Distro reviews for older hardware

Try Slackware 12.2

I have not found hardware it will not run on. I have it running on a machine with 128MB RAM. It comes with several lightweight window managers and one heavy one. I would avoid KDE, and use Xfce instead.

Zenwalk which is based on Slackware, is also very quick on old hardware.

You can use the smaller distro like DamnSmallLinux, Puppy Linux, SliTaz, etc, but they have a limited range of applications.

Slackware comes with everything but the kitchen sink.

As in everything, YMMV.

The definitive guide is http://distrowatch.com/ , go to the Search page and there is a specific "Old Computers" category - just select that and hit Query, it currently returns 18 active distributions.

From each returned entry, open the link and you'll see a summary of the distribution with a list of full reviews (even for previous versions) from different sources.

512MB is plenty to run Puppy or DSL (Damn Small Linux) - Enjoy!

on any low end machine, debian or slackware would be my choice. debian has the advantage of apt. as desktop, fluxbox is probably best. meanwhile, ubuntu 10.04 feels faster than fedora 12 on my x40 thinkpad with 512 mb of ram. (both running gnome.)

I would go with PClinuxOS LXDE, I have it running on 2 of my families laptops that I maintain and it runs flawlessly.

I think you will like the Mandriva created control center that it utilizes as well, the *buntu's have nothing like it.

here is the link:

http://pclinuxos.com/?page_id=10

Linux Mint with its Community Editions worth a look (and a try)

http://www.linuxmint.com/download_ce.php

These Community Editions covers few desktops like Xfce, LXDE and Fluxbox known to run smoothly with limited hardware.

Bye, Bruno

Try a minimal install of Debian with xfce. http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/slimline-debian-install-its-easier-you-might-think I'm having a lot of fun with this set up on Debian Testing. http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/

You may wish to try Dam Small Linux;

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/software/s682.htm

OR

Have a look here at this review for PClinuxOS;

http://cristalinux.blogspot.com/2010/04/pclinuxos-2010-review.html

&

Yes there is also Puppy linux...

I'm running Absolute 13.1 on a Dell 4100, PIII 997MHz, 512MB RAM, nVidia Ti-4400. It is more than acceptable, but not as quick as Zenwalk was. Puppy is quick, but its interface takes some getting used to and I found repos very limited (a criticism of Zenwalk, also). Unity is very good, if you don't mind downloading and/or compiling most all the desired software.

Recently, I repaired a friend's Gateway Profile 3. After upgrading RAM to 512MB, the Hard Drive proved to be irreparable. The BIOS in that machine would not accept anything over about 30GB, so I left it out for lack of any replacement. It is running fine now, minus the HD, from a bootable USB flash drive with Ultilex.

I discovered Ultilex searching through Google and Distrowatch. All one does is download the ISO, then copy the directories to a dedicated partition on a usb storage device, CTRL-ALT-F2 to a shell and execute the install file (./*inst.sh -- can't remember the name) from /boot to make the whole shebang bootable. I gave him the CD to keep in the drive just to be safe, too. It serves his purposes (checking email for his business)... try it out!

It comes with Slax, Puppy, SystemRescueCD, tinycore, and more -- a real "Swiss Army Knife." I was impressed.