Light Linux Distro


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Thread: Light Linux Distro

  1. #1
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    Light Linux Distro

    Hi!
    I have an old laptop which runs win98 kind of sluggish, so I'm lookin gfor a slim Linux distro. HW: 64MB ram, PII 266 MX, 4GB HD, I think you get the picture. What I want to be able to do on it is word processing, web browsing (with support for frames and perhaps even Flash), listen to music and maybe see films and share files over a MS network (samba). Quick/easy install is a BIG plus. So my question is:

    Is there a small, light linux distro out there, just waiting for me to download, or am I better off by taking one of the "big" distros and installing only the light stuff? Either way: which distro?

    All opinnions most welcome!

  2. #2
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    Slackware!

    And since you're computer is a little slow (Slackware will run on pretty much anything down to 33 MHz), I'd suggest not installing with KDE or Gnome. Without those, 4 GB is more than enough space, especially if you have a file server.

    Slackware is very easy to install. Read the (short, concise) book on the web page and you'll be running in no time. Gentoo is really good for older computers too, but it tends to take longer and is a bit more difficult to install than Slackware.
    Last edited by duncanbojangles; 08-19-2004 at 05:31 PM.
    Registered Linux User #328016
    I cna ytpe 300 wrods pre mniute

    Slackware 10.0
    Shuttle AN35N nForce2 mobo
    AMD Athlon XP 2600
    512 MB DDR RAM
    XFX GeForce FX 5200 256 MB
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  3. #3
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    Slackware for sure, you actually have plenty of system to do all that. Although playing music while web browsing might push the limits.

  4. #4
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    I was thinking fluxbox, XFCE or something along those lines. OK, so slackware might be an option then... Is Slackware OK to install even for the point-and-click computer generation? I've used Mandrake and SuSE before.

  5. #5
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    I sold a PC like that at a garage sale. Actually it was slower. 233. Anyway, I installed SuSe with KDE and booted it up. Ran useably fast. However, If I was going to use it I would install slack with no X.
    Last edited by Erikqwerty; 08-19-2004 at 08:04 PM.
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  6. #6
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    OK... Personaly, I need X. MOre conveniant for word processing and also I'm not the only one using it. I'm concidering Gentoo as well, because it sounds cool Are there any other pros and cons with slack or gentoo except the installations? And problems with configuration, X, etc?

  7. #7
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    Yoper with XFCE.
    100Ghz folding@home
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  8. #8
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    The big difference between Slack and Gentoo (other than the install) is that Slackware is not an optimized OS, it is precompiled. Gentoo is compiled from source, It takes longer than any install than you have probably ever seen, but of course, you will have a very efficient system, building an OS from the ground up will give you the full potential of that machine, Gentoo made my computer run about 1/3rd faster. It is good, stuff. But, for simplicity, stick with the good ol' Slack Pack. It's up to you.
    Registered Linux User #365191

  9. #9
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    Having installed Gentoo on a PII 500 system, I have decided that it is not worth using Gentoo as your main system unless you have a faster system - the amount of time it takes to install anything will be too long to be efficient.

    Personally I run Debian on all of my systems, from the 'lightest' to the heaviest.
    mrBen "Carpe Aptenodytes"

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  10. #10
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    OK, Gentoo will have to wait. I've heard than in Slack you have to configure just about everything yourself, which makes it a little complicated... Is this true?
    Yoper sounds cool... I'll give it a try!

  11. #11
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    I've just migrated from Red Hat 9.0 to Slackware 10.0 because I wanted more of a challenge and to be honest it's been a lot easier than I thought. I'm running fluxbox and it runs very well, a lot faster than Red Hat with gnome.
    I also considered installing Gentoo but after 11 hours of compiling I gave up because I just couldn't see the performance gains justified all that compilation time.
    Give Slackware a go, what's the worst that can happen?

    BTW this is on an 800MHz Duron with 256MB RAM so bare that in mind for Gentoo and it's compiling!
    If you remain calm while those around you panic, you probably haven't realised the seriousness of the situation!

  12. #12
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    i would go with slack, gentoo isnt that much faster, bnut then i only used gentoo and slack on a p3 and amd athlonXP systems.

    u have to use a light X such as fluxbox or soemthing like that, XFCE might work okay though.
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  13. #13
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    OK, I might give slack a go... I need to be able to do it over the weekend though (have to have time to solve all the little problems that you might run in to as well). Still think Yoper sounds cool though

  14. #14
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    Gah! Yoper doesn't work...

    Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
    no media
    Checking /dev/scd0 ... no media
    Checking /dev/scd1 ... no media
    Checking /dev/scd2 ... no media
    Checking /dev/scd3 ... no media
    No YOS boot CD found!!!
    Kernel panic: Attempt to kill init!
    I'm going for something else, unless this is a problem which is easy to solve...

  15. #15
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    Never seen that happen. Have heard about some issues with certain distros when the cd-rom dirve is not on 1st IDE channel of the motherboard... or do you maybe have some kind of scsi cd-rom?

    Perhaps you should add a boot parameter at the prompt-

    YOS noscsi
    Last edited by arkaine23; 08-20-2004 at 04:55 PM.
    100Ghz folding@home
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    Developer of Overclockix Live CD distribution
    Yoper Dev Team member

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