Linux for a Crap Machine

**aeuzent** · 03-10-2005

I cannibalized all my old computer parts and tossed together a cheap piece of crap I want to use for just simple internet browsing and instant messaging

the specs are

200MHz Intel Pentium
24 mb EDO Memory / 256k pipeline burst cache
3 gb hard drive
and a 16x speed cd-rom

Now I'm looking for a small fast linux distro for the purposes I had above. I already checked out Damn Small Linux but since the cd-rom is so damn slow that the system all but freezes when you finish the boot

**IsaacKuo** · 03-10-2005

The real killer is having only 24megs of RAM. That severely limits your options. Your best bet is probably to experiment with turning the machine into a dedicated VNC client.

I'm in the process of figuring this out myself, using a P100 with 48megs of RAM. While this is possibly enough RAM to run X, I'm going for a more lightweight SVGALib solution. By avoiding X, this should result in optimum performance while minimizing RAM requirements.

With a VNC client, essentially all of the processing is done on the VNC server. The client is more or less just a dumb display terminal.

**aeuzent** · 03-10-2005

I scrounged around and bumped the memory up to 64 mb

I got Damn Small Linux installed and working great

**protocol** · 03-10-2005

you can run Linux on a full fledged whopping x386 with 32MB (or maybe less) of memory. Now, they question is do you want graphical support?
It will run fine, depending on what you install with the distro. If you want something small and fast, I would suggest BG-Rescue Linux. (Although, I would suggest a barebone Debian based distro with access to the internet that way you can apt-get whatever you need).

BG-Rescue Linux fits in 1 or 2 floppies. It's pretty good from what some people have told me in IRC. Have phun.

**Flatline** · 03-10-2005

You could also take a look at VectorLinux. It's a Slackware-based distro that was designed to work well on older hardware:

http://www.vectorlinux.com/

**smindinvern** · 03-10-2005

You could also try slax, it's a slackware liveCD, and is relatively lightweight, I recommended it to my friend a while back (not a linux user) and he loves it. It should be able to run on 64 megs of ram.

**Fallen Angel** · 03-10-2005

Damn Small Linux is probably the best for that machine, but you could try installing a distro like Slackware and leave out everything that you don't need in the installation.

**Flatline** · 03-10-2005

Originally Posted by Fallen Angel

Damn Small Linux is probably the best for that machine, but you could try installing a distro like Slackware and leave out everything that you don't need in the installation.

That's pretty much what Vector is like...if you haven't given it a shot, try it. It's pretty sweet, and they just released version 5.

**smindinvern** · 03-10-2005

Originally Posted by Flatline

That's pretty much what Vector is like...if you haven't given it a shot, try it. It's pretty sweet, and they just released version 5.

I've heard it's a pretty good distro for old computers, a friend of mine told me about it, and I've been considering trying it.

**sealfood** · 03-10-2005

Well done aeuzent for keeping alive your old PC. It isn't cost that keeps me trying to keep old machines alive it's my opinion that because a few years ago we thought such machines were ok then isn't then something wrong with us to now say that for many people's needs (e.g. word processing, the internet, basic image manipulation) they no longer are?

At the rate we're going in a few years time some people will be posting here asking if there is any way they can still use their Pentium 4s with their tiny 40 gb hard drives.

Of course by then Windows might be open source

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