Weird Conditions for a Linux Distro and Compiler help

[Kerapunaka]

Hi, I'm relatively new to Linux, and I'm looking to use it to learn C programming. About a week ago I put xubuntu on an older computer and toyed around with it a bit, and now I'm looking for a distro for an even older computer. The catch is, I'm learning C (or at least starting to) so I need to now how to put a compiler on it and use it. This computer has 64 MB of RAM, 10 GB of HD space, and an i686 processor. It has a CD-ROM drive, and no internet. I don't plan on getting internet for it either (wired is geographically difficult and wifi is not possible).

I don't have any solid preference for the distro stylistically. I tried a boot of puppy linux which is alright but I don't know where to start with compilers--while I know the basic structure of terminal commands I don't know anything specific to programming.

Help?

[Kerapunaka]

I dunno if my post is intimidating or confusing, but I basically just need some help (links to instructions are fine too) about getting a light distro and setting up C on it.

[coopstah13]

If the machine has no internet, I would say a good choice would be something like debian etch. You can download and burn the install cds and then install all the software from those cd's and you won't need an internet connection on that machine. I've never had to install software after the initial install from a cd, so I'm not sure how it will work, but it should just require setting up the sources file to use the cd rom drive rather than internet and then using apt to install the right packages

[Kerapunaka]

But it will work on a computer that old?

[i92guboj]

The processor is not a big deal for basic usage (well, for compiling it is, but I assume that you are starting with small programs, and for learning it's ok). But the ram will be a limiting factor, and I seriosly doubt that any actual debian at all can run on 64 mb of ram.

You need to look into an smaller distro. Any distro which has a C compiler will work. You can always install any small distro of your choice and then research on how to install a C compiler into it. It shouldn't be a big deal.

I can't give any more concrete advise because I never used a minidistro as a programming centre.

[achester]

I would actually recommend Ubuntu with Fluxbox as the window manager. Fluxbox is an extremely light-weight WM, that is pretty intuitive. The only issue may run into is that you don't get much in the way of development tools on the base install CD, so you would need to either burn the needed packages to CD or move the computer to somewhere you can get internet to get some packages and then move it back when you're done. The burning them to CD and then installing them from there is a bit more difficult but not impossible.

Setting up Fluxbox is pretty simple: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fluxbox

As far as where to start programming, pick up a book (or an ebook), or try looking at some of the tutorials online; Cprogramming.com - Programming Tutorials: C++ Made Easy and C Made Easy would be a good start. I can recommend books but I suggest that you just go to a local borders or similar and look through the C++ Introduction books and find one that is interesting to you.

[beojan]

I'd say that computer is way too old to do any serious programming on it. You'll spend so long waiting for your programs to compile, once you get beyond one file stage, that you'll probably give up. You need a serious upgrade much more than a light distro.

however, for day to day usage, DSL is good: DSL information

[Kerapunaka]

I've tried DSL but I wind up with a weird problem in that no matter what graphics configuration I choose at startup the colors wind up wrong--oh well, I fooled around with the settings and got it working all right. I might look into that variation of ubuntu with fluxbox, but even that seems high end for this. Is this computer really too old for any programming? I know it's a Celeron and all that, but 8 years ago people would have considered this computer to be pretty normal, and the sort of stuff a newbie learns in C doesn't seem to go beyond that and up to the present. It's all programs in the terminal.

[rkowalick]

Honestly, Arch Linux seems like an ideal OS for the job. It can run in low memory mode and its minimum RAM is 64mb. It also doesn't include a desktop environment, which is great for a computer like that. The package manager is also quite good and should get you programming very quickly. It is definitely not for Linux newbies, but it is definitely a distro worth looking into.

It will take a while to install it, but it is very configurable.

I use it currently and it has turned several older computers into very usable machines whose speed rivals much better boxes with xp and ubuntu. Give it a shot!

[i92guboj]

Don't worry about the comments. If someone at some point was able to run a full desktop on that machine, there's no reason why you can't use it to compile anything you want.

That is, unless you plan to start learning to program making programs that are bigger than kde3. It's an excellent machine for that purpose.