Looking for a good Linux for older systems

THCsphere · 10-13-2009, 05:43 AM

I actually have a few IBM think pads and older laptops around 166MHz with 16 - 32MB of ram and 2 - 3 GB Hard drives in each, as well as a few 300 - 500MHz Desktops with 64MB - 256MB of ram. While I'm sure I could run an older version of Slackware on the Desktops (As I've done it before), but On the IBM think pads, they're Pent MMX 166MHz. Anyone have a good suggestion so I can bring them back to live?

ajlewis2 · 10-13-2009, 06:08 AM

Try http://distrowatch.com. Use the Search link in the top section and go down the page to Distribution Category. They have Old Computers as one category. That should help.

gomerpyle · 10-13-2009, 06:37 AM

NetBSD runs great on small hardware.

ikem · 10-13-2009, 11:08 AM

Some distros I can recommend:

*Puppy Linux
*SliTaz
*Damn Small Linux
*Tiny Core Linux

salasi · 10-13-2009, 01:56 PM

I have an old thinkpad 600E (somewhere!) with 192M of ram running SuSE 9.3 and, even for that, the amount of ram is a limitation. I suggest that you see if out of collection of bits that you have you can manage one or maybe a few machines with rather more ram, as it is going to a slightly depressing experience computing on 16M.

After that, a lightweight GUI is the next order of business.

cantab · 10-27-2009, 11:18 AM

For the desktops, Vector Linux Light might be good. I run it on a laptop with 1GHz Celeron, 120MB RAM, and it does very well.

For those laptops, the RAM restriction is extreme. DamnSmall and TinyCore say they'll run with it, but I wouldn't use them as a 'regular' computer. Instead, either a server of some sort (might want a hard drive upgrade), or how about an thin client? Something like NX or VNC to access your main computer, the demands on the laptop are then very light indeed.

lampamp · 11-13-2009, 04:50 AM

U can install Fedora XFCE Spin which is specialized for old and slow PCs

ikem · 11-14-2009, 12:37 AM

There is also a Fedora 12 LXDE-Spin avaiable*. It should use even less ressources then the Fedora 12 XFCE-Spin.

*https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LXDE_Spin
*https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/File:...screenshot.png
*http://spins.fedoraproject.org/