Which Distro?

[Bluegrassman]

Hello all. Complete newbie here. I have been given a spare pc to play with, and need to know which distro would be suitable given the very limited resources of this machine. I am completely new to Linux. I plan to wipe the hard drive on this pc and start completely fresh with whichever distro is recommended.

Specs:
Compaq Presario Desktop
1.0GHz Pentium III
64MB RAM
16GB hard drive
Current OS: Windows Me (to be dumped!)

Please advise. Thanks in advance!

[jayd512]

Hi there!
Looks like the RAM is going to be the main deciding factor here. A PIII will do fine for most distros, but with limited memory, you're going to want to look into something fairly light-weight. Check this poll for some good options.

[Bluegrassman]

Thanks jayd, looks like several choices there. I guess what I really need to know is: What is the most user friendly (for total newbie), most fully functional distro I can hope to run with only 64MB Ram?
Seems like most everyone has a min. Ram of 256MB. I had hope to maybe be able to try Xubuntu.

[jayd512]

You might want to look into either Puppy or Damn Small.

*EDIT*

Also, link.

[Bluegrassman]

Thanks. I have a feeling DSL is going to end up my choice.

[oz]

Thanks. I have a feeling DSL is going to end up my choice.

Yes, the best thing to do is to dig in and get your hands dirty.

If DSL doesn't work out, try another one. Most distributions are freely downloaded, so you can learn a great deal from experimenting with different distributions.

Do let us know how it all turns out.

[rokytnji]

Slitaz is a nice one try out also

Quote "64MB is needed for the "slitaz-loram" flavor"

http://www.slitaz.org/en/get/

[kr4ey]

You could ty the Xubuntu Alternate Install CD. The website says it only requires 64mb.

Get Xubuntu | Xubuntu.org

[Bluegrassman]

You could ty the Xubuntu Alternate Install CD. The website says it only requires 64mb.

Get Xubuntu | Xubuntu.org

I considered that, but this statement from their site is throwing me off:

"To run the Desktop CD (LiveCD + Install CD), you need 128 MB RAM to run or 192 MB RAM to install. The Alternate Install CD only requires you to have 64 MB RAM.

To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk.

Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 192 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256 MB RAM."

Does that mean it's a no go for this machine? I like the looks of Xubuntu and it sounds like what I would like to use, but.........

[Bluegrassman]

Well, after a lot of reading. I'm torn between Puppy and DSL. Looks like the best thing to do is just try them both out I think. I need to install a NIC on this machine also. Any suggestions as to which NIC is most compatible?