Linux most suitable linux distro for an old lappy

hey

i have acquired a compaq armada 1500c laptop

celeron 400mhz, 160mb ram, 6gb hard drive, cd rom drive

what im wondering is, what is the best and most quickest linux distro for me?

i've used suse 10 before and mandrake 8.1 too, but that was aaaaages ago!

i've been reading about ubuntu 7.04 (feisty fawn?) and im considering that, but im not sure if ive got enough ram! but, i cant upgrade the ram anymore as thats already at the max!

any help would be appreciated

thanx

 

I'd say Damn Small Linux (or Damn Small Linux -n) they both use BusyBox as a GUI rather then KDE or Gnome.

 

The installed version of DamnSmallLinux will be very snappy, and if you can scrounge up some more RAM you can even set it up to run completely from RAM and it'll absolutely fly.

www.damnsmalllinux.org

EDIT: Doug beat me. In that case, I fully support Doug's suggestion.

 

the only thing with DSL is that it's ****ing hard to install new apps by default, if you do decide to go that route I'll send you the GCC binaries to compile stuff from source.

 

To answer this aspect of your thread - Ubuntu likes a bit more RAM than 160MB, though you can try the alternate version, which is for PCs with <192MB RAM. Though I'd go with what has already been suggested - DSL as it works on very low-spec machines.

 

hey
thanx for the replies peoples!

well, i've downloaded a copy of the DSL live cd, and i'm going to try and run that for a bit on my pc just to see if its got everything i want/need

all that im going to be using it for is to browse the interweb, word/excel and if i can find a decent client, for MSN messenger too!

can msn be ported over?!

 

aMSN to the rescue

 

aMEN to that, for word/excel you will need to either use crossover linux (costs) or an open souce equivilant, i personnaly use open office

 

I use both (Crossover with MS Office 2003 && OpenOffice) and TBH OpenOffice is great for personal use, but when I share my documents with others I still use Crossover, just to cope with layout problems and such. 40$ isn't that much of a price IMHO. (and of course, you can find Crossover in 'other' ways too)

 

6GB hard drive?

I would use a stripped version of Debian. Just install the essentials. Ubuntu and DSL are derived from Debain anyway, so why not. I aquired a K6 machine with similar specs awhile ago and I did the same thing.

 

Debian is as difficult to install as Gentoo, which would absolutely fly on that machine. Whatever distro you choose, I suggest XFCE4 as your window manager, I find it to be the best compromise between speed/user-friendliness. I wouldn't use Ubuntu, it installs far too much by default, and is really rather slow. I have a very similar pc, which I installed Gentoo on, so if you want any optimised config files, give me a pm.

 

Gentoo is a lot harder then Debian to install. Debian has a 'graphical' (Dialog based) installer, while Gentoo uses CLI. Debian uses a (bloated) general kernel, while in Gentoo you have to compile it yourself (stay clear of Genkernel). But TBH, if you can read & use Google, you can install Gentoo...

I agree that you should stay clear of Ubuntu... Can't say much good about it (every variant, Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Xubuntu)... Too Windows... (They should realise that CUPS isn't a critical package)

As a WM, I'd go for Fluxbox. A lot less weighty then all the rest, and still very userfriendly. TBH, I couldn't live without it anymore. No moving eye candy and bloated useless stuff, just plain power and speed.

 

You forgot about Fluxbuntu Glider

Also according to this there is a GTK+ based Graphical installer, no idea where it is though!

 

It is and remains Ubuntu

And I know about the graphical installer... But last time I heard about it it wasn't up to a decent standard... and lacked the ability to configure your system properly (like Ubuntu )

 

My slow laptop is running a basic install of Debian (did the server install) with fluxbox as a WM. It runs quite fast.

 

I run Debian 3.0 on a IBM PS/2 Model 90 (--> Intel 80486@33MHz, 16MiB RAM, 1GiB HDD) and NetBSD 2.0.2 on a IBM 330-450DX2 (--> Intel 80486DX2@50MHz, 32MiB RAM, 2x 1.5GiB HDD) and both are lightning fast. But: They are CLI only

What do we learn: Pretty much every GNU/Linux-Distro (except SuSE, Ubuntu,...)/*BSD is suited for your purpose. I would definitively give *BSD a try though


HTH

 

I would highly recommend xubuntu, you get most of the features of ubuntu but it runs on much slower machines (I'm running it on a similar spec to yours and its very nippy). I would download the alternative install cd though rather than the live one, as the live cd requires a bit more RAM.