Recommended Distro For Lower Spec Hardware (2013)

[devils casper]

Which distribution would you most recommend to others for lower spec or older/weaker computer hardware?


Last year's Poll

[MASONTX]

While AntiX and SliTaz are good, and I have used them at times, I prefer Lubuntu for low end hardware.

[hazel]

AntiX, a bit reluctantly. I always used to say Crux for sheer speed, and I still love Crux more than any other distro I've run. But packages have got steadily bigger over the years as more bells and whistles were hung on them, and some that I needed can no longer be built on a small machine. It's not so much the time - I used to do my big builds overnight so that didn't bother me - but I kept running out of memory and getting hit by the oom-killer.

Slackware is highly customisable so you can certainly run it in a small space (though standard Slackware uses KDE and that's hardly small!). But it's pretty eccentric in its philosophy so I wouldn't recommend it except to people like myself who are intrigued by it for that very reason.

[aomimezura]

Damn Small Linux has worked on every system I've tried as a fallback, but I wouldn't consider it a very "useful" distro for everyday use.

[rokytnji]

Look left to see how I voted. Downloading 3.7.1 i386 gnu kernel headers and image debs for low spec

$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: biker Kernel: 3.3.5-antix.1-486-smp i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.7.0) 
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.7 Distro: antiX-full Edelweißpiraten 22 August 2012
Machine:   System: Intel product: Montara Family of Chipsets
           Mobo: Phoenix model: RT786EX version: 41118 Bios: Phoenix version: MGM-ALL1.86C.1009.D.0604271130 date: 04/27/06
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (sse sse2) bmips: 1196.13 clocked at 600.00 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.12.1.902 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A
Audio:     Card: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller 
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: 1c00 18c0 bus-ID: 00:1f.5 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1: Atheros AR5212/AR5213 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath5k bus-ID: 07:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ driver: 8139too ver: 0.9.28 port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:09.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 8.0GB (41.1% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST68022CF size: 8.0GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 6.7G used: 3.1G (49%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 0.82GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 90 Uptime: 55 min Memory: 190.0/492.6MB Runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.2.20) inxi: 1.8.26

Amrel Toughbook laptop. It runs good on my IBM a22m laptop AND IBM t23 laptop also. I like the 64bit AntiX testing iso better than Ubuntu variants also. I play with Semplice on one of my wireless IBM M41 Desktop motorcycle shop computers also which is pretty low spec also.
Vector Linux 7, Macpup 529, and AntiX 12 sits on other partitions also on that Desktop Computer which is just a customer play-toy/testbed/media center box in the shop.

Maybe I should throw this Laptop into the shop also.
for the shop.

Edit: Done installing New Kernel. Icewm ran at 45MB after Slim login on reboot with gnu kernel.

System:    Host: biker Kernel: 3.7.1-gnu-antix.2-486-smp i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.7.2) 
           Desktop: IceWM 1.3.7 Distro: antiX-full Edelweißpiraten 22 August 2012