I hate to start a new thread but this is gonna be new

I am UNIX enough to run my Mac with total delight. I wanna put Linux on my older PC and learn it tip top. I don't wanna add to the stock 64m RAM. What distro is gonna be suggested? I can spare easy 10gig HD and lose the win partition all out as I don't rely on that PC at all

You are going to want a distro that you can keep slim. Maybe Gentoo, Slackware, or Arch Linux. Some distros, Red Hat comes to mind, get so many services going after the initial install that they will more than suck up your ram. More important than the distro is going to be that you run a minimalistic window manager like fluxbox, ROX, XFce, icewm or stick to the console.

Debian can also be run quite light.

Your gonna need more RAM

I use an old distro, Red Hat 7.3 to get an old Pentium pro (200 mhz.) up and running. Using Gnome 1.4
this system has 64 megs ram and it works all right. not the fastest and I'm still working out some bugs, but it works and has a use able window manager.

Yay! this sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! I have 64 megs and the Intel in this case is a P3 700MHz. crappy side bus though @66MHz. Do you think Red Hat 7.4 will set the partition and see the the CD write drive? Where can I get it?

I really think Slackware will run smoothly on a 700MHz system.

Originally posted by witeshark Yay! this sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! I have 64 megs and the Intel in this case is a P3 700MHz. crappy side bus though @66MHz. Do you think Red Hat 7.4 will set the partition and see the the CD write drive? Where can I get it?

Redhat 7.4?? Didn't know they made a 7.4. AFAIK it went from 7.3 to 8

I really think Slackware will run smoothly on a 700MHz system.

I have Slack running smoothly on a 500mhz system and running also on one 200mhz and two 233mhz with no problems.

So yeah, Slackware would run excellent on a 700mhz, hell, just about all distros should run well on it. but 64 megs of RAM, could use a little more of that as cheap as they are nowadays, cost ya probably 15 bucks to throw in an additional 128 megs or so..

You have a 700mhz computer with only 64mb ram? I have 64MB ram in my 200mhz computer! I know your computer can support more(I know my computer can't, or at least, not much more. If I put a 128MB stick in or a 256MB in, it only reads that stick as a 64MB......), so find a little change, and throw in a 128MB stick in in addition to your 64MB stick, since I doubt you have 2 32MB sticks(like me).

If I put a 128MB stick in or a 256MB in, it only reads that stick as a 64MB......),

You man need low density ram to get it to recognize more if your motherboard manual says that it can support it.

Originally posted by hypexr You man need low density ram to get it to recognize more if your motherboard manual says that it can support it.

It's just that my mobo is so old, it being 5 or 6 years old now.... The bios is the latest version for the computer, so I know that's not an outdated thing I can fix. It's an old machine, and I'm starting to accept it for what it is, a loud piece of crap.

yea 66MHz side bus and 64 meg RAM is sad on a 700MHz box. I didn't build it anyone think Red Hat 7.2 will be happy with 3-D Stereo, PCI, 16-bit Sound/Controller:
AMC97 Codec? hardware.redhat didn't mention this by name -but no HP boxes I did find showed less then fully compatible. Max RAM if I really need it is 2 x 256 MB DIMMs --but I don't really wanna put much $$ in this thing since it's just for fun and my primary box is my Mac.

i didn't read all your stuff about RAM but adding to the 2nd reply (i think) after gentoo, slack, arch...try vector, it's a little slackware and it's popular and fast

oh yeah, forget gnome and kde and go for fluxbox as your window manager that's fairly popular i heard...

Trickykid: yup i noticed that right away --there is no 7.4. But I found a 7.2 for about $10 with a very good detailed install book. Almost certain to get it today If it seems to be unhappy in its GUI mode I guess I'll swing by a CompUSA and get a 128 Meg stick and pop it in... As to the other distros --I just like the Red Hat look to much to pass it up

i use redhat 7.3 on a 100Mhz pentium with 90MB ram, you can use swap to some extent to make up for a lack of ram, but it all depends on what you want out of your machine