Hey guys, being forced to use my laptop due to my graphics card being RMA'd, I have got back into linux, I am using ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop which as an athlon xp 1.4ghz and 256mb of ram and s3 savage4 graphics. Basically ubuntu is way too user friendly to run fast on this machine, I know I could buy more ram, but its so bloody expensive for sdram and I just cant justify spending x amount on 512mb when I know that could be another 2gb of ddr2 in my main box. So I want a linux distro thats light as it can be, but still looks ok, I have been looking at fluxbox based distros, has anyone got any suggestions? All I ever use it for is surfing the net, wireless, so NDISwrapper has to be nice and easy to install, along with a network manager that will work with a WPA passcode. I have been using wicd with ubuntu, but just recently its messed up so I have no wireless. Also I am about to try and install fluxbox onto this ubuntu install, but Im not sure how so we shall see how that goes.
xubuntu with xfce is built for older hardware and is still as friendly as ubuntu. you wouldn't even need to change just run tasksel and click xubuntu desktop, that will set it up and make xubuntu the default desktop as if it was a fresh install.
Xubuntu is easy and fast, but if you really just want blazing fast, you want Gentoo. Mind you, it's much, much harder to set up.
if you want VERY fast go Gentoo, i like slackware which if you don't mind learning a bit about Linux and some manual install it is a great distro
Naa, Gentoo isn't hard... If you want 1000% speed and configurability, go for LFS... But on a more serious note, Gentoo is close... It's core and fast, but probably overkill. Look into Fluxbuntu or Xubuntu for your first steps in speed...
Cheers for the input guys, I will try gentoo in the next few days. But first I tried what UncertainGod said When I run tasksel and select xubuntu desktop, it jumps back to the terminal and gives me this error, debconf: DbDriver "passwords" warning: could not open /var/cache/debconf/passwords.dat: Permission denied debconf: DbDriver "config": could not write /var/cache/debconf/config.dat-new: Permission denied tasksel: debconf failed to run Any ideas? Also couldn't I just install xubuntu desktop through synaptic package manager?
You could try Dreamlinux as well, it is supposed to run fine on slowish systems. I am currently using Xubuntu on a 700mhz 256mb RAM laptop, but I cannot get the network card to work.
Well xubuntu install from deskles seems like its either just finishing up, or its stuck at 99%. If the install does finish, then judging by your specs, it should run great for me. Dreamlinux looks fantastic, if it really does work on slow machines then it will be my new weapon of choice but I have serious doubts, it just looks too good. I am just downloading it now, so we shall see.
Arch linux is nice too. But Gentoo, by far is the best distro in the world hands down. Once you taste Gentoo you CANNOT go back to anything else. Unfortunately it's probably one of the most frustrating distros ever, and you'll spend 95% of your time in it fixing, compiling and optimising it. But I still love it to bits.
Well I'll be damned, installed dreamlinux, what a beast. It really does run well and comes with everything I use preinstalled. It opens firefox like a flash which is the best thing, there was a lag of between 1 and 5 seconds on ubuntu, even with the xfce window manager. It looks really good too, theres a few things about xfce I dont like as much as gnome or kde, but the dreamlinux theme is very nice, very mac like. I never thought I would say those 10 words.
Dreamlinux looks pretty damn nice. I might have to give that a try sometime, currently using XP and Ubuntu 7.10. As far as really light linux goes, Damn Small Linux is an interesting distro if you are looking at small sized. It claims to be able to run on a 486DX with 16MB of ram.
It's not a false claim either, I've done it a while back with a compaq laptop 486zx66 16mb RAM and 120Mb HDD. What a beast that machine was.
