Installation of Linux in 300 MHz with 128 MB ram

[sanjay1979]

Hi

I am very new to Linux, but very keen to learn it.

I am having a desktop of 300 MHz with 128 MB RAM and 30 GB hard drive with Windows XP.
My first question is - Is there any version/flavour of Linux available that can be installed on above system especially Fedora with less compromise in terms of speed?

I am also having a 6 GB extra hard drive.

Please give me the suggesion what should I do ?
- Should I Make a dual operating system
- or use separate hard drive for linux as I am afraid using dual opearing system as if it may disturb Windows XP also, thereby making other windows based application non functional.

Also if u could show me the way to install linux, I would be very grateful.

Please help me out.

Thanks in advance.

[Jonathan183]

I am having a desktop of 300 MHz with 128 MB RAM and 30 GB hard drive with Windows XP.

I think the RAM will limit your choices a bit ... DSL and Xubuntu will probably run quite well on your system. There are a couple of links for limited hardware ... I'll add some here - there are links from these posts to polls etc.

[Manchunian]

Ditto. Note that I've installed DSL on an old laptop with only 32Mb of Ram - and it ran really fast.

[sanjay1979]

thanks Manchunian and Jonathan183 for ur useful tips. But please explain can I install Fedora any how even old version with less features? if yes, please tell me which version and what features I can not install ? Thanks in advance.

[Manchunian]

I don't advise this. Your computer really doesn't have the specs for it to run as it should. Give it a go, if you want, you may surprise us - but I think you need around 512Mb Ram now for Fedora to run correctly. As for installing an older vesion, this isn't advisable - I'm not sure how long support lasts for Fedora, but once it stops the computer won't be as secure and reliable as it is when you can get updates.
What is it you don't like about DSL? Or, looking at it another way, what attracts you to Fedora? Perhaps we can orintate you to another distribution?

[hlivy]

I'd like to point out something.
Windows and linux use different file systems. Windows uses fat32 or ntfs while linux uses ext2 / ext3 etc. So if you would like to install linux onto the same hard drive as windows, chances are, you need to repartition the hard drive (thus erasing windows), unless you can shrink the size of windows partition somehow. I guess this serves as a hint to linux installation. At the same time, as linux will be installed on a different partition than windows, it will not disturb windows function. The windows volume should just appear as a separate mounting point under your linux system. So yeah, I wouldn't worry about linux and windows interfering even if they were installed on the same hard drive.

[bucky]

If you are very new to linux and have no experience with partitioning a hard drive for linux or creating a swap file then I strongly recommend you to try some live cd's. this will have no effect on your current system and will allow you to get familiar with linux.
Ram will be your first consideration. you may have best results with damn small linux live cd or puppy linux live, feather linux. All of these will run well on 128 meg ram, and are very small downloads.
If you add more ram at least 256 then you will have more choice. It depends on what you want the computer to do for you. you can try any live cd with little or no risk so check the requirements and give them a whirl.
the live cd's will run a little slower than the install as they are running from ram and the cd.
If you decide to install you can find lots of info on drive preperation and hardware limitation via google and forum search. or just ask...it is easier than it seems but you need to have a look first in my opion.
best of luck
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

[smoothgecko]

Hi

I am very new to Linux, but very keen to learn it.

I am having a desktop of 300 MHz with 128 MB RAM and 30 GB hard drive with Windows XP.
My first question is - Is there any version/flavour of Linux available that can be installed on above system especially Fedora with less compromise in terms of speed?

I am also having a 6 GB extra hard drive.

Please give me the suggesion what should I do ?
- Should I Make a dual operating system
- or use separate hard drive for linux as I am afraid using dual opearing system as if it may disturb Windows XP also, thereby making other windows based application non functional.

Also if u could show me the way to install linux, I would be very grateful.

Please help me out.

Thanks in advance.

Hello sanjay1979,

I believe you need to try Mandrake 8.2.
It will help you setup on the 6GB drive, you can take the other XP drive out all together if you are scared.
Set the 6GB to slave. Linux does not care.
Boot from cd.
If you use Xubuntu, as suggested above, when you like it, you can 1 click install from desktop.

[Manchunian]

I believe you need to try Mandrake 8.2.

Sorry to step on your toes smoothgecko, but I don't advise this at all. Mandrake 8.2 is old. Don't install an outdated distribution - you won't benefit from the official updates and bug corrections. Mandriva is the new thing, and it's hardly something to put on a computer like yours - you'd need around 256 Mg Ram to get it running properly.

[smoothgecko]

I agree with you Manchunian,
not the best way to go, but......
when I was stuck with a PC of similar vintage, and "had to"
use KDE, this was the way to get it.

Depends how important KDE is.
You are better with a more modern distro.