Linux Distro for old Laptop?

[Giantwasp]

My Dad has given me an old laptop to setup for my mum's use and I am trying to decide which linux distro will be best.

The laptop is a Sony VAIO PCG-505FX and the main specs are:

-Pentium MMX 266MHz
-64MB Ram
-4.3GB HDD
-CD drive connected through PCMCIA card

My personal preference is Fedora Core 3 but it doesn't meet the minimum specs for a graphical install, is it worth giving it ago anyway?

The requirements are that is can run:

Firefox
Thunderbird
OpenOffice
WLAN support (No card as yet)
Preferably Gnone (although XFCe might be an idea I haven't looked at)

Any ideas for which distro willl run these suitably on this machine if there is any?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Forget Gnome, run a smaller window manager on: Slackware.

 

[drag]

Try Slackware or Debian.

X Desktop enviroment would be a hog though. You'd probably want to run minimalist window manager like IceWM. Avoid KDE or Gnome.
XFCE would be a good comprimise.

Try looking at Abiword instead of OpenOffice.org, it's a lot smaller and is just a word proccessor rather then a all-singing-all-dancing suite like Org is.

 

[Nothinman]

Debian.

 

[Dragonbate]

Hate to say this but I'd probably stay away from Linux on that laptop unless you feel confident running outside of the GUI. Not that the GUI won't run but because alot of the set up will require going to the command line. The simplest and fastest solution will be windows 98 se.

 

[Nothinman]

The simplest and fastest solution will be windows 98 se.

Win9X is never the answer...

 

[Kevin]

What is the answer, I'm in the same boat except I'm working with a picture book.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Damn Small Linux

 

[n0cmonkey]

NetBSD.

 

[timswim78]

Vector Linux. It's designed specifically for older hardware, and it includes the popular applications for home and small office users.
http://www.vectorlinux.com/


"Works Great!!!"
I have installed it on a 486 laptop and it works perfectly!!!

"My pc FLIES running this OS"
I'm very impressed with this small Linux distro. Compiled for a pentium, the latest versions of all libraries, uptodate kernel. It really makes my old pc fly, a certain unnamed OS on my main computer (which is twice as fast as the machine Vector Linux is on) actually runs SLOWER then this Haven't had any crashes or lockups of any kind yet. A satisfied user of this product.

 

[aceO07]

Slackware. I used to run it on 150mhz 96MB ram laptop. It wasn't that fast... but if you really need it. It was just a small project so I didn't use it that much. However, I did get wireless and gaim and firefox running.

 

[Dragonbate]

Originally posted by: timswim78
Vector Linux. It's designed specifically for older hardware, and it includes the popular applications for home and small office users.
http://www.vectorlinux.com/


"Works Great!!!"
I have installed it on a 486 laptop and it works perfectly!!!

"My pc FLIES running this OS"
I'm very impressed with this small Linux distro. Compiled for a pentium, the latest versions of all libraries, uptodate kernel. It really makes my old pc fly, a certain unnamed OS on my main computer (which is twice as fast as the machine Vector Linux is on) actually runs SLOWER then this Haven't had any crashes or lockups of any kind yet. A satisfied user of this product.

I'm gonna give this a try thx.