hi I have an old computer that i would like to make into a backup. I was think of installing linux but i wont to know what would be the best version to install here are the system specs. Celron 400Mhz 256Ram 10Gb hdd (old xbox hd unlocked) DVDRW , DVD CDRW Ethernet Graphics Card i would like somthing that is good with hardware is possible if not is fine. thanks in advance. navskin
you could try puppy linux http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1 Puppy Linux has been run in a PC-100 Mhz 32 MB RAM machine with hard disk. Memory requirement is at least 64 MB, which can be aided by a swap partition in hard disk if RAM is lacking. With 128 MBor more RAM, Puppy can be booted from a CD, DVD or USBkey drive, hard disk is optional.
thanks for getting back to me so quick on this. this will be a installed on the hdd so i will not be running it from a cd. thanks for the info. navskin
How about Damn Small Linux (DSL) ? Or Xubuntu,even ubuntu perhaps runs on your system. To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk. Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 64 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to use at least 128 MB RAM. EDIT: Ubuntu need 700mhz prosessor but it may run on lower clocks.
i have enught ram 256. i have been looking at puppy linux i am will have a look into xubuntu i am running windows vista and linux ubuntu on a dual boot on my number 1 computer. so i would like ubuntu better. i am so please on hw fast people are getting back to me on this. i think it would be safe to say that the would of linux is getting more and more fans. thanks the info is great
Your best bet with an old machine like that is debian etch. There is a low ram mode especially for systems like yours which have a limited amount. I'm running a full set of forums from home on a machine with lower specs than yours, but with no graphical desktop/window manager. Ubuntu will be way too resource heavy for an old machine like that.. DSL has obsoleted packages, otherwise is fairly good, though the install is a nightmare if you haven't done it before.. Puppy is weird.. java for one refuses to install and work. Very hit and miss. There are other minimal versions, but none that are really for the inexperienced user. I would say the best way to go with an old system is to install a basic core system and then to add a lightweight desktop/window manager to keep the responsiveness up.. KDE and Gnome will both slow things to a crawl by eating up all your available memory. Check this page, http://xwinman.org/ and you will need to know how to edit files and install software from a command prompt. With debian the easy way is to apt-get it all.
i think i found the one that i am going to use so thnks for your help. i am going to use dsl i looks ok and i drain you system for any ram or out like that. thanks for your help navskin
One piece of advice if I may.. Join the DSL forums. They are most helpful, and always respond to help requests. They like positive feedback too.. and bug reports/hardware issues.. All together it's a good little distro, my only reservation is the age of most of the applications. They are "oldstable" which means not much support from the application maintainers. If something refuses to work you will be very much on your own to sort it out.. not a bad thing, but a steep learning curve. You will find that even DSL will seem to eat up all your system memory.. Don't panic, it's the way linux works. It likes to cache recently used disk sectors to speed up read/write access. You will often find that the instruction "free -m" will only show somewhere near 6Mb free.. that's normal.
