--- In [email protected], "RT" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Apologies if this question has been asked/answered a bazillion times
> already.
>
> I have a Pentium I -166Mhz and a Pentium 2-266 Mhz that haven't seen
> use since the previous millennium .
>
I've experimentally installed lightweight Linuxes on P1's from 233
down to 75MHz and P2's 233 and up. The oldest machine I've actually
*used* for any length of time was a P2/333 -- which is actually still
in service (with 192MB RAM, running PCLinuxOS) as a P2/450 now, the
333 CPU held in reserve.
If you can't load the P1 up with 64MB, assuming it only takes SIMMs,
it probably isn't worth it. That's really the bare minimum for a GUI
without doing advanced surgery on the distro, compiling a custom
kernel, and other such really advanced techniques -- which are frankly
still beyond me!
The Pentium-2 board, assuming it can take DIMMs, is your better bet to
be useful, especially if you can get 128 or more MB RAM into it, 192
or more will let you run almost any "regular" Linux (*ubuntu,
PCLinuxOS, Fedora, MEPIS, etc.). Power-user Linuxes are something
you'd probably want to avoid as a newbie, anyway.
I have a quartet of lightweight Linuxes I try on minimal machines,
generally speaking ONE of them will work, more if I get lucky. It
depends on video and sound chipsets; if they aren't supported by now,
they never will be!
The quartet is: D*mn Small Linux (DSL), Puppy Linux (3.xx or 2.15),
Feather Linux (a Knoppix remaster), and Morphix. Morphix is the
"fattest" of these minimal GUI installs, but I've (surprisingly)
gotten it to install AND work with only 64MB RAM. Look for XCFE-based
desktops, not Gnome or KDE. Fluxbox and ICEWM windowmanagers
(featured in most of the quartet I mention) are lightweight but more
obscure, and sometimes not so user-friendly.
If you're a newbie with a technical bent, as I am (I'm approaching the
1st anniversary of my first real Linux install), Vector Linux is a
nice one to try as well.
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