Anybody use Linux? For old hardware, which distro?

[RayLopez99]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

RL

 

[David Brown]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

I take it you mean 512 MB ram? Otherwise the machine could barely run
DOS...

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

Have you looked at www.distrowatch.org? They have lists of distros in
various categories, including those for small systems. Personally, I'd
install a minimal Debian system, add a lightweight desktop (lxde seems
popular) and just the applications I need. But for a more ready-to-run
system you could try lubuntu (Ubuntu with lxde).

It was not long ago that I installed Debian on a Pentium 90 MHz with 64
MB ram. It was a server, so no X or gui, but it runs fine on that hardware.

 

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

Do you mean 512kbyte or 512Mbtye?
I honestly dont think I have run X on less that 4Mbytes successfully,
and that wasn't Linux.


I cant remember the ast time I saw a PeeCee with under 640K RAM.

But it was an 80286, not a Pentium

If its 512Mbyte, its totally adequate and just about any distro will
suit the machine.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though).

If its using an LCD screen you need the card to drive at the LCD
resolution ONLY.

No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

Mint/debian/ubuntu etc etc.

In the end, they differ more in how bleeding edge and unstable they are.
You don't need any of that. So pick something boring and stable, like
'Debian stable'

End users won't notice much difference once set up, if any. Theres more
difference user wise between KDE and Gnome desktops, than the distros
underneath.

I've not set up a dial-up modem on Linux to date.

Well I sort of did, but it was a 3G dongle. That's the nastiest part.
The rest is bog standard.

You will need about 20Gigs of disk at most for all this.

If at all possible set it up where you have a broadband connection
initially, so it can update itself.

There may be issues in that you may need to REMOVE a bunch of stuff that
relies on te internet, like ntp etc.

None of this is distro specific though. Juts pick one, and tune it till
it works, hand it over, and forget about it for 5 years.

A friend did juts that when his daughter left for Uni. Old 256M Ram
laptop. It got SUSE linux on it. never faltered. When it died she wanted
another one just like the old one....

 

[noi ance]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a Pentium
II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM (!), DVD/CD,
running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of Linux.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for a
simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel. But in
this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work on such
*old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is what
she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe not).
Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget the
name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client-- she
keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one? Not
even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and allow
surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer locally?

RL

Since you're running WinXp most distros should run on that laptop but
check the requirements, start at www.distrowatch.org as suggested. I've
been impressed with LinuxMint, it contains most of the applications you
need to replace an WinXp machine, ie, video player, folder.sharing, web
browser, etc.

 

[B Sellers]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

If you are correct in saying 512 KiB or half a megabyte
I doubt you could run much.

If you have 512 MiB though you might run quite well
with a number of distros. SliTaz 1.0 is very small and requires
a net connection to get the packages someone might want
to run.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Try Knoppix 6.1 or 6.2 if you have that 512 megabytes of
memory. You will have to read some documentation so that
you can invoke the install-script at boot of the CD when it
comes up with the terminal interface.
If you had enough memory you could run in memory
and save preferences to a file on the hard disk.

On a Pentium 3 at 700 MHz and 384 MiB of ram I got
Mandriva 2008.1 running nicely with a simple reduction in the
number of virtual desktops to one (1). This was a Dell Inspiron
4000 with only 8 megabytes of video ram which had
Windoze XP installed and I forget the fixed disk size but it
had enough to do a split and setup a dual boot.
Before the Mandriva I ran a old Knoppix on it.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

At that age the problem is with the physical components and the
5 year limit.

RL

Later
bliss

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access. Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

RL

You might want to check out the list of ISO images available at
http://www.livecdlist.com/ .

Burn a couple to disk that look promising and give them a run directly
from the CD or DVD and check them out. Most should work just fine with
just about any hardware capable of running XP. Find what you like and
then you can install it to the hard drive.

I'd start with a download of the Puppy Linux. It's small, easy to
download and will run from a CD which you burn, don't waste a DVD as it
is a really small download. I also have a copy of it running from a
flash drive with no problems, on computers that support booting from
USB. Great for troubleshooting computers that have a suspected CD/DVD
problem. The user interface is easy to learn which helps when trying to
train someone who barely knows the difference between a computer mouse
and the fuzzy kind...

