Linux on an old PC

Steveire

I recently bought a nice shiny, fast computer, and i'm looking for something to do with my Dell P2 233MHz w/ MMX, 96 MB RAM dinosaur.
i want to put linux on it, cause i've heard good things about it and want to find out how to use it.
i got a knoppix cd from mathsoc in ucd cos they were giving them away, but that runs ridiculously slow, and i suspect it's because my computers so old.
i'd like to try an old version of linux (my computer is from 1997), but i don't know how to get one seeing as i've a dial-up modem, or where on the internet to get it from.
any ideas people?

fragile

Mandrake is probably the most user friendly for somebody new to Linux, and if you use one of the light-weigth window managers like Fluxbox or XFwm4 instead of KDE or Gnome then it should run fine on those specs.

The easiest way to get a copy is to have a look in your local newsagent for Linux magazines, they usually include a number of distros on DVD, or maybe somebody here with bandwidth to spare could download it for you.

aidan_walsh

My advice would be to stick with either Mandrake or Fedora, but you should browse DistroWatch and see what package might suit you better. And when it comes to making a choice, you can often order installation disks from the distro's publishers, or if not chances are that LinuxCD.org will have it.

OfflerCrocGod

With those specs you wont be running much of anything especially something like Mandrake 10 :eek: You may get an old one from some Linux books in your local library but it would be so old as to be worthless and you would end up disappointed.

Fenster

Suse is also more or less friendly for newbies, although its features-lite, which can cause problems.

parasite

at the knoppix boot prompt, type `knoppix desktop=fluxbox`
should be less painful

logistic

If your looking for linux distros this link may help www.linux.ie/community/cdburners.php

As mentioned i cant see mandrake running smoothly on those specs. I advise to try ubuntu

eggshapedfred

my advice would be to try something like Vector Linux. Its designed to run on older hardware, and definitely don't try running Gnome or Kde.

tomk

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

With those specs you wont be running much of anything especially something like Mandrake 10 :eek: You may get an old one from some Linux books in your local library but it would be so old as to be worthless and you would end up disappointed.

It all depends what you want Linux to do. I run machines with lower spec than that very successfully, as servers, firewalls, etc. No GUI, so none of the performance demands of GNOME, KDE, etc. I do everything from CLI, which is the best way to learn Linux, IMO.

Another approach would be to try a different Live CD - Knoppix isn't the only choice. Damn Small Linux fits an entire desktop distro into 50MB, Feather Linux is slighty bigger at 64MB.