problems. I've tried dsl hard drive install, but only leave you install software from woody repositories which are very outdated. So I guess that it has to be very dificult, or maybe a nonsense. With win98 I can install current applications, actually what I want is not every software out there, just firefox, abiword/openoffice, mplayer and a few more. I've thought in nix package manager http://nix.cs.uu.nl/index.html to deal easier with library hassle, but it is suppose to be a modern system into another, so I don't know it would be a slow system again; and also in freebsd but, is possible to install current ports in old freebsd? If you think that is possible, guess that I add new hardware to my computer, a new cd-rom driver or whatever, I should update the whole kernel? Well as I said before maybe is a nonsense, I don't have any IT skills, but I'm tired of reading that with just a lighter window manager my pc should "fly" thanks |
I agree that claims about PCs "flying" on lightweight distros tend to be a bit over exaggerated, but on an old P2 system I have Slackware 11 installed with XFCE. While it's not superfast, it's certainly no slower than Win 98 on the same machine, and unlike Win 98 I can access the network and external USB devices without any trouble in Slackware.
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How old of a PC are we talking about here ? Posts specs if you don't mind.. I would have suggested Debian Etch with xfce. A current distro with a lightweight desktop, but you are saying even the lightweight desktop environments don't help.
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Memory size Processor type and speed Hard Disk size (and mode, if known) How much swap space you have allocated Selected partition sizes and formats (i.e. if you did anything other than accept 'defaults' for disk partitions please say what you did) And for any particular distro, did you install or were you running from an optical disk or USB stick? And did any distro get particularly close to adequate, or were they all 'bad'. |
My pc is a pentium 3, 1 Ghz, 128 ram, ati rage pro fury/xpert2000.
I have debian etch in one partition, I did a minimal install, minimal services running , 1/2 virtual terminals.....without x, free -m gives me something around 20-22 mb, with even the most lightest wm, once I tried twm, it goes to 70-80 or even more in some distros. Quote:
I'm thinking about downloading an old version of vector and see what happens, but I'm still on dialup, and if I don't know how to add current applications it would be worthless. So do you guys think an old version would be faster? Think a 5-6 years old distro. Is it possible to add current applications? Yes, no? Should them slow the performance and be a current distro comprable? Do you guys understand what I'm trying to say/do??? :D :D ;) ;) :D :D |
I'm surprised Puppy doesn't do it for you on that - but 128Meg is pretty much the minimum these days. I'd be hard pressed to believe a (current) X system would be usable in 64 Meg.
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The point is that they are very easy to install, sometimes maybe I have to download one library, but still easy, yes I know linux is totally different, that's because I thought in nix package manager. Quote:
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Normally I select reiserfs, but also try ext3. Quote:
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Also I felt that freebsd was a bit faster. |
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Well, it maybe usable, but I can't stand the swapping noise, sometimes it seems that the computer is going to explode. :eek: |
I must admit I'm surprised a 3.1Ghz box comes with only 128 MB RAM, I'd have expected more.
To put it bluntly, given RAM is cheap these days, add as much RAM as possible and you'll be good to go. The chip is easily fast enough and you've got enough disk space, although you should make a bigger swap with the new RAM. Also, if you can hear the disk grinding that much, sound's like it mght be (slowly) dying. I'd recommend you backup any important data pronto. I resurrected my current box simply by stuffing it with RAM, so I can now run any current distro. |
Debian Sarge with Gnome on a PIII 1Ghz with 256 MB or RAM runs decent, I wouldn't say it would win races but it was definately usable without frustration. I never did get around to upgrading to Etch on that box, but I can't imagine it would perform any worse.
I do think the 128 MB is one of your limiting factors. Get that to 256 MB at least, 384 or 512 wouldn't hurt. |
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