Favorite Distro for Older/Weaker Hardware - 2008

[oz]

This poll/thread is meant to help those users that are having difficulty deciding which distribution(s) they should use to work with their older/weaker computer. Please use it to post information about your favorite distro for older/weaker hardware, but don't post comments saying that any particular distro is the best, because the best truly is very subjective.

Note that this thread will be locked and/or deleted at the end of the year and a new thread started.

The poll from last year can be found here.

[MikeTbob]

Damn Small Linux gets my damn small vote!

[devils casper]

Damn Small Linux.

[athlon_crazy]

no-x linux cluster edition

[darkrose0510]

Either damn small, or slackware < 12 with a 2.4 kernel.

That's unless I go way out and put Syllable on it.

[multios]

I have a 200mhz machine, 32megs ram, 350 meg hd that runs just fine.
I have 2 operating systems on it:
OS/2 Warp 4 and FreeBSD 6.2 (base system) installed.

2 days ago, I was given a IBM 300GL from a client after helping her get her new xp system running.

I added ram (now 256megs) and a hd that was a spare(now- 40gig was 4.3 gig). The distros on the hd are: OpenBSD, Debian, Slackware, Mandriva. They all run fine, but Mandriva is sluggish compared to the others.

I still love OS/2. With the update cd, it is nice.

multios

[blitz]

can recommend somethin for a old hp pavillion 8509..pentium 3 450mhz,256mb ram,8mb video card,cd writer..i jus wanna venture into linux to learn bout it..

[oz]

can recommend somethin for a old hp pavillion 8509..pentium 3 450mhz,256mb ram,8mb video card,cd writer..i jus wanna venture into linux to learn bout it..

Welcome to the forums, blitz!

That's what the poll is for... see what was recommended by how they voted in the poll above.

Have fun with whatever you decide to go with.

[valan]

Linux From Scratch. Only if you have the time for it on older hardware. It literally took a month of nonstop compiling to build it on my 486. But it was well worth it, nothing else came close to matching the performance on that ancient box.

[ryokimball]

I have to give props to the Puppy. I've been playing with this one miserable computer for some time now, and the only thing I can get to install on it is Puppy Linux.


Strangely enough, all memory tests indicate that the RAM is completely shot, yet it still seems to function....

I also keep Puppy (as well as DSL and an OLD Knoppix disc) with me whenever I go somewhere --you never know when some poor soul might need salvation....