[Cialug] [cialug]small linux

[cialug@cialug.org]

I think the "mainstream" distros are targeting higher-end machines,
because that's what people want to use. You can get a cheap PC with a
2+ghz processor for $400. That's pretty amazing, really. In the late 80's
and early 90's, it was easy to spend $3k on a nice PC -- and that was
about 1/10th of the computing power & storage of that $400 PC.

I've been running Mandrake 10.1 with the 2.6 kernel on a 266mhz PII w/
128mb RAM, and it runs KDE and FireFox just fine. I've found that the 2.6
kernel feels a lot faster on low-end hardware than 2.4. While that's not
as low-end as what Dan's looking at, by today's standard, that's a pretty
slow computer.

There are a lot of distributions geared towards lower end systems, and
even imbedded devices. I don't have a lot of experience with them. Have
you looked around at http://distrowatch.com/ to see what's available?

-dc

Don Cady <doncady@bigfoot.com> said:

> [rant]
> Software creep; This is something that has been worrying/discuraging me 
> lately. When I first looked at linux, you could load it on an old pentium 
> and expect reasonable response. The ability to keep your hardware longer
was 
> one of the advantages over windows. Now it seems the bare minimum is a PII, 
> and will soon be a PIII. Only one hardware generation better, how is this 
> much better than windows?
> [/rant]
> Has there been any discussion of this among the top of Linuxdom?
> 
> dh- Have you tried your usual cadre of damn small, feather, and puppy?
> 
> Don
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kenneth Ristau" <kristau@kristau.net>
> To: <cialug@cialug.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 31, 2004 4:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] [cialug]small linux
> 
> 
> > Dan Hockey wrote:
> >> does anyone know of a linux distro that will run on a old computer?
its a 
> >> p75 40mb ram and 6gb hdd. i've tried debian 3r2 but keep messing up 
> >> things when installing X.
> >> -dh
> >
> > I suppose that depends a lot on what you want to use it for.  If you are 
> > just setting up a workstation with no network or on a well-firewalled 
> > network, then a older distro might work fine for you.  I have some old 
> > CD's I could dig up with RH 6.x and early RH 7.x if you want them.
> >
> > If, however, you are wanting a modern kernel or the system will have to 
> > fend for itself on a hostile network, then there isn't much out there I'm 
> > afraid.  The older distros are so out of date that they would likely be 
> > compromised in short order, even if you applied all the patches you could 
> > find.
> >
> > I have Knoppix 3.2 running on a P133 laptop with 140 Mb of RAM and it is 
> > dog, dog slow.  My wife uses it to look up recipes from our ReciPants 
> > database, so it suits its purpose well because once she looks the recipe 
> > up, it stays on the screen for a long time.  It is almost impossible to 
> > read Slashdot or Google News unless you have the patience of a 150 year 
> > old Tibetan monk.
> >
> > If you want those old disks, let me know and I'll bring them to the next 
> > meeting.
> >
> > later,
> > kristau
> > _______________________________________________
> > Cialug mailing list
> > Cialug@cialug.org
> > http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> > 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug@cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> 
> 



--