Best Distro for an old laptop - Only requiring internet access

[Tesla]

Hi guys,

Would like some opinions on the best distribution to run on an old laptop, the only use of the laptop is Internet access.

I don't have exact laptop spec's yet but will look them up when I can.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Illusion]

If your talking really old then one of the really tiny distro's like Puppy or Damn Small Linux would probably make it seem more usable. Otherwise most distros can be customised with more light weight window managers etc to make them more snappy, but that depends on much effort you want to put into it.

 

[dangerstat]

Well it's a difficult one. I can answer better when you post the spec. But as a quick guide I run Debian 5 (with a full gnome desktop) on a PIII 256MB Laptop and it runs really well!

 

[SoC]

Debian stable release (lenny) -- select laptop during installation process.

 

[Spyhop]

I had (geek) fun building up an old IBM Thinkpad from a minimal Arch Linux install.

It's cool to have a computer with only what's absolutely required on it. I'm always put off by menus full of dodgy apps that I'll never use.

 

[Tesla]

Spec,

Laptop 01: P3 1.0Ghz, 512mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

Laptop 02: P3 850Mhz, 384mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

 

[Rwac]

Well it's a difficult one. I can answer better when you post the spec. But as a quick guide I run Debian 5 (with a full gnome desktop) on a PIII 256MB Laptop and it runs really well!

What P3 chip is that? I've got a 600mhz P3 256mb lappie that I might give a new lease of life for the missus to browse on.

 

[slylittlefox]

Spec,

Laptop 01: P3 1.0Ghz, 512mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

Laptop 02: P3 850Mhz, 384mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

Pfft, they'll run anything within reason

I've just put Debian Etch on a P300MMX with 64MB of RAM; after a minimal install (no X either) I've still got 31MB of 64MB free

 

[Tancred]

On my 5 year old laptop I run Debian stable, with XFCE. It runs like a charm

 

[Simian]

Spec,

Laptop 01: P3 1.0Ghz, 512mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

Laptop 02: P3 850Mhz, 384mb Ram, 20gb HDD.

My old Compaq Presario Laptop has:

AMD4 1Ghz, 512Mb RAM (16Mb Shared S3 Graphics), 20Gb HDD.

I run Xubuntu (v9.04) on it with no problems!!... even picked up my (cheap) WiFi Card first time without any fettling!!

 

[alex24]

Xubuntu should be fine with that spec, and you can run firefox etc which would be best for browsing over the included browsers in DSL or puppy linux for example.

 

[quackers]

On my old 1.5 celeron, 512mb ram and 40gb I run ubuntu 9.04, runs fine. I did have it quad boot at one time, ubuntu, mint 7, pclinux and xp all fine

 

[PanchoVilla]

Slax, damn small linux, puppy. Can also try mint.

 

[BigglesPiP]

Crunchbang maybe?

I'm enjoying using an Ubuntu based distro (Xubuntu), and Crunchbang is definitely lightweight and fast.