UNetbootin is a really easy way to load many distributions onto flash
drives should someone wish to do so.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

It really makes it easy to download the ISO directly to the flash drive
from the internet or from an ISO you have already downloaded. When used
properly it makes the ISO bootable directly from the flash drive.

Burning a distribution to flash saves on CD/DVD's until you find one
that you like. Then you can burn a CD\DVD version if you need one.

 

[Greegor]

Is there a Linux distro that is particularly good
for media player use - DVD, .FLV, MP3 etc?

 

[RayLopez99]

I take it you mean 512 MB ram?  Otherwise the machine could barely run
DOS...

Yes, it was 512 MB ram. Or it may be 256 MB. In any event, it's
enough to run Windows XP, which is pretty demanding, so Linux should
(I hope) run fine...but which distro?

BTW it has a 100 GB hard drive.

Have you looked atwww.distrowatch.org? They have lists of distros in
various categories, including those for small systems.

Where? I looked at the home page. Can you point me to where I can
find a search engine there to enter parameters such as HD, RAM, etc?


RL

 

[RayLopez99]

Do you mean 512kbyte or 512Mbtye?

MB, sorry.

If its 512Mbyte, its totally adequate and just about any distro will
suit the machine.

But which one?

If its using an LCD screen you need the card to drive at the LCD
resolution ONLY.

Uh-oh. This is going to be interesting...the Dell graphics card--it's
an Inspiron series from Dell if memory serves...might be hard to
replicate? But Windows XP recognized it...no problem.

Mint/debian/ubuntu etc etc.

No etc etc please. Pick one. Point me (please) to a link. Do you want
to win a die hard Windows fan to Linux or not? Etc etc my ass. Hey no
offense, but I code and I've found that if I say "etc etc" it may be
obvious to me, but to a newbie it is confusing. Why not "Damn Small
Linux" then? Boot from the CD? I did that once on a desktop Pentium a
couple of years ago, and the damn DSL did not recognize my hardware...

In the end, they differ more in how bleeding edge and unstable they are.
You don't need any of that. So pick something boring and stable, like
'Debian stable'

OK...let me go to Distrowatch and enter these key words...hold on
please...OK, back. No hits. Googled it, and got a bunch of stuff
about how "stable" Debian was...no help there.

End users won't notice much difference once set up, if any. Theres more
difference user wise between KDE and Gnome desktops, than the distros
underneath.

I've not set up a dial-up modem on Linux to date.

Well I sort of did, but it was a 3G dongle. That's the nastiest part.
The rest is bog standard.

Nasty is a dialup? Another reason I fear Linux, since Windows XP is
recognizing the Dell built-in internal modem no problem. Why trash
WIndows for Linux if Windows is working? This is playing in my mind
now...

You will need about 20Gigs of disk at most for all this.

Got that. It's got a 100GB internal HD.

If at all possible set it up where you have a broadband connection
initially, so it can update itself.

There may be issues in that you may need to REMOVE a bunch of stuff that
relies on te internet, like ntp etc.

Interesting....more hassles.

None of this is distro specific though. Juts pick one, and tune it till
it works, hand it over, and forget about it for 5 years.

Right. And if you have a multi-stage rocket, fuel it, man it, and fly
it to the moon. Check out the cool moon rocks there...don't forget to
take pictures and bring some moon dust back with you. Etc etc.

A friend did juts that when his daughter left for Uni. Old 256M Ram
laptop. It got SUSE linux on it. never faltered. When it died she wanted
another one just like the old one....

Sounds good...in theory.

This Linux idea (it's the third time I've toyed with Linux--once in
the 1990s I actually had NT dual booted with RHAT Linux!) is starting
to scare me...maybe I should back off, unless I get more and better
info.

RL

 

[RayLopez99]

Since you're running WinXp most distros should run on that laptop but
check the requirements, start atwww.distrowatch.orgas suggested.   I've
been impressed with LinuxMint, it contains most of the applications you
need to replace an WinXp machine, ie, video player, folder.sharing, web
browser, etc.

This is not looking too good for me...I think I have 512 MB, but might
have as little as 256MB RAM, but in either event KDE is too slow in
LinuxMint says their forum. Maybe your hardware was better?

