Please Recommend a Distro for My Old Laptop

[CodyZ]

I've got a Toshiba 3110ct laptop, with a 300mhz processor and 192mb RAM. It's really slim, so it doesn't have an internal CD drive, but I do have a bootable floppy drive for it and a PCMCIA CD drive (that is not bootable, despite how much I want it to be).

Right now I'm running Windows XP on it, and it's ridiculously slow. I have another laptop of a similar model that's running Win 98, and it runs great, so I know that XP is just too much for this machine.

I am new to linux, I've experimented with some various live CDs, knoppix, PCLOS, but I think I'm most comfortable with Ubuntu. I've looked at DSL, that's a little too archaic for my needs, though I'd be willing to give DSL-N a try, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't been released yet.

So please, in your infinite linux wisdom recommend a distro for me that:
1. - Will run like a champ on my 300mhz/192mb machine.
2. - Has good hardware compatibility (for wifi and usb flash drive).
3. - Relatively User-friendly
4. - An installation that doesn't require a Computer Science degree, given the fact that I don't have a bootable cd drive.

Thanks for your help!

-C

[devils casper]

DSL-N 0.1RC3 is ready and most of bugs have been fixed. DSL-N has a lot of new packages, 2.6x kernel and better hardware support.
if you didn't like GUI of DSL, you wont like DSL-N too coz DSL and DSL-N have same GUI.
Ubuntu will be a bit slow on your machine. try Xubuntu or anyother lightweight distro. check this thread.

[CodyZ]

Thanks, I checked out everything and it looks like I can install debian by copying the cd onto my hard drive, and running it from windows/dos. I think I'll do that and then throw on Icewm. What do you think?

[IsaacKuo]

That's a great combination, but with 192megs of RAM you can also run GNOME or KDE if you want (with Debian).

I have an older "play" computer with 192megs of RAM and I've installed pretty much every desktop environment and window manager in the Debian Etch repositories. It works like a charm with all of them, including KDE and GNOME. (It's also a triple monitor setup, and I'm quite pleased that all of the major DEs and WMs are multi-monitor aware.)

Another option which might have better hardware detection than Debian would be Xubuntu. Mepis might also have better hardware detection. I'm not familiar enough with either *ubuntu or Mepis to know how to get them installed on your laptop.

[CodyZ]

Awesome, I'll have to try that out! I'm much more familiar with the Gnome environment, again because of Ubuntu. I've heard some people say that Xubuntu and Ubuntu Lite really aren't all that lightweight, is that true?

[devils casper]

Xubuntu is certainly light than Ubuntu coz it uses Xfce DE. as i suggested earlier, Xubuntu will work fine on your machine.

[CodyZ]

Xubuntu is certainly light than Ubuntu coz it uses Xfce DE. as i suggested earlier, Xubuntu will work fine on your machine.

I think I'll try Xubuntu first, do you know if there's a way I can install it by downloading it onto my hard drive and running the installer from either XP or DOS? I tried looking at the xubuntu wiki and didn't find enough details on the subject. Also, if I don't find Xfce to my liking, using Xubuntu can I still change it to Icewm?

Thanks!

[devils casper]

I think I'll try Xubuntu first, do you know if there's a way I can install it by downloading it onto my hard drive and running the installer from either XP or DOS? I tried looking at the xubuntu wiki and didn't find enough details on the subject.

it possible but Installation from CD is very easy and i suggest you to go with that only.

Also, if I don't find Xfce to my liking, using Xubuntu can I still change it to Icewm?

anytime. you can install any DE/WM in any distro. i am using FVWM in Feisty right now and GNOME/KDE/FluxBox are also installed.

[CodyZ]

it possible but Installation from CD is very easy and i suggest you to go with that only.

I don't have a bootable cd drive, is there some way I can boot to a floppy and then install from cd? I figure that, or hard disk install are really my only options. Also, my laptop doesn't have a built in ethernet, so I can't do a net install.

Thanks again for your help!

[devils casper]

check this tutorial.