Linux on an old PC

[SinbadEV]

So, there's a Pentium II (466 MHz) with 186MB of Ram (not sure how they managed it... maybe the integrated graphics card is borrowing an odd number) sitting up in the cabin... it Runs windows XP slow but passably... the hard drive is I think 5 or 10GB (not big anyways)... high speed internet via ethernet and integrated sound+video, CDrom and Floppy... I tried an Ubuntu Live CD and it was too slow... but I think that's lack of RAM.

At one time running Linux was faster then running windows so I was figuring there should be a version of Linux that will run better then XP and meet all the existing uses this computer has been used for (namely, playing music, looking at pictures, surfing the web... it also has been used to play games... so a build that has a bunch of games in it or has wine installed would be great... I'm pretty sure wine would run the Windows 98 Era games that are currently being used on it).

My current best bet is OpenSuse ( http://www.opensuse.org/en/ selected using the "Linux Distribution Chooser" at http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc)...

Anyway, first I need to know if this Build is suitable... and then which of the listed builds I should use... perhaps I should go to an older version?

edit: also looking into DamnSmallLinux (http://damnsmalllinux.org/)

[Andrej]

Your just described windows 2000 tell them its a linux distro they will never know.

[koshi]

if DSL doesn't suit you, have a look at http://lxde.org/lxde#System_Requirements / http://lubuntu.net/about

[Pxtl]

There is a version of Ubuntu (not a 3rd-party fork, it's canon from Canonical) called Xubuntu. It's not as polished as Ubuntu, but it's still pretty nice, and should be peppy on that old hardware.

edit: nm, didn't know about Lubuntu, which seems to be a better project than Xubuntu.

[Neddie]

Xubuntu probably won't run well on that hardware. I have a Pentium III with 192 MB of RAM and none of the Ubuntu derivatives ran appreciably well. I personally recommend DSL.

[SinbadEV]

DSL is running pretty OK on the even worse computer struggling to run Windows 98 that we were using to let my 2 year old play 98 era interactive books on... so that's going to be my first try on the newer one.

[Wartender]

how about puppy linux? i've heard it's pretty popular and it's really small/not hardware hungry

[SinbadEV]

how about puppy linux? i've heard it's pretty popular and it's really small/not hardware hungry

their page was slightly more confusing then the DSL page... I'll look into it again I suppose

[oksnoop2]

I'm installing this on a bunch of old windows 2000 viaos at work.

http://www.fluxbuntu.org/js.html

[lurker]

Can it usb boot?

[oksnoop2]

I don't know.