I've got an HP ze1210, not a powerful machine by any means. Only has a 1.2ghz Athlon CPU and 256mb ram. I've installed Ubuntu on it but when I have more than a couple programs open at once it just randomly closes things. Like firefox will just close with more than 3 tabs open. I blame this on the low memory amount, I would like to upgrade the memory but it uses pc133 Sdram and all I have is pc100 out of an even older laptop. Anyone have a good recommendation for this low power laptop? I just need to be able to use firefox, Openoffice and I need my 802.11b Linksys wireless card to work. Thanks!!
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Good distro for Older laptop
- Thread starter CougarSE
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2006
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- Sioux Falls, SD
That is a tall order, my friend. You want wireless support, which even most of the newest distros are struggling with. I would, in this instance, have to suggest you look not into an older distro, but into buying more memory.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2005
I've got a emachines m6810 with a 2ghz athlon 64 (I think) running xubuntu and its pretty snappy for what it is. I've got 512 more memory than you do and that helps tremendously. It boots to the username prompt in under a minute which I think is alright... about as long as it takes my dual core opteron to boot to xp. Try xubuntu and look on ebay for another stick of ram.
As far as the linksys card, if it works under ubuntu it will work under xubuntu. My internal broadcom card is some work to setup but my d-link external pcmcia card works without hassle.
As far as the linksys card, if it works under ubuntu it will work under xubuntu. My internal broadcom card is some work to setup but my d-link external pcmcia card works without hassle.
1.2Ghz Athlon w/256MB RAM is enough for any distro, but Arch Linux would be my suggestion. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide
Whether your wireless card is supported or not, depends on the chipset of the card. If it works in one distro, then it should work in all.
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2002
I'd choose any distro that uses XFCE or Fluxbox by default. like xubuntu or fluxbuntu http://fluxbuntu.org
or, you could be more adventurous and try out FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD. make sure you check the compatibility list for your specific wireless card. iirc, the ipw driver in linux came from netbsd, and at this point it might be merged in to all the other BSDs (disclaimer: those facts may or may not be correct as i didn't take the time to look it up)
or, you could be more adventurous and try out FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD. make sure you check the compatibility list for your specific wireless card. iirc, the ipw driver in linux came from netbsd, and at this point it might be merged in to all the other BSDs (disclaimer: those facts may or may not be correct as i didn't take the time to look it up)
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
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- 127.0.0.1
Hehe you love Arch Linux !! I must try it some time..
Hehe. It's not for everyone; I realize that. But, you might just like it. Give it a whirl some time.
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2007
You guys sure thats a problem? I mean, 256 is actually a decent amount for an older system. I bought a dell in 2005 and it only came with 256 RAM... And I still have my old Thinkpad 390e with a 300MHz PII and 128 (now 192) MB of RAM and that thing can run Windows 2000 and XP absolutely fine. Even with Unreal Tournament 99.
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