Low spec Linux desktop?
 

What's the best linux distro to put on an old laptop (low end p3 with limited memory) that will allow just simple web browsing via a wifi dongle?

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I have used the following in the past.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%...%20Started.htm

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Ubuntu do a netbook version. Www.Ubuntu.com

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Lubuntu http://lubuntu.net/ would be better than ubuntu, but the 3 Sirius suggests would be my top 3 for an old PC.

Slitaz as well may be worth a look.
I've got an old PII 450 I play with. Antix, DSL and Puppy and its offshoots run ok on it. Anything Ubuntu runs badly.

Debian, or Slackware can be made to run well, if you want to put the effort in yourself, otherwise Antix, DSL and Puppy are good 'cos other ppl have done the hard work for you :)

I generally end up going back to XP on that PC as it seems the best :(

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

It already has a win2k install on it (need win2k as the bespoke software on it won't run on anything else) but wanted a simple dual boot that would run a web browser faster than the win2k

Thanks guys for the answers will try a bit of experimentation

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I'd give knoppix a try.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Only tried puppy but the system will not boot fully (I think the cd drive is on it's way out as a partedmagic iso will not boot either)

:(

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Is there main site I can pick all of these up from .?

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

If you read back in the thread most have links to their sites.. Only tried puppy linux one of my main machines and it works great

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I had a laptop which was a old P3 450mhz I think can't quite remember, but I bought some extra ram for it to take it to 300mb of ram got the ram from the crucial site.

I ended up putting xp on it as I couldn't get a linux to work on it, thank's to the base station playing up.

I did look at the puppy linux which seemed to be the best option when looking around the net, but allot of people had issue's where they couldn't get it to dual boot they had to have it as the main boot option, and then install the 2nd os and then it seemed to work but I cannot remember where I read it though it was about 5 month's ago.

In the end I bought a new laptop for £350 run's better and does what I need it to do without taking nearly 5 minutes to boot, and then 5 miutes to open firefox.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Not an option here as some of the bespoke ECU software requires specific hardware, also cheaper laptops don't tend to last too long with us.. Must be somethign to do with sand/sun/and being driven over..

The laptop I'm stuck with is an old Toughbook, newer ones won't run the software :(

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

The old toughbook's are excellent, had one myself but my laptop is used mainly for internet and Rcon for gameservers.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Ahh, the old bespoke hardware..

We used to use a broadcast quality video capture system at work. We needed to upgrade the PCs it was running on. The boss wanted half height cases, but that would have caused a slight problem. The cards were 3/4 length, full height and took up the space of two PCI slots. It also required a hard drive bay for it's own HDD.

On the plus side, it was powerful enough to allow realtime editing of up to two simulataneous streams of uncompressed standard definition video on any machine with at least a Pentium 75.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Have a look at http://distrowatch.com/

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I tried the Ubuntu and Ubuntu netbook version ,both would load so far and then just freeze.
Just looking for a second option.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

you could try Linux Mint to see if it's a known bug that they have fixed,as that's based on Ubuntu.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

Tried Linux Mint also and the installation hangs the same as the other 2 I have tried.
Going to try another type of disk and see what happens .
Has anyone tried Mandriva or Fedora ?.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

How about trying a live CD/USB stick boot before trying to install. If a distro works from CD it should work from disk.
Used Fedora for a long time years ago - it's not the most flexible or lightweight distro IMO. Not tried Mandriva.
What is your hardware and what are you trying to achieve?

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

The laptop is a toshiba satelite s1800-314 and just want for Internet browsing.
As it has no wireless i have a dlink DWA 140 to use .
I have been looking at Re Hat but cant figure out what file to download to burn to disk .

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I know nothing about Linux but have just Stumbled across something called Presto, it installs from Windows and gives a dual boot, it also claims to load in seconds.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

you have to pay for Red Hat, try Fedora which is based on it, and free. PCLinuxOS could be a good choice as well, it's come back to life again recently, and there's a choice of desktop,, the lxde version may be good for you.

Presto looks to be the new Xandros which was used on netbooks, but didn't seem to popular, from what I read a lot of ppl either ditched it for XP, or netbook versions of Ubuntu etc.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I got PcLinuxOS and Knoppix to run from the disk, but with Knoppix installs to hard drive to 41% and locks up and cant work out how to get PcLinuxOS to install to drive.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

I would have thought PCLinuxOS would have a desktop shortcut, if not a shortcut in the "start" menu should let you install it.

Knoppix isn't really designed to be installed to hard drive, they recomend using Debian if you're going to do that.

Regarding your install problems, they're all based on debian, seems unlikely but could be a strange problem there.

however I'd be more inclined to look at the hard drive and run a diagnostic utility on it, usually downloadable from the manufacturer of the hard drive as bootable iso, or on a disc like Hiren.

Re: Low spec Linux desktop?
 

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

could give you some ideas of other distros to try