Question

1

I have a rather old computer that I need to install Linux on.

It's specs are:

Intel Pentium II 450 Mhz
128 MB RAM
ATI Rage Pro graphics card
6 + 4 GB hard drives.

I plan to rebuild it early next year, but for the time being it's specs are stuck where they are. Is there any GUI Linux distributions that will run on that low specs?

edited Nov 22 at 17:00

asked Nov 22 at 16:22

Macha
2,098●1●5●21

98% accept rate

1

Max out the RAM, if you have access to 133MHz DIMM modules laying around. – Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Nov 22 at 16:56

Marcin · Answer 1 · 2009-11-23 01:33:02Z

You actually have a lot of choices. You can even run Ubuntu, I have seen an article that covers a way to install it in systems with 32MB of Ram. My suggestions are:

Maheanuu · Answer 2 · 2009-11-22 16:26:54Z

3

MacPup Opera61 Will Run Fine on it

answered Nov 22 at 16:26

Maheanuu
31●1

briealeida · Answer 3 · 2009-11-22 16:25:34Z

2

Damn Small Linux

That's what you're looking for, I think.

DSL is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.

answered Nov 22 at 16:25

briealeida
535●10

DaveParillo · Answer 4 · 2009-11-22 16:28:18Z

See this question for some ideas. I just tried out MacPup, largely due to Molly's suggestion & it's pretty nice. MacPup (or just plan old Puppy) could run totally within the RAM on that computer. So could DSL for that matter.

berocoder · Answer 5 · 2009-11-22 17:45:52Z

1

See http://u-lite.org It has the following minimum requirements:

Pentium 2 or better
96MB of RAM or better
4GB Hard Drive or better

answered Nov 22 at 17:45

berocoder
146●2

Brendan Long · Answer 6 · 2009-11-23 07:20:06Z

1

Any distro that doesn't use Gnome or KDE as the default should be fine. Try Xubuntu.

edited Nov 23 at 7:20

answered Nov 23 at 3:09

Brendan Long
271●8

2

unfortunately xubuntu's XFCE is a good deal heavier than compile-it-yourself XFCE. you could try Lubuntu, if you really want an Ubuntu-based system; it's based on LXDE, which is to XFCE as XFCE is to Gnome. – ~quack Nov 23 at 4:27

Mad Fish · Answer 7 · 2009-11-23 19:18:14Z

Just take the Arch Linux and install whatever desktop environment you like. For these specs you should try Xfce (more mature) or LXDE (more lightweight). There is also a page on Arch Linux Wiki about lightweight software.

Lokal · Answer 8 · 2009-11-23 19:24:59Z

I've just recently installed crunchbang linux onto an older laptop. It uses openbox window manager and ubuntu repositories... so far it seems pretty nimble and the packages I need/use were a simple apt-get away.

Admittedly, my hardware is a bit better than Pentium 2, so I can't vouch for your experience but the openbox wm is pretty light on resouce usage.

EDIT Did some research and it looks like you would be in for a less than optimal experience and you're better off with something like DSL or puppy.

techsavvy · Answer 9 · 2009-11-28 18:05:12Z

0

BasLin "google it" or basic linux on 2 floppy discs will run on nearly anything. add packages as needed.

answered Nov 28 at 18:05

techsavvy
1

Lightweight GUI Linux distribution for really old computer

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