I want to try Linux on the kind of old machine, which linux distro I should choose?

Thanks for help!

if you are not familiar with the Linux i suggest that you can use older versions of Ubuntu.

regards,

Try Xubuntu if you want a GUI; if you only want a console you can do a base install of just about any main distro.

I have a laptop with very similar specs (smaller HD), and installed Puppy 4.0 without any problems.

Well, you could try Slackware too

Doesn't really matter which distribution...
Just make sure you get a text-based install cd (alternate-insatll iso for ubuntu for example) and install something like icewm, windowmaker or fluxbox instead of gnome or kde. I personally like windowmaker.
xfce would propably be too much too... but it might be worth a try.
Install dillo as web browser, abiword for text editing, mplayer or VLC for multimedia...

The xubuntu alternate istall disk might be a good start... even if xfce works well enough, you can forget about firefox, openoffice and such.

Xubuntu will not be suitable for this machine. For Xubuntu 6.06.1:

For a PC like this you'll be much better off with something designed for older machines in mind or one of the more flexible distros like Slackware or Debian and a lightweight desktop environment or window manager....not Gnome, KDE or Xfce!

If you want something working out of the box Puppy would be fine, also DamnSmallLinux or Deli. The Deli developer uses a PII with 64MB RAM as his test machine. Antix should work OK even with 64Mb RAM if you give it 128MB swap space.

DSL or Puppy Linux should just about make the system worth using.

I am downloading the Puppy Linux. Let's see what will happen.

(I downloaded the Slax 6.0.7 and tried to run it on the old box. It failed on the udevtrigger. Later I read the manual, which shows Slax 6 LiveCD need 486 CPU.)

I spent serveral days to test then got the conclusion: it looks like the machine is too old to be installed the Linux （but win98 is OK). I burned 2 discs for the newest version of Puppy and DSL. But failed to install them:

Puppy hangs after loading the kenerl ; DSL first always prompt "Could not find Knoppix". Later I burned the CD by the minimum speed, there was no such prompt, but more prompts about "cloopper ... xxx bytes lost". I have to give up.

But these 2 linux are running good in my Vmware server on another better machine.

Oh fewee, I have a pI 233mhz laptop running slackware 10.0 I also installed Debian on a system of about the same specs as yours. So your system can run Linux, what does it do when installing? Does it hang?

Did you get a good burn when you burned the .iso? It's best to burn slow when burning a OS iso.

You need to post any errors you are getting.

Are you trying to install the right platform? The image you need to download should be i386.

Slackware10.0

I don't know if people who recommend Puppy or DSL have actual experience with using them on older machines. Personally, I use Debian 4.0 on all of my machines, including old ones (old, to me, means something like a 120mhz Pentium with 32megs of RAM).

A Pentium 2 machine shouldn't have too many problems booting up a CD, so the most likely culprit is that the CD-ROM is finicky. I have CONSTANT problems with old CD-ROM drives. Over half of mine won't boot up a bootable CD at all; some of the others will only boot up some and not others.

Personally, I'd use Debian 4.0. I'd start with a very basic install (deselect all software suites when it comes to the software selection screen--INCLUDING the so-called "base system", which actually isn't necessary). Then, after you boot up into your system log in as root and do the following:

1) edit /etc/apt/sources.list using this command:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You'll want to delete the lines which say "CDROM". Otherwise, when you install new software it will ask you to insert the CDROM. Which is annoying.

2) type in the following commands:

apt-get update
apt-get install xorg alsa-base alsa-utils icewm icewm-themes menu xfe iceweasel gqview xmms gdm
alsaconf

That will install some nice basic software to get you started. You need to manually type in "alsaconf" to configure sound. After that you can use the command "alsamixer" to adjust volume.

After this, you can reboot your computer using the command:

reboot

You actually don't need to reboot the computer; it's possible to start gdm directly instead.

Note--if you have too much difficulty getting a bootable CD booting on this computer, you can instead do the install on another computer. Take the hard drive and put it in another computer to do the install. Don't bother running "alsaconf" until after placing the hard drive back into the old computer.

I completely agree with Isaac. DSL and Puppy are cute up until the point where you are trying to use them beyond their initial set of programs. Debian should be fine

I have a P166 with 64M ram and 4 Gig hard drive running Slackware 10.1

You will find lots of people have done what you want to do. It works.

I was a PII 266MHz and 64Mb RAM, working excellent with Slackware 10.2 few months ago (until December 07), unfortunately went down when the Mainboard fried due to a electric discharge

But slackware is a good choice, try it.