Very nice thread indeed and I am downloading Vector Linux 5.8 GOLD. I'm looking for a Slackware based distribution because I need to learn a bit more from Linux itself and having apt-get makes things too easy. I am aware though that Vector has slapt-get.

Bob, why don't you try using the enlightenment desktop, fluxbox or IceWM ? They are generally even lighter than XFCE. I would recommend Enlightenment and with that goes 'Austrumi' a great Linux distribution which is 50MB in size and has Firefox, Gaim and was even able to play my MP3's and MPEG video files out of the box and it mounted my NTFS partitions by itself. Austrumi is the fastest distro I've seen...and I have tried puppy before. (Austrumi is also Slackware based)

However you could probably install another GUI on Vector itself

Hello guys-
Installed VL 5.8 Gold on a spare Gateway laptop (1.4Ghz/512Ram) 3 days ago and using at the moment.

Just wanted to confirm the above comments regarding speed and usability. The wide screen display rendering is excellent.

Only minor issue is hyper-sensitive touchpad which I "solved" with a carefully trimmed piece of silver tape that looks and feels fine.

Comes with my favorite Opera 9.1 although I'm in the default SeaMonkey 1.06 at the moment. Also FF 2.0 and Dillo.

Started with Xandros and experimented with other Debian family distros as well as SuSe 10.1 and Fedora.

Wanted to try something from the Slackware family. Zenwalk did not like my "middle-aged" Via C-3 1.2Ghz tester system so tried Vector which worked great.

So I'm very positive about Vector and plan to use it as primary OS for a few weeks....perhaps forever Good luck. Daniel.

Glad to hear VL works good for you subgenius777.

Vector is my second favorite after Debian. On old hardware it's the best solution.
The installer is indeed funny. These guys have a nice sense of humor: Hold tight, testing X!

I am running Vector 5.8 std gold. Just installed it yesterday, Very nice distro. It is similar to Zenwalk, actually a little easier to install, & Zenwalk was not hard.

I'll keep it for a while.

Have you tried the new VL 5.9 Light?

Bob

I'm running 5.9Std on a 500Mhz/ 320meg machine and it's quite functional. What impressed me was that the wireless network card worked right away.

This is definitely a good distro for older hardware. There is a limit though, I couldn't get 5.9Std to run properly on an AMD333 with 128meg Ram however 5.1Std runs fine for browsing with Firefox. For a refreshing experience 5.1 also comes with Dillo which really rocks!

Check out the VectorLinux forums Ole Juul - VL 6.0 is being tested now and should be released in the near future. In the mean time you might try VL 5.0 Light as mentioned in earlier post.