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Good Distro for really old pcs
- Thread starter rumbl3
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2011
- Location
- Orange County, CA
Up until maybe two years ago I had a 333MHz Pentium Pro that I ran with vanilla Ubuntu (Hardy I think.) These days I'd use Xubuntu.
The box was the most reliable PC I ever had. IBM IntelliStation.
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2004
- Location
- Irvine, CA
You could try Trisquel GNU/Linux it is one of the nine fully-free distros approved by the GNU Project. That means every piece of software is free to run for whatever purpose you want, study, modify, and share. Trisquel has a mini version that is great for older computers like the one you mention.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2006
- Location
- South Dakota
Vector Linux is great on old PCs. It just released version 7 this month
- Joined
- May 17, 2005
- Location
- High Desert, Calif.
Debian(Squeeze) runs like a champ on my old IBM:
Code:
hrsetrdr@IBM:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping : 3
cpu MHz : 547.567
cache size : 256 KB- Joined
- Jan 11, 2007
I had a Gateway 2Ghz P4 laptop that had Lubuntu on it and ran pretty darn good. Much better than the XP that was on it.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2003
- Location
- Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit
Bohdi Linux is also another good choice. Its a very lightweight Debian-based distro.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2010
- Location
- La-la-latvia AKA Middle of Nowhere
I'd say it depends on what you intend to do with the machine. What DE/WM you want to use and how comfortable you are with Linux.
Debian, Arch, Slackware, Gentoo and most of their spinoffs are great on any type of hardware, if you're installing just the core and afterwards adding things that you really need. Instead of installing some 4GBs of bloat and eyecandy.
Since Debian is the most (new) user friendly of the bunch, I'd throw my vote behind a basic Debian install and then adding LXDE to it, or OpenBox. Those are two lightest desktop environments that come to mind.
Debian, Arch, Slackware, Gentoo and most of their spinoffs are great on any type of hardware, if you're installing just the core and afterwards adding things that you really need. Instead of installing some 4GBs of bloat and eyecandy.
Since Debian is the most (new) user friendly of the bunch, I'd throw my vote behind a basic Debian install and then adding LXDE to it, or OpenBox. Those are two lightest desktop environments that come to mind.
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2008
- Location
- Cumbria (UK)
I ran puppy Linux on a Pentium II / 64MB Dell Latitude for awhile 
for its power requirements if has a lot of features.
for its power requirements if has a lot of features.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2010
- Location
- La-la-latvia AKA Middle of Nowhere
Forgot to mention... it's not just the distro that will have an effect on how your system runs but applications you use as well. For example, Firefox might be the most popular option, but it's by far not the most lightweight browser outhere.
For a pretty nifty list with lightweight apps, give these two wiki entries a look. Both have some really good alternatives to the more mainstream apps that come bundled with DEs.
Lightweight Applications
And a forum entry with user voted lightest and fastest apps of 2011
For a pretty nifty list with lightweight apps, give these two wiki entries a look. Both have some really good alternatives to the more mainstream apps that come bundled with DEs.
Lightweight Applications
And a forum entry with user voted lightest and fastest apps of 2011
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
- Location
- Toronto
Slitaz:
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
Requirements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SliTaz#System_requirements
Weird name, good distro.
http://www.slitaz.org/en/
Requirements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SliTaz#System_requirements
Weird name, good distro.
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2003
- Location
- Lufkin,TX
I have an Ubuntu CD that I use when playing around with ancient stuff.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2004
I ran puppy Linux on a Pentium II / 64MB Dell Latitude for awhile
+1 for Puppy.
Puppy runs in ram so it's really fast on old systems especially with slow hard drives.
Lubuntu might be a better choice than Xubuntu since it's a smaller distro.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Location
- Oregon
SalineOS runs on netbooks quite well I hear. Wish I had one.
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