linux on old laptop

[TAKALA]

Hello everyone, I just recovered a laptop fujitsu siemens originally equipped with 98 and I want to install linux. What system should I install (probably an old OS given the age of the beast!) And where can find it on the net? I have 32240 KB of RAM please suggestion Thank you all.

[Cunning]

Hi , you would have to try the distros aimed at minimalist/old computers like Puppy, DSL or DSL-N, or TinyMe or others. They may run slow at first boot/isntall since they copy themselves to RAM but once installed to HDD they should speed up considerably. DSL is the way to go if you really want to be minimalist (the whole thing is less than 50MB) but more eyecandy is on TinyMe, it's 200MB but that wouldn't be a problem once installed.

[Dr. V]

hello

Hello , you can try Mandriva Linux (formerly Mandrakelinux) which was created in 1998 with the goal of making Linux easier to use for everyone. At that time, Linux was already well-known as a powerful and stable operating system that demanded strong technical knowledge and extensive use of the "command line"; MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to integrate the best graphical desktop environments and contribute its own graphical configuration utilities and quickly became famous for setting the standard in ease-of-use and functionality. With this innovative approach, Mandriva Linux offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and pleasant environment. Thousands of new users are discovering Linux each and every day and finding it a complete replacement for their previous operating system. Linux as a server or workstation has no reason to be jealous of any other more established operating systems.

[Calvin K]

Hello , Puppy is very very quick at booting up - it does look a bit "windows 3.1" you know... but it does have some excellent "wizards" for setting up graphics cards, networking etc etc, and I'm sure it has a wireless wizard too, even though I haven't tried it. More than that, all the config directories (such as /etc for example) have excellent "readmes" in them which tell you exactly what's in there and what you can edit. I also love the "disc mounter and viewer" program - very convenient. The "posher" distros should learn a lot from Puppy about the user friendliness. Also I think there's a fat or "pizza" version of Puppy which is larger and intended for installation on hard drives. This definitely has firefox included. Most of the main programs are available as additional .pups for easy installation. I've also manged to install things from source on there too (the wiki and forums are excellent, and there's a real sense of pioneering spirit amongst the developers). However you will get far more choice of software with Xubuntu. It has a much stronger "base" than puppy, there are more users, and obviously more help

[Solomon]

Current Linuxes designed for limited or older machines include Damn Small Linux, Puppy, Feather, Wolvix, Vector, STX, and Pocket Linux. Some of these can run entirely in memory and make applications running on old Pentiums fly.

Slackware and Debian are not specifically designed for smaller or older machines. But, they allow lots of customization during installation and can fit minimal machines. Many other distros fit this model, as well.

Red Hat version 8 offers a good example of how to minimize resource requirements by installing a full, older version of a distro. Red Hat 8 is four releases older than the current version of the product, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. I chose Red Hat because I've worked with the product before. Version 8 runs in 64 MB without the GUI, or in 128 MB with the GUI.

Red Hat 8, the GUI, and my applications would all fit comfortably in my 256 MB of memory. I decided to install Red Hat 8 on disk. This would meet my objective to run common Linux applications. Since Red Hat 8 includes OpenOffice, this would also meet my objective to run an office suite that works with Microsoft file formats.