LINUX OS on old PC ?


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Hi,

I have a celeron covington 266 OC'd to 333, and 64mb RAM with a dialup connection. Could anyone tell me which would be the best linux distro for this and where to get it. I can find Mandrake 8.2 standard in GTCDROM, is it good? Also need an opinion on Redhat 7.3 & Slackware.

ThanksL\

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you're picking some old versions there man...

Anything with a GUI will run slower than one without, but if you insist on one then I'd choose a distro that's a bit simpler in it's layout. Red Hat's layout has always driven me up the wall, as does MDK's. Both those are great distros, but they can get annoying...

Slackware's my personal favorite, as it uses a nice standard layout (meaning every package is installed where it SHOULD be), and it's a little faster than the other 2 in my opinion. You can also get the 2.6 kernel working on it, which does improve performance a bit.

I'd also tend to go for either Gentoo or Debian, but both are hard to install for a person new to linux (though the Gentoo guide is nice and easy to follow). Those two will come out fully optimized for your system, and oyu will learn a ton simply by doing the install, and even more when it comes to installing programs, etc. RPM are convenient, but building from source is still the best form of installing apps.

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Yer if you have to use XFree make sure it doesn't auto start on boot and also try using a light window manager such as IceWM or Window Maker. www.vectorlinux.com is based on Slackware and specialy designed for old hardware, give that a try :).

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Yup. I agree with the use of a lightweight Window Manager.

And, MR_Candyman has a great point! In Windows World, you have to use an older version of Windows (with all the missing features and security risks) on an older PC. In Linux Land, you can use the latest Linux kernel and latest GNU OS parts and be OK, if you use a light-weight Window Manager. So pick a Fedora Core over RH 7.x. Choose a Mandrake 10 (or maybe not 10 yet...) over an older version. If you want to try the Slack, Debian or Gentoo route, use the latest released versions. :)

I would recommend a bit more RAM, if you can get some. It will improve your performance.

You will end up being surprised how much current technology will run on an old machine running Linux! :yes:

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I have successfully installed Linux on a old PC, the LUG here in Jamaica has taken on a project with a company to get Linux into schools. You can take a look at my thread

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