[Herefordshire] Linux on really old PCs?

[Mark Broadbent]

Hi Matt,

Matt Rhys-Roberts said:
> Does anyone have experience with putting any form of Linux onto really
> old PCs?

I've had a 486 running linux that I used for a dial-up firewall (it also
did file sharing, nis, nfs and other bits), it wasn't running a GUI
however.  I have had linux running on a 386 with 4MB of RAM, it wasn't
quick but did the job.
> Being a bit of a mender and a magpie myself, I'd like to be able to
> give what would otherwise be junked, a second chance at being (e.g.) a
> terminal that could be connected via a network to a more powerful
> server, and share its resources.

You might want to look at the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project
http://www.ltsp.org/) if you want to run multiple low-spec machines off a
powerful machine through a network.
> I accept that really old PCs may stand less chance of running a
> meaningful X-session, or would they? A text-based interface would be
> adequate in that case.

It all depends what you mean by really old?  If you look at the recent
posts regarding a lightweight window manager FVWM claims it'll run on a
386 and all claim usability on 486s.
Thanks
Mark