hi,
i am using Mandriva 2007 free now on a

Dell Laptop,
PIII-750
256KB Cache
256MB RAM (100 mhz 128+128)
18 GB Harddisk

I am using it only for web browsing, open office applications(a little slow now), a LAMP package and writing PHP pages.

I want to see any ideas about the fastest linux distribution that can be run on this notebook.

Thanks already for kind ideas

it's not about the distro you use, it's the software yo urun inside it. mandrake 2007 will run fine on that gear if you stop useing gnome2 / kde3 for example. try xfce, fluxbox instead.

Slackware, Gentoo, DSL, Puppy Linux, Deli, etc.

Cool i received 2 replies in minutes
yeap i am using KDE 3.5 and now i start to add fluxbox.

what about ctkroeker's reply on Slackware, Gentoo, DSL, Puppy Linux, Deli. vs Mandriva?

Some friends offered me to install a live version of Linux on a harddisk. Can this be a good solution or Just the softwares matter as acid_kewpie replied?

those distro's are generally lighter, but they are lighter becuase they don't build all bells and whistles in to them, i.e. the stuff like kde which you're probably using. you can make slackware as slow as you want to though, if you're hearts set on running XGL and KDE3.4 with all sorts of other junk...

The fastest distro you can run is certainly a tailored LFS (Linux From Scratch), as everything will be built (and thus optimized) for your computer ... But it will take ages to have it fine, which is a bit too much for standard use ... Gentoo is almost the same (a bit less optimized, and a bit less time to install, but it's still a matter of day for a typical install)

Keep your system as light as possible is a good thing ! You can also try to rebuild your kernel if boot time is too long ...

i bet you any money i *could* build an LFS machine that runs like an absolute dog...

Even the better Linux system will run like a dog if you try to run countless processes on it ...

Keep it light is the keyword ... LFS is just finetuning if you really want the best performance ...

... *IF* you know how to tune it. and step one is "don't run pointless crap".

i understand the logic acid_kewpie
at least up to this time i uninstalled all games unnecessary many softwares from software management(reduced many processes) i feel someting more better.
i think i have to learn more how to build LFS and how to compile the kernel myself when installing.

acid_kewpie, I think exactly the same as you ... Keep it light (or don't run pointless crap, as you say) is the most important part ... And no matter the distro you choose, even the better system will run like crap if you overload it with useless CPU consuming fancy stuffs ...

well one thing at a time.. get used to linuix first. note that uninstalling games won't really affect anythign that disk space. as if they aren't actually running, they use no resources.

today i tried 2 versions of live cds mandriva one and suse live 9.2
in that computer suse live was really faster than mandriva one,
also i installed mandriva 2007, fedora core 6 and suse 9.0 for last hours
suse 9.0 seemed faster.
i am now using suse 9.0 installed on that computer but i am trying to learn ways to install live suse 9.2 on hardrive too, and compare both of them again.
I feel that suse is good for now later(starting this evening)
i ll try to learn the concepts you explained above by time.

At university next year, i ll attend Computer Science
i think i ll improve my linux skills(!) there very much.

I can recommend Suse for newbies like me "for now".

you're recommending an old version of the software for newies? no way... that's just horrible when you start having problems gettgin up to date software for it and such like. use 10.2 or pick a different distro.

ty for the reply
the mirror i tried has showed 9.2 and 9.0 as the newest versions
i am now downloading 10.2 live and normal
thanks again