choosing a distro for an older PC

[crAss]

i found this old PC sitting next to someones trash it's a compaq prosignia 300 it's 150mhz and has a 2gb hd, any ideas on what distro(s) would still run OK on it

[je_fro]

Be sure search this forum for the answer, as this question gets posted about every day. I'd recommend Debian or Slackware.

[lagdawg]

Damn Small Linux works well on systems like yours. Its a live cd with great hardware support, like Knoppix only incredibly small (50 mbs). I run it straight from the cd on a system about like yours. Even though it is a live cd there are scripts included which allow you to install to a hard drive. DSL uses Fluxbox which runs well on my system. There are lots of apps, and whats not included can be retrieved using apt-get once you have installed DSL to your hard drive.

Best part of DSL is you can get it on a business card sized cd and use it on any computer you like.

[Legithrandil]

another good distro to try would be vector linux. I had it running on a 133 pentium w/ 16 megs of ram and a 1.5 gig harddrive beautifully. it's derived from slackware and has an easy to use install program. It takes up about 250 mb of space though.

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by crAss
i found this old PC sitting next to someones trash it's a compaq prosignia 300 it's 150mhz and has a 2gb hd, any ideas on what distro(s) would still run OK on it

My favorite way of picking up a 'new' machine.

ftp://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/peanut/Peanut-Linux-9.5/iso

It's small. It's fast. It's kewel. It's Peanut.

[jglen490]

My first exposure to Linux was on such a machine -- ah, memories!! Anyway, while all the suggestions above are completely valid, any distro will work just fine. The only problem with any distro is picking and chosing components from the distor that will work well with the hardware.

For example, if you want a visual kind of Linux experience instead of the command line, then pick a light window manager (i.e., XFCE, IceWM) and don't try to install everything.

I am on an older machine right now. It's an IBM Thinkpad 365XD (p120/72MB/3.1 GB) that's has Mandrake 9.2 on it. You will find that maximum physical RAM makes Linux run better. An old box like that may max out at 128MB, but if it can hold more, great!! Just give it a try, or even several. Just explore and enjoy.

[psi42]

Slackware 9.1 or Vector with fluxbox CVS.

:)


You have to cut out a lot of things from the install to make Slackware fit on your harddrive. I have it installed on a 1.5gb harddrive, it uses about 750MB.


Another 16MB of RAM would REALLY help.

~psi42