Think of a really old laptop. Now think of an older one...
I got this laptop for free:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...11/ai_14815943
Its got Win 3.1 and I want to upgrade.
What Distro will run?
I think it will run Minix3, but I'd like to know what my other choices are.
Thanks!

edit: something that can be installed without a CD drive would be nice

I don't know how to install this w/o CD but I'd recommend Damn Small.

However, the GUI things I'm unsure about. If you're experienced I'd suggest rolling your own Linux from Scratch console distro with your favourite apps in there and unneeded ones stripped out.

Besides a slimmed down LfS text-only, DSL, DeLi, or Tiny, I think you'd have an extremely hard time simply finding a distro to fit on there much less run snappily.

Good luck! This would be another nice Linux portability example.

Wow... just... wow...

And I thought my old HP Omnibooks would be an adventure. (p75, 16mb-32mb ram, 800mb hd, no cdrom)

I had been looking into floppy distros to install on these old laptops, but I haven't gotten around to actually doing the deed. Anyway, just googled for linux floppy distribution and found this nice list http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/ . Maybe you'll find one that will work for you. I noticed a few that even mentioned having a minimal X11 available. Most seem to be utility, recovery, or specialized distros though.

You might also consider digging up an ancient version of a main-stream distro (such as Slackware) which was built back in the day when floppies were the only way.

Supposedly you should be able to install Linux on something as old as a 386 with 4mb ram (console only).

Edit:
Some handy info about the minimum required memory for Linux
http://tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/linux-...oes-linux-need

tomsrtbt is a bootable kernel on a floppy:

http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/Linux/tomsrtbt.htm

I used to use tomsrtbt as a rescue floppy before knoppix came out. I still have a floppy with version 2.0.103 and it still works.

--------------------------
Steve Stites

I can't see the specs on that (404'd!) but DeLi Linux (delilinux.org) is designed to run okay on a 486 with 16MB of RAM. You can install a base system from 3 floppies and then install the rest of the packages with the package manager later. The only downside is that it doesn't look like there's much new development happening with it.

Wow, indeed. I really like this paragraph:
I can think of some uses for this---other than installing Linux. But that's not what you asked for.......

I'd be interested in hearing of your ideas of other uses! (I'm thinking a digital photo frame...)

It looks like my laptop got an astonishing 8MB RAM, so Minix3 would work... except it comes as a CD

A lot of the floppy boots are rescue boots, and frankly, I want a OS, not a recovery tool. I also want something I can install to the drive.

Thanks for all the replies!

Give Wolvix a try...

And you can try slax as well, just browse to upper folders.

but personally, I prefer Wolvix.

check the BasLin, with GUI ! Very nice

h**p://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux

first even though linux is the best you need to know that it is ever changing first you find out the specs of the computer make sure we still have modules to run it.second like a lot of old lap tops it may have BIOS issues with linux.
I have a old Toshiba that runs puppy linux 2 but cant run puppy 3. second the old mandrake 8.0 runs great on it but you know it just not up to stuff for todays newer programs. it runs great for internet and messenger etc.
All things a side make sure the hardware is supported buy what ever linux distribution