Getting some new life out of a really pathetic old laptop.

[Breakfast_Jimmy]

Yes, well, the name says it all really. A friend of mine recently became somewhat interested in Linux; I gave him step by step instructions to install Fedora on his desktop computer. But, he also has a laptop that he is interested in putting Linux on. Unfortunately, the laptop is pretty laughable. It is a Compaq Presario 1200 (that's what it says on the notebook. I haven't bothered checking anything to see if that's correct.) It has 124 mb of RAM and 14 gb of hard drive space. So, yeah. I'm just wanting some opinions on which distro to run. Anything, even really badly watered down distros, can't be as bad as a laptop that takes 40 seconds to access the start menu (although I am not sure if that has something to do with the various 'virus' and 'rootkit' detected messages that keep coming up. What I wouldn't give to know what exactly my friend has done with this computer).

Thanks in advance for your help.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

There are a lot of distros that support older, weaker machines. I would suggest you to check this poll on Fav Distro for Older Machines. Check the link in my signature too.

[MikJP]

I dont find that laughable

You can find some help in:

a) my blog

Greetings,

mikko

[Breakfast_Jimmy]

Thanks! I'll have a look.

Oh, and MikJP, I was sort of joking about the laughable bit. But when he showed it to me we were laughing - it beeped for 20 seconds on startup and froze. After he rebooted it it took about 6 minutes total to get into the my computer menu. But, I don't really think that's a hardware issue. The antivirus kept saying it detected viruses and rootkits, so...