Linux for old PCs

[exculiber]

Any recommended Linux package which can be used to run old PCs (i.e. Pentium II to Pentium III level) ? These are units for instructional purposes.
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[linux_0]

Give DSL a try:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

or look at Debian itself

http://www.debian.org/

GL :-D

 

[audiovoodoo]

Slax is also a good distro for older / slower hardware.

http://www.slax.org/

 

[bmouring]

While I don't disagree that Slax is great for running for a liveCD (excellent if you are testing the waters like exculiber seems to be), for installation there are better installation-oriented lightweight distros such as DSL, properly-configured Debian, Xubuntu, Vector, or one of many others.

 

[audiovoodoo]

I'd probably put DSL and Slax at about the same level in terms of installation. I agree with the point though. Knoppix for example is a bad choice for an installed OS.

Xubuntu would of all the names listed so far probably be the most install to hard disc orientated of the LiveCDs (that also fits the low spec HW requirement). I just know that Slax does very well with older hardware although as you rightly point out not as installation focussed.

 

[mrreality13]

Xubuntu is what ive used to run a few older pc"s

on a few p3's as well as a p2 just make sure you have if possable at least 256 megs ram

 

[exculiber]

Thanks for all your inputs. I will look into your suggested packages and will provide you feedback later on my exprience. Instead of dumping these old PCs, we might as well find a way on how to make full use of them . Making these for instructional purposes especially those in need seems to be a good idea.
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[bmouring]

Not only are older machines great for exposure to computers in general (as well as Unix-based systems for those interested), but they can also serve as a multipurpose network machine for routing/firewalling, webserving, central document repository/fileserver, etc.

 

[choknuti]

Since these would be used for instruction best is to install slackware. IMHO there is no better way to learn how linux works.

 

[bmouring]

Since these would be used for instruction best is to install slackware. IMHO there is no better way to learn how linux works.

Good point, I just assumed instruction = traditional educational environment, and if it is in fact meant to learn about Linux, then slack world be great (although, depending on familiarity and/or persistence, a slightly gentler introduction might not be a Bad ThingTM)

 

[choknuti]

Now that you mention it I think I could have misinterpreted him not you . BTW Slack is not so bad as its reputation it is just how you approach it that is important.

 

[bmouring]

Yes, I've used slack before, and it's one of my two distros of choice for a no-nonsense system (the other being a stripped-down debian) and I agree that it gets a bum rap for being unfriendly when in fact it's no more complex than any other no-nonsense distro, but for those who are completely unfamiliar with CLI in unixland, having the safetynet of a GUI usually helps people cope with the differences, at least at a psychological level I've found. If they've come from only using Windows or Mac, staring at just a terminal prompt can be imposing.

At least that's what I've noticed in helping friends/family, your experiences may vary

 

[choknuti]

I normally use slack with xfce so it can be rather pretty But I guess most people prefer gnome or kde (that last one is bloatware almost as bad as windows IMHO)

 

[theboomboomcars]

I have used both Xubuntu and Debian on a pentium MMX 233, Xubuntu worked but felt sluggish at times. But debian with XFCE didn't feel to bad at all, unless I had more than one application open.

A good fast desktop is enlightenment, it also looks very nice.

 

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[audiovoodoo]

He's not the messiah.. He's a VERY naughty boy :lol:

 

[LVDAX]

Coming from a monkey who throws poop...
Good to see you active again

 

[MU_Engineer]

Well, a distro is a distro more or less. Underneath, they all have the Linux kernel and GNU userland. If the distro is installed such that it's not just text mode, then they all have X11 installed also. There are also choices between window managers, from really minimalistic to very full-featured.

If I were running Linux on a very old computer, I'd find a distro that let me just install the minimal system plus X and TWM as the window manager. That choice of installability is the key factor here, not what distro you actually install. TWM is very lightweight and yet still is graphical and can run any other GUI program if needed. TWM definitely looks like something out of a 1980s OS but if you're not afraid of using a window manager sans glitz and a bunch of GUI tools, it'll do just fine. If you need more GUI than TWM's Xterms and Xclock provide, then IceWM or FVWM would work. XFCE is much more heavily featured than IceWM or FVWM are and would probably still run okay. But I'd really only use that if I really needed to. KDE and GNOME would probably run also, but I can tell you that they'd be slow and you'd need a fair bit of RAM to run them very well. They are full-featured modern desktop environments and perform well on newer hardware.

And as far as singling out a particular distro, I really like Gentoo. However, it would be a bad choice on such an old computer as it would have to compile at least some of its own packages and this would take considerable time. There is a dsitributed compiler, but it won't always work on every package and the computer would have to compile the package. That can take hours for certain packages. Thus I'd recommend any Debian-based distro that you can choose how much you install. Regular Debian would work, so would the server version of Ubuntu and a whole raft of other Debian offshoots. SUSE would work fine as well, but it's a little heavier than other distros and has fewer CLI config tools and more ncurses/X based ones. I haven't had much experience with Slackware or its progeny, so I can't comment on it. Nor on any of the BSDs as they're UNIX as well. I'd just say look at install options and any one that has a decently-configurable minimal install mode will do you fine.

 

[bmouring]

The difference is that there is the choice of leaving out the fat for those who don't want or need it.
The fat is just to entice new converts who are used to fatty OS's, so to speak.

 

[audiovoodoo]

Err... thats exactly what Ubuntu do. I've just got 7.04 beta up and running from my single ~680Mb CD. No DVD download for me. Core components on the disc and the rest via apt.

Gentoo stage 1 install is about as pure as it gets. I know there used to be LSF (Linux From Scratch) but I don't know much about that one..

 

[knightrous]

Yeah, Audio Monkey is right, Ubuntu is a single CD distro. Ubuntu is one of the leaner popular ones I have seen and was part of the reason why I tried it out, because I didn't want to download 2Gb to find out I didn't the distro

Ubuntu FTW

 

[choknuti]

If it only wasn't based on Debian

 

[MU_Engineer]

Nobody really does Stage 1 Gentoo installs any more as there's little difference in download size and performance from doing a Stage 1 versus a Stage 3. Both can be started from a minimal install CD, which is roughly 60 MB. The Portage snapshot is the same, weighing in at about 100 MB. The only difference besides the compile time is that the stage file for Stage 1 is slightly smaller than for Stage 3.

There's no real advantage do compiling GCC + toolchain with the live CD's GCC and toolkit, then chrooting and using the compiled GCC + toolchain to recompile itself rather than just compiling the stuff once, with the live CD's GCC and toolchain. Gentoo has even recommended that people stop doing Stage 1s and Stage 2s and just do a Stage 3.

 

[audiovoodoo]

From a purely academic stand point I'd love to do the whole lot from source. I agree with what you say that this is less popular now people have tested and shown there to be a minimal difference in speed. The sheer amount of time Gentoo would take to compile (into a fully featured distro) has put me off.

As to your previous comment about it being a shame that Ubuntu is Debian based I'd like to understand where it comes from. Debian seems as good a starting point as any. I'm wondering what you would have preferred them to produce?