Linux for a really old laptop...

Sumanji

Sumanji

Sumanji

Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2003
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USA
Hey,

I have an old laptop lying around (P2-400, 256MB, 20Gb, DVD) so I thought I'd start dabbling in Linux, which I've been meaning to do for ages. I've just installed Ubuntu 6.10 on it, and while my initial impressions are good, I'm a bit disappointed with how sluggish it is. Both Windows XP and XSOS were a lot snappier; Firefox for example takes aaaages to open up on Ubuntu!

So my question is this; is there a more streamlined version of Linux I can get? Something which will run better on slow machines. The one I have come across so far is Xubuntu which claims to have lower system requirements than Ubuntu, but I don't want to waste time trying it if it's only marginally better.

So, any suggestions? :)

Cheers,

Suman

P.S. I'm a complete Linux-noob, so be gentle!
 
You could try DSL Linux (Damn Small Linux) Which is a heavily stripped down Linux that can be ran from a CD, or be installed onto the machine.

It won't look as pretty as Ubuntu but it should be a lot snappier.

Rich
 
Thanks, that sounds cool :)

Is there reduced functionality though? All I need really is, 1) an Office suite, 2) Internet browser, and 3) WiFi capabilities (having trouble with this on Ubuntu at the moment!).

Cheers,

Suman
 
that spec of PC is quite high by the standards of what DSL is aimed at.
Not to say DSL isn't worth a try, it most definately is.

But with the spec you've quoted you may well be better with DSL's big brother, DSL-N (damn small linux - not), which will give you a 2.6 kernel (DSL is 2.4) and possibly better hardware support.

like the original DSL, it's still a pretty tight OS, small distro, low resource usage. give either of them a go.

i ran a similar spec laptop on dsl for well over a year and had no major issues.
 
Ok thanks, I'll look in to that. My main issue at the moment seems to be wireless support... it's a bloody nightmare trying to get WPA to work!! :(
 
indeed, trouble is it seems like every wireless chipset is different.
your best bet might be asking for help on several forums for your specific wireless chipset.

i found a how-to for my chipset, think it inolved using ndiswrapper around the windows driver.

good look.
 
Your probably better installing a smaller GUI like fluxbox, as its KDE and Gnome that can really bog down a system.
Wireless (let alone adding wpa to the equation), is just a pain in the rear for anyone running Linux :)
 
XFCE is pretty lightweight anyhow (well not as much as the *box series) but should work fine on that spec.
 
With a system like that any debian based distro is going to run sluggish, so Ubuntu, DSL, Debian (duh!), etc is not going to be a wise choice, as these distros are bloated.

I run Arch Linux on my PIII 500Mhz coppermine, 128MB SDRAM, 10GB HDD, 2.5MB NeoMagic256AV Dell Latitude LS (laptop). A hell of a lot faster then Ubuntu (which I tried).

Unfortunately Arch Linux isn't very novice friendly.

Fedora ran rather well, but is again quite bloated. Slackware is the one I would recommend, although I haven't had much experience with it. Fedora however is a complete GUI install, which also lets you pick and choose the packages that you want.

As for Firefox, despite its praise, it is a poorly written bloated piece of *****. It will take ages to load no matter what OS you are running (although still quicker then Ubuntu).
 
I run CentOS (RedHat/Fedora clone) on a P2-400 and it is fast enough using XFCE, definitely worth giving Fedora a shot and installing XFCE :)
 
fumbles said:
With a system like that any debian based distro is going to run sluggish, so ... , DSL, ... etc is not going to be a wise choice, as these distros are bloated.
Click to expand...

you can't call DSL bloated, the full distro is less than 50Mb.
with the spec quoted in the OP he could mount the entire distro in ram.
it isn't gonna be sluggish.

though it is of course possible to add extra's on top of a DSL install, the base system is specifically designed to be lightweight.

the min spec (from the dsl website) is a 486DX with 16MB of Ram!
 
Sumanji said:
Overload.... overload... temptation to revert to Windows rising! :p
Click to expand...
lol, can get a bit overwhelming! Seriously, grab a copy of Xubuntu (it's Ubuntu with a more lightweight window manager) from here:

http://www.xubuntu.org/

System requirements are:
To run the Desktop CD (LiveCD + Install CD), you need 128 MB RAM to run or 192 MB RAM to install. The Alternate Install CD only required you to have 64 MB RAM.

To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk.

Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 64 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to use at least 128 MB RAM
Click to expand...
:)
 
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