One poster* suggests "Freespire" for low RAM systems--ever heard of
it?

RL

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=628

3. How little memory is need to run Linux Mint?
It works fine on my machine with 512MB RAM.

well im not much help but i can say on 450mhz amd k6-2 with 393MB ram
gnome is really slow.

i seem to have plenty of ram... i average about 150MB of used ram
without anything but the distro running. with firefox gaim and the
distro i use about 250MB ram.

the funny thing it seems is i recently tried freespire which uses KDE
as the desktop and it seems as fast to me as ubuntu edgy with xfce4
desktop.

my overall opinion with a 450MHz k6-2 is that its too slow for decent
daily use using gnome. using xfce4 its decent and runs well.

//
* Freespire 2.0 begins with Ubuntu (Version 7.04) as its baseline and
then adds software from six broad categories, further expanding
Freespire's capabilities:

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

Is there a Linux distro that is particularly good
for media player use - DVD, .FLV, MP3 etc?

I don't know as I don't use my computer for that kind of stuff.

With that said you might check out some of those that claim to be
"Home Entertainment" as their purpose in the LiveCD list at:
http://www.livecdlist.com/

With as many people using Linux in one form or another I'd hope that
someone else can give you better info on the best distro for your needs
or point you to a newsgroup that deals multi-media and Linux.

 

[RayLopez99]

You might want to check out the list of ISO images available athttp://www..livecdlist.com/.

Burn a couple to disk that look promising and give them a run directly
from the CD or DVD and check them out.  Most should work just fine with
just about any hardware capable of running XP.  Find what you like and
then you can install it to the hard drive.

I'd start with a download of the Puppy Linux.  

WAIT. I did that, and documented my efforts a COLA. Puppy Linux
failed to recognize my CD-ROM drive. Now my Windows Pentium II
desktop is a paperweight (and not a good one), whereas before it was
running WIndows 2000 fine.

No Puppy Linux for me. In fairness, perhaps it's OK, since the CD-ROM
was nearing its end of life, so we can blame it on a hardware dying
problem. But I'm not sure.

It's small, easy to
download and will run from a CD which you burn, don't waste a DVD as it
is a really small download.  I also have a copy of it running from a
flash drive with no problems, on computers that support booting from
USB.  

Exactly. This laptop is from 1998--probably the BIOS is too old for
USB booting.

that you like.  Then you can burn a CD\DVD version if you need one.

I must burn on CD/DVD only. So please recommend one--what about
Freespire 2.0? I need a concrete recommendation, not "pick one". Pick
one only works if you have modern hardware.

RL

 

[Mike Easter]

a.c.h.p-h only

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

512meg. It will run lots of linux distros better than XP.

What is it that you are planning on doing with it?

The target user's needs are VERY minimal. Very very very. Here is
what she needs:

dial-up modem for internet access.

That means that you aren't/ she isn't/ going to be doing very much at
all online.

Mouse. Maybe a printer (maybe
not). Support at *any* resolution for the Dell graphics card (forget
the name--it's pretty generic though). No need for an email client--
she keeps all her emails at Yahoo, all her docs at Google apps, etc.
Everything online. No need for sound. The machine has USB but this
girl does not even know what a memory stick is. So only the USB mouse
matters.

Anybody think I can use Linux on this old setup, and, if which one?
Not even a 'best' OS --just one that will last five years or so and
allow surfing the net and maybe printing a document on a printer
locally?

The advantage of something as light as Puppy is how 'quick' it will run
in ram on that machine.

How come she can't figure out a way to get better connectivity, even if
it means going to the library or something?

I still don't think I understand what she needs a computer for - email?

 

[Frank Steinmetzger]

Yes, it was 512 MB ram. Or it may be 256 MB. In any event, it's
enough to run Windows XP, which is pretty demanding, so Linux should
(I hope) run fine...but which distro?

