best os for ?

[sam111]

I have a very old laptop and I was wondering what the best linux distro would be for it in your opinion.

The memory is 192MB
HDD 12 GB.
It is an old ibm thinkpad originally had windows 95/98 installed on it.

My goal is to beable to use it as a portable laptop that I can take anywhere and not worry to much if it gets stolen.
Main purpose is to be able to browse the internet.
Do some programming ( basically I have one of my main servers at home running cvs so I can check in and out software to/from this laptop )
When I say programming I am not going to do my intensive stuff on this system but will code for fun , to touch stuff up, or practice learning new languages.

Would also like a good looking windows/desktop manager that looks good, doesn't take up memory and is fast. I am willing to of course sacrifice look for speed and memory usage.

Keep in mind I only have a max of 192 MB and 12 GB HDD.

Curious to know what your opinion .

[atreyu]

Puppy and Damn Small Linux leap to mind. I personally like Fluxbox and fbpanel for my desktop environment. I like to stick with Vim and Nedit for editing.

[sam111]

which one of the 2 would you say is faster or better in your opinion.
Looking briefly at the requirements I think Damn small linux is less memory intensive.

[atreyu]

That would be my opinion as well, but I have never used either. If you google Puppy vs DSL, you'll get a better answer than I could give.

[MASONTX]

Antix or legacyOS might work, but with only 192 MB ram, you are going to have to research distro's to see if they will fit. Distrowatch.com has a search engine that you can search for older computers, window managers you like, etc. and use that as a basis for your search. Good luck.

[sam111]

Looking at the wikipedia entry
List of Linux distributions that run from RAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would say that Tiny SliTaz is the smallest or some variation of it. And it has a GUI desktop.

But curious if anybody knows if their are a smaller graphically version of linux then 8MB-10MB ish.

[atreyu]

Oh, you want Tiny Core Linux.

[rokytnji]

Arch based. May be worth burning a disk and taking for a spin.

connochaetos [ConnochaetOS]

[sam111]

Ya , I think thats the tiny core one I am going to go for.

3 Questions

1) Is tiny core the smallest gui based distro or one of the smallest distro's (or do they get even smaller provided they have a gui)

2) With tiny core and other small versions /distros out their is their any thing stoping me from uninstalling the default windows/desktop manager and installing another better looking lite weight one? Or does these mini linux distros have a restriction on the software you are able to install.

3) I am wondering about just finding the smallest linux non-gui version and installing x11 and a really lite weight windows/desktop manager. Would I be able to create a smaller version then tiny core....?

[atreyu]

1) TCL is the smallest Linux distro I've ever heard of

2) nothing stopping you, license-wise

3) if you could manage to get it much smaller than they already have, you should probably be working for them

and that's 3 questions _