Yet another "which distro" thread

[Krumm]

I will soon be recieving two or more fairly elderly computers (2004/5), and I'd like to use at least one of them for downloading torrents and as a basic web terminal. I thought I'd use linux for this, because of its apparently excellent security. I've tried ubuntu on my current (and much faster) computer, but found it rather buggy and unstable.

Basicly i want
* a very stable distro, capable of running 24/7 without crashing etc.
* one that will run well on an old machine - but not too basic.
* good security - my isp doesnt need to know about everything i do online
* ease-of-access. I want it to work - I'm a linux noob and so I don't know how to compile, et cetera.

[daark.child]

What are the specs of these computers? I have an old computer I built in 2002 with a 1250MHz AMD processor and 512MB ram that works very well with CentOS 5.2 and Debian Lenny.

[linuxismyfriend]

yet another person wanting help doing illegal things which will hurt the linux community....

so how about think about the fact that Linux is already treading on unknown waters and has a lot of people wanting to sue them. Instead of using the software to steal copyrighted stuff....you buy the stuff, and use Linux for what it's meant for, an alternative to the proprietary crap you get in the stores....

these forums should not be used as a way for people to share how to "hide" illegal activity from ISP's....

[daark.child]

yet another person wanting help doing illegal things which will hurt the linux community....

so how about think about the fact that Linux is already treading on unknown waters and has a lot of people wanting to sue them. Instead of using the software to steal copyrighted stuff....you buy the stuff, and use Linux for what it's meant for, an alternative to the proprietary crap you get in the stores....

these forums should not be used as a way for people to share how to "hide" illegal activity from ISP's....

I think you are being unnecessarily harsh and if you reread the first post, you will note that some things were said as a joke. As for downloading torrents, you should remember that there are many legal torrents out there. You also have to note that there are many countries where there are no legal restrictions about what you can download, so just because downloading certain things is illegal in your country does not mean its illegal elsewhere.

[bigtomrodney]

yet another person wanting help doing illegal things which will hurt the linux community....

I'd like to remind anyone reading or posting that torrents aren't automatically illegal. There is plenty of legitimate content out ther including virtually every linux distro, books, music and film. Torrenting is the main distribution channel for free material as it helps with bandwidth costs.

Of course there is a lot of illegal downloading over this protocol but no more than on ftp or http in proportion to what is legal. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want those protocols demonised

[linuxismyfriend]

I suppose that is true....so to the original poster, I apologize IF you are talking about legal downloads. If you are wanting help to illegally download (which I assumed but could be wrong), I would suggest buying the product instead of downloading....as I'm sure you work and expect people to pay for what you do.

Now for my reason, I assumed only because a specific request was made to hide from the ISP with a , I guess I assumed she/he was trying to be clever and thought everyone would think it was cool to illegally download and then get away with it from help by this forum....

sorry if the assumption was wrong

[bigtomrodney]

Never assume a request for privacy implies guilt

[MikJP]

Any distro will run fine on hardware built in 2004/2005. But if you want something that will fly and is not too difficult to install, I would suggest Zenwalk. Or any other distro mentioned in my blog posting about Top 10 of lightweight linux distributions.

Greetings,

mikko