I could run Gentoo with KDE 3 on a Pentium III with 256 MB. KDE 3 took
~120MB after boot (that’s half of Windows XP) but it was not very fluid.
And no, I’m not suggesting to install Gentoo on your friend’s laptop. ;-)

So RAM may not be a big problem here, but speed definitely is. You also said
your friend doesn’t even know what a USB stick was, so I gather she is not
very computer-literate. This yields to the following criteria:

- you need a small, fast graphical environment (such as LXDE or XFCE)
- you can’t necessarily use something much simpler, like Openbox, for it
doesn’t provide much of a modern desktop "user experience" with today’s
conveniences
- you need something that is easy to use and manage

I don’t have personal experience with it, but my conclusion would reveal
something like Xubuntu (that’s Ubuntu but with Xfce instead of Gnome).


Oh and something else: having everything on Google servers does not save you
from needing to process it. Had I to chose between an office suite and a
javascript-based web application on a 90 MHz CPU, I’d go for native machine
code, it’s just faster and may need less memory. Also, laptops from that
time don’t have much screen resolution (I’d guess it has 800x600 at most),
which is another point against the browser way. OpenOffice could not be the
ultimate answer here. There are smaller things available, such as AbiWord or
Gnumeric.

 

[Mike Easter]

Yes, it was 512 MB ram. Or it may be 256 MB.

There is a gigantic difference between those two.

You absolutely have to get crystal clear on how much ram.

 

[Mike Easter]

Nasty is a dialup? Another reason I fear Linux, since Windows XP is
recognizing the Dell built-in internal modem no problem. Why trash
WIndows for Linux if Windows is working? This is playing in my mind
now...

Do you have access to a Win98se disk?

This Linux idea (it's the third time I've toyed with Linux--once in
the 1990s I actually had NT dual booted with RHAT Linux!) is starting
to scare me...maybe I should back off, unless I get more and better
info.

So far we aren't sure about the ram. That makes a lot of difference
between 256 and 512.

 

[Mike Easter]

One poster* suggests "Freespire" for low RAM systems--ever heard of
it?

I've used Freespire and liked it, but I had more resources than you do;
and freespire hasn't changed since 2007 Nov. off Ub 7.04 + kde.

 

[Mike Easter]

WAIT. I did that, and documented my efforts a COLA. Puppy Linux
failed to recognize my CD-ROM drive. Now my Windows Pentium II
desktop is a paperweight (and not a good one), whereas before it was
running WIndows 2000 fine.

Puppy did *not* break your old box or its old optical.

No Puppy Linux for me. In fairness, perhaps it's OK, since the CD-ROM
was nearing its end of life, so we can blame it on a hardware dying
problem. But I'm not sure.

So, on top of you not knowing exactly whether you have 256 or 512, we
have to deal with some kind of crazy superstitions? This is getting to
be more difficulty.

Exactly. This laptop is from 1998--probably the BIOS is too old for
USB booting.

That is highly likely.

I must burn on CD/DVD only. So please recommend one--what about
Freespire 2.0?

Freespire (KDE + Ub 7.04) will run on 512 OK. I would recommend
something lighter for less.

I would choose Lubuntu 10.04 over the old freespire.

My first choice is the newest Puppy for good reasons. My second choice
is Lubuntu 10.04 if your superstitions are going to dominate the equation.

No matter what, there are potential problems with that modem and
possibly the USB mouse on the old hardware.

The modem is probably an old winmodem that will be 'difficult' for
someone who isn't experienced with setting up a modem in linux.

Going to a lot of trouble to make a winmodem work seems like paying a
lot for something worth very little.

 

[Baho Utot]

Thinking of using on an old 1998 laptop PC that presently has a
Pentium II, with a built in generic Dell modem, USB mouse, 512k RAM
(!), DVD/CD, running Windows XP fine now (very slow), some distro of
Linux.

In another thread I got into a debate about what's the best distro for
a simple new Acer machine ($300) that uses the Atom uP from Intel.
But in this thread I just want to know if *any* Linux distro will work
on such *old* hardware.

Thinking of using an old 1995 PC that presently has an 8086 cpu with built
in CGA graphics, 128k RAM upgraded from 64K, running Linux 2.6.18 kernel
with all the trimmings. Blender just flies. Will windows 7 work? I just
want to know if any current windows version will work on this *old*
hardware.

Later dude.

 

[John Hasler]

...1995 PC that presently has an 8086 cpu with built in CGA graphics,
128k RAM upgraded from 64K, running Linux 2.6.18 kernel...

+5 funny.