I looking for recommendations for a distro of linux that would work well on a 600Mhz compaq that I use as a web terminal and file server. Not looking for anything with a large amount of extra's just a system that I can have firefox on and run a file server. P.S. The linux computer must be able to work well with other windows machines on my network.
xubuntu uses the xfce front and is nice and fast but being ubuntu, you will get trouble if you try to keep an existin home directory. What do you mean? if you want to access the files from windows, one method is to set up samba.
Do you have any experience of linux before? If not, I would try a flavour of Ubuntu, probably Xubuntu as AJB2K3 said, as it will be faster on a 600mhz box. You will need to set up Samba (it is the file server software). Depending on what you want to do, it can be a pain to set up, but it will work with Windows machines. Firefox comes standard on Ubuntu IIRC.
At least give a reason why you're recommending it. Ubuntu-tis really easy to install and get working, but won't be as fast as some others. Gentoo-can be really fast, if you're willing to tinker with it. Same goes for Debian (which I would recommend if you don't want to go Ubuntu)
Ubuntu is great for ease of installation but can seem someone boggy on old machines. I run it on my desktop and I have slack on my laptop because I find the install to be easy as well although not as pretty and it is fast and stable, time tested. Gentoo is great as well but is a pain in the ass to get working sometimes unless of course you feel like spending countless hours reading forums/tutorials and recompiling. I would do ubuntu or slack personally; ubuntu if youre a new linux user.
Gentoo is not as hard as most people think. Really, the only hard part is the installation, which isn't that hard at all. Gentoo sounds great for your purposes, nice and fast, no extras that you don't need and all the functionality you want. Stable too.
Well I am not entirely new to linux as I've had Ark linux, Fedora 4, and Redhat all running on my desktop in some way or another. But like I said the simpler the better. I might try Gentoo and if I have problems then I will go with slack or ubuntu
OK, everybody has an other proposition to make... I personally would go for FreeBSD - it's not Linux and a little bit different in some points, but nevertheless not more complicated if you don't have any experience with Unix/Linux yet There are several LiveCDs out there (FreeSBIE, Frenzy,...) which you can try out on your hardware. I also have running NetBSD on a IBM PC330-450DX2 with a Intel 80486 50MHz CPU, 32MB RAM and two 1.5GB HDDS It's really amazing how fast it is on that hardware If you don't like *BSD (yeah, there are also several flavours), I would go for Debian. It runs even on "minimalistic" hardware: I have Debian 3.0 running on a IBM PS/2 with 16MB RAM and a 1.x GB SCSI-HDD. Debian 3.1 needs some more ressources (~64MB RAM, several Gigabytes of HDD for full installation). Your CPU is fine for either FreeBSD and/or Debian If you want more information about GNU/Linux-Distributions, then check out distrowatch
Having finally got debian working, I must say it's running great on my laptop (took a while, but that was to do with wifi problems). Debian + fluxbox
I'd say Ubuntu server-installation+OpenBox windowmanager+Rox-Filer -archiver, that's what I'm running on my main comp, and it works great, I checked free -m, and it uses <120mb with FBPanel and background on
Ok, I got the command line of debian working but now I am stuck. I am log in under root but when I but in "apt-get install kde" or "apt-get install gnome" I get a message saying they are no longer available. How do I fix this? P.S. What is better kde or gnome? and what are you running on your laptop ozstrike?
That's a really hard question to answer, but I'd say that GNOME would fit better for someone new to Linux. I think you should add a few lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list - file.First lets do a backup of your current sources.list by commanding Code: cp /etc/apt/sources.list sources.list_backup You can add the lines by commanding Code: nano /etc/apt/sources.list while you are root. Then you should first remove all the lines there, and then copy this into it: Code: # official Debian archives deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free #deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free # Experimental deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ ../project/experimental main contrib # KDE 3.4 deb http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde-3.4.0/ ./ deb http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde-3.4.1/ ./ # K3B deb http://www.planet-moll.de/debian/ sarge main # Randall Donald's prebuilt nvidia kernel modules deb http://people.debian.org/~rdonald/nvidia modules-unstable/i386/ # unofficial packages by Christian Marillat: # acroread, mplayer & friends, realplayer, others. # see http://hpisi.nerim.net deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ stable main deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main # Kalyxo (http://kalyxo.mornfall.net): # Qt themes for GTK; KDE goodies for Debian. #deb http://archive.kalyxo.org/kalyxo/ staging main #deb http://archive.kalyxo.org/kalyxo/ experimental main #deb http://62.104.23.254/kalyxo/ staging main #deb http://62.104.23.254/kalyxo/ experimental main # bootsplash themes # see www.bootsplash.de deb http://debian.bootsplash.de unstable main # Matthias Ulrich: gpgsm, brings S/MIME support to KMail deb http://smurf.noris.de/code/debian/ experimental smurf # Real Time custom repository: PwManager deb ftp://ftp.real-time.com/linux/real-time unstable custom # another mplayer source #deb http://debian.kcore.org/ ./ # backports, sideports, almost-official packages #deb http://debian.jones.dk/ sarge misc #deb http://debian.jones.dk/ sid misc # NuFW #deb http://www.nufw.org/debian/ unstable/ # TeX Live: http://www.tug.org/texlive/debian.html deb http://www.tug.org/texlive/Debian binary/ This'll let you install KDE atleast, I'm not sure about GNOME. You should be able to use it too, it's not that hard. Ask if anything comes up!
I'm using fluxbox as a window manager, nice and lighweight. Maybe try THIS guide for a lightweight install.It's a faily comprehensive walkthrough of the install, he uses IceWM as a window manager, but you can use fluxbox or anything else by using Code: apt-get install x-window-system-core mozilla-firefox aterm menu fluxbox mozilla-thunderbird sudo artwiz-cursor xfe (x-window-system-core will install X, aterm is a terminal, menu will help generate the menu for fluxbox (I think), XFE is a file manager. mozilla-thunderbird, sudo, and artwiz-cursor are optional. Edit: What install of debian did you use, and what version is it? Do you have any other things you might want to get working like Wifi?
I used the 3.1 rev3 stable install iso off of the debian site, I would like to get a netgear wireless card working but I will still have a internet connection with out it.
Ok, new problem. Got a desktop environment installed but when gdm tries to start is gives a error. Something is wrong with the video card config. Can anyone help?
one of the most helpfull haunts(no pun intended) http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=index http://ubuntuforums.org/
