Linux

[tboneuls]

I have an old p133, 32 MB ram - want to dedicate it to linux - what distrobution should i use?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i recommend debian cus i like it - thats the thing, its mostly personal preference.

 

[N11]

Hands down I prefer red hat.

 

[tboneuls]

ya but how weel will they run on an old system

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

anything will run good on an old system, as long as you dont run X. if you run X, then it depends on what window manager you use.

and with 32MB of ram you can forget desktop env's like kde or gnome...

 

[nihil]

debian. and if you run x use something light like blackbox as a window manager.

 

[Electrode]

Slackware and LFS are the only flavors of Linux I can take seriously. I'm also beginning to like BSD.

 

[DaHitman]

<< Slackware and LFS are the only flavors of Linux I can take seriously. I'm also beginning to like BSD. >>



If you like LFS... you have GOT TO try Gentoo...

 

[metalac]

Well it all depends what the purpose of the computer will be and of course how comfortable with Linux you are. For instance RH and Mandrake are great for desktop enviroments, easy setup and such, while Debian is excelent for the servers. On the other hand have you looked into FreeBSD? I have it running on a 200mhz Pentium with 48mb as a file server and so far so good, not the greatest performance, but what can you expect from a 200mhz comp?

 

[nihil]

i think the main things to consider when picking a distro would be 1) what you want to do with your computer and 2) how much experience the user has with linux/*nix.

 

[DT4K]

If you don't have much linux experience, go with the latest version of Redhat or Mandrake. Both are very easy to install and do a good job of detecting all your hardware. I prefer Redhat 7.2 over mandrake and debian. It was the easiest to use and had the most flexibility and features. If you have broadband and a cd burner, you can download the iso's from Redhat and burn them. That worked great for me.

They are right about the GUI. I had Redhat 7.2 on a K6-2 380 with 128MB RAM and when running KDE, it was very sluggish. If you can even run KDE or Gnome, it would be very very slow. I haven't tried other GUIs. Without the GUI my K6-2 was plenty fast. I'm going to turn it into an Apache/Tomcat server and also use it as a router.

I doubt you will see a performance difference between different distros using the same kernel.

 

[wolfsblood]

debian with blackbox should run fine on that.

 

[nihil]

<< debian with blackbox should run fine on that. >>



i agree but it might not be the best choice for a person if they are new to linux.

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

<<

<< debian with blackbox should run fine on that. >>



i agree but it might not be the best choice for a person if they are new to linux. >>



Totally agree. If you are new you should stick with SuSE, RedHat, or Mandrake. Id pick Red Hat, despite the trendy claims of it being a crap distro, because there are ALOT of Red Hat specific HOWTOs on theyre site that are great for newbies and experts alike.