Linux for an old computer

robgti · 6 Jan 2011 at 09:38

Hi guys. For Christmas I managed to get my Dad a new computer so he gave me his old Dell to have. It is only around 5 years old but only has 256mb of DDR ram and a intel celeron d cpu running at I think 2.7Ghz.

Now I all ready have a pretty decent computer so I will not be using as a primary desktop just for a bit of fun.

Which linux would be ideal for it? Not going to be gaming or anything just something to have and possible later sell on.

Thank you

jack.mitchell · 6 Jan 2011 at 09:46

Give PCLinuxOS a bash, LXDE or XFCE edition will suit an old machine best.

XFCE - http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=213
LXDE - http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=188

Mr_Orange · 6 Jan 2011 at 12:18

It depends on what you want to do with the PC. If you want to learn more about linux Arch or Debian would be good because you can customise them to not have the system resource heavy elements of linux. However if you just want something easy then something like Xubuntu should work quite well.

robgti · 6 Jan 2011 at 12:22

Ideally just after something that will run a bit faster than windows and also not use up as much memory etc. It will be the first time using Linux so something easy to use would be excellent.

Mr_Orange · 6 Jan 2011 at 12:26

In that case I'd say Xubuntu is the best bet. Because it's a branch of Ubuntu it would be well supported if something crops up.

There are light weight distros about that would run better on low specs (arch, puppy, dsl etc.) but chances are Xubuntu would be the best intro to linux without being too overwhelming.

robgti · 6 Jan 2011 at 12:30

OK excellent. Will have a go of that when I finish work.

Cheers

Mr_Orange · 6 Jan 2011 at 14:17

let us know how you got on!

robgti · 6 Jan 2011 at 14:51

Will do. Will have to find a monitor to link it up to. Tried last nigh with a disk of Linux on my main system and came up invalid format on the screen. I imagine the screen doesn't support the resolution during installation.

PermaBanned · 6 Jan 2011 at 16:55

Xubuntu is no lighter than regular Ubuntu. And you think that's an old computer? I've run Slitaz rather smoothly on a PII rig

That could probably run Ubuntu passably, but if you want something related but lighter then look at Peppermint One.

robgti · 6 Jan 2011 at 20:39

Well it is old compared to the one I am using. Runs like a bag of poo at the moment as well. Have managed to get a stick of 512mb ram so hopefully speed it up a little.

pingwing · 6 Jan 2011 at 21:04

My old pentium 2 rig with 128 meg of ram ran a well refined set up of Gentoo with xfce 4 on it back in the day (must have been 16-17 when I set that up) that was a lovely bit of kit to have running as a net browser and to play some classic games on...

Get a distro like Gentoo, Arch or maybe Debian and do a basic install to learn how it all works and goes together