Linux on old systems?

quackers

quackers

quackers

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Liverpool :-)
Hi all,

I've decided that over the weekend, i'm going to take the plunge and have a look at linux.

Now my test system is an old p2-266 i think, with only 64mb ram at the moment. What's the best distro to run on that piece of junk?

Is there anything that will run on that?

Thanks all
 
There are a few smaller distros that would run on that system. Most of the bigger ones like Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora etc require 128-256mb minimum and recommend 512mb. I think you'd need to be looking at something using neither Gnome or KDE though, so look into distros using XCFE or Fluxbox, they are really lightweight GUIs. Perhaps Puppy Linux or Damn Small Linux might be places to start.

Have you considered downloading a "Live CD" for something other than your test system? That way you can run it and test it on a more modern system but it doesn't actually install to your hard drive. It's not quite so fast as a full installation but it will give you a taste of a modern and more fully featured Linux. Try Ubuntu, you can run the live CD and install from the same one if you wish and dual boot with Windows still available to you.
 
quackers said:
The live cd sounds interesting, so it runs in a virtual environment in windows?
Click to expand...

Not quite, it boots from the CD and loads Linux without going anywhere near Windows. In other words, you hard drive containing Windows isn't involved in the process at all.

Have a look here, the article is a bit old but it explains things well:

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9569

I'd recommend Ubuntu if you want to try it out, that way you can set up a dual boot easily from the same disc if you decide to install it.
 
That does sound really good, so you can test all the different distros without actually installing anything. I like the sound of Ubuntu Live.
 
Nope, doesn't install to the hard drive at all. If you want to install it after you finish playing around there is an icon that you can use on the desktop that takes you through a wizard but obviously if you don't want to install it don't click on it :)
 
Live Cd was a god sent for me when starting out wiht linux, it ment while installing linux I could go on the forums and ask questions etc :) Its a fully working system from a CD :)
 
Live CDs are very handy, download as many as you want and just play around/test out different distros.
Big list Here
They are also useful if you wanna test out the 3D desktops, and you don't have to break your config.

VMware is another option if you want a more permanent linux system, vmware player is free.
 
Depends what you want to use the computer for. If you want to have a gui and use modern applications it will be painfully slow.

You wont want to use KDE or Gnome i don't think. They will also slow things down. Get a light desktop manager like flux.

Use the live cd's to get an idea of how it handles them though.
 
MrWhippy said:
given the spec of the target system, i'd be tempted to try a DSL live cd on it.
that should fly on such a system.
Click to expand...
I too recommend DSL. Ubuntu is going to run very poorly in that little RAM. If it were on hard disk it might be alittle better but I'd still go with DSL.
 
Don't bother with the Ubuntu CD on that, you'll be waiting all night for it to boot. Takes long enough on my 3200 with 1gb RAM :)

DSL should run fine though as many have said :p

Get some more RAM in there if at all possible, makes things MUCH more bearable...
 
That old system was going to be used to basically mess around with linux, i'll use my main machine to run the live cd. Even that is quite old now, xp2500@2ghz, 512ram etc etc. I think i need to upgrade :)
 
Well i'm more than impressed, ubunto is very nice indeed. I'm going to download another couple and see what they are like as well, i'm sure i'll be around these parts a lot more now :)
 
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