[dundee] Usable Linux with GUI on old hardware

[Robert Ladyman]

I always found VectorLinux to be the best: puppy was a little fussy to 
install. The alternative is to run an older version of a 'normal' distro: I 
have a very old machine with a lower spec than that running Mandrake 9.0

RJL

> Haven't been trying for long, but yesterday afternoon I tried to get
> Linux with a GUI running on three old IBM Thinkpad 380XD laptops. The
> specs are:
> 
> Intel Pentium 2 233MHz
> 64 MB RAM
> 3.2GB HD
> 2MB Graphics Card
> 
> The distros I've tried or have downloaded to consider trying are:
> 
> Damn Small Linux
> Damn Small Linux Not
> Puppy
> TurboPup
> Deli
> Feather
> VectorLinux
> BasicLinux (I just wanted to try this out, not really practical)
> 
> Ideally they should be able to browse the Internet, open PDF and Word
> documents and possibly open PPTs / run a presentation. That last one
> might be an issue, from what I can see there are three options run a
> viewer in Wine, Install Open Office or Install Java and run a viewer.
> Seems theres no lightweight PPT viewer. I'm pretty sure the RAM is the
> bottleneck, plus an added problem is the guy I'm doing this for has
> his mind set on Puppy after seeing the GUI.
> 
> Puppy seems to take 3-5 minutes to boot, I've done an HD install and
> continue to play around with it.
> 
> I've considered doing a minimal Debian install (even considered
> Slackware or Gentoo) and seeing what I can bring up from there.
> 
> Anyway just wondering if anyone had any advice, success stories,
> opinions, whatever really.
> 
> Kris
> 
> _______________________________________________
> dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> dundee at lists.lug.org.uk  http://dundeelug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> Chat on IRC, #tlug on irc.lug.org.uk
> 

-- 

Robert Ladyman
File-Away Limited, 32 Church Street, Newtyle
Perthshire, PH12 8TZ SCOTLAND
Registered in Scotland, Company Number SC222086
Tel: +44 (0) 1828 898 158
Mobile: +44 (0) 7732 771 649
http://www.file-away.co.uk