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Which distro for an old computer?


Andrewski
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I have a friend who has caught wind of my recent Linux ways and she's thinking of switching too. She has a fairly old computer (I don't have the exact specs on me) and I see on ZDNet that Mandrake 9.1 takes a little better than she has. She's not a computer whiz, but she's no dummy either, so what do you suggest she try out as a Linux noob? She's mainly worried about old hardware. I can get specific... specs? if that'd help.

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There are lots of options. I'm only here for a couple of seconds though, so I thought I'd advise you that I have some earlier Mandrake versions that ran fine on a P133 with 32M RAM that I picked up at the University for a few bucks. I'd be happy to ship them to you (don't think I have the manuals, but the docs are on the disks) for a nominal fee... say some postcards of your area.

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I recently installed Mdk9.1 on a PIII 766 MHz with 64MB (SDR) SD-RAM.

 

It was a complete pain!!!

 

It was easier to install mdk8.2 on a PI 200MHz with 120MB of RAM. (My headless server, still up and running, no problem.)

And I never noticed much difference on other machines between 8.2, 9.0 and 9.1,....

 

So RAM matters bigtime, 96 is starting to get into the comfort zone.

 

In any case, get the exact specs!

 

You can surely breathe life into a sub 200MHz machine with linux (if not with Mdk, with slackware or debian or so, tailored to your needs), but personally I would consider that a hobby project to 'prove it can be done' or so...

 

Nowadays when 200$ buys you a new 1GHz+ machine preloaded with linux, I don't really see the point.

Secondhand you should be able to get a 300MHz machine under 100$, then you have all you need: enough ram (128 is good, more (up to ~ 512MB) is better, depending on your needs).

 

Then again, I can't look into your (or her) wallet.

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I run mdk9.1 sweetly on 300mhz P2. 6gb hdd. I have 160mb ram. And I rarely end up using much of my 200mb swap at all. That was during some intensive Gimp work.

 

I reccomend using a Lightweight wm. Like Fluxbox or IceWM. I use fluxbox, very powerful, very fast. And can be easy to use with creature comforts like idesk, and even the gnome panel or kde kicker if you wish.

 

Anyway good luck.

 

James

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Secondhand you should be able to get a 300MHz machine under 100$, then you have all you need: enough ram (128 is good, more (up to ~ 512MB) is better, depending on your needs).

 

That's what I have! It runs MAndrake 9.1, Fluxbox, sweet! (specs above)

THe only annoyance is the slightly long startup (~2-3mins, well long for me). But i can handle that, and i can quicken that when i find the time

 

Sorry to double post

 

James

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RAM is cheap now, and it's the easiest way to get results from a quick upgrade. That's what I'd do: tell her to get some RAM then go with the new RH.

 

When she's into it and needs a new computer - whichever version of mandrake is out by then will blow her away!

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?

Why not go for Mandrake 9.1 right away?

 

I'm just supposing it is a P200 or so (hey, 4 years ago that was the standard) with 64MB. The install may be tough with only 64MB, but with icewm or so as windowmanager, there's no problem.

 

RH is compiled for 386, so doesn't use pentium optimisations, meaning it will run slower on an old pentium....

 

You only have to go for RH if there's only 32MB of RAM (RAM is cheap, I know, but not the kind that fits a socket7 board, those are SIMMs, not DIMMs, and hard to come by these days), or if it's a 486 or older cpu.

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I ran Mandrake 8.2 and 9.0 on a P166 with 64 MB ram, 2.7 Gb hard drive (that's 3 hd's, a 1.7 + two 500 mb!), using WindowMaker. The system itself ran quite nicely, but the worst was running StarOffice or OpenOffice. SO was faster than OO, but that might be different with the new 1.1 RC. Basic web browsing was also slower than an equilvalent box with Win98 (I was using Opera 6). The best part was that the box seemed amazing at multitasking. The GIMP ran nicely, and it would play mp3's/oggs without it skipping even while SO or GIMP was loading. One tip would be to compile some software with processor optimizations. My 166 had MMX on it, so patching XMMS with the MMX patch and compiling had a significant performance increase. Movies were too slow to play, but that might have been because of my video card (S3 Virge).

 

So: the short of it is that if you can find a faster office suite and web browser you should be set on even an older system. As always, pump in as much ram as you can.

 

To put things into perspective, I'm running 9.1 on a Celeron 433/256MB ram/30GB hd/Intel i810 video, and it's pretty snappy. KDE works fine, and I can multitask with /lots/ of apps without a problem.

 

Hope this helps!

 

--Andrew

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I ran Mandrake 8.2 and 9.0 on a P166 with 64 MB ram, 2.7 Gb hard drive (that's 3 hd's, a 1.7 + two 500 mb!).....................To put things into perspective, I'm running 9.1 on a Celeron 433/256MB ram/30GB hd/Intel i810 video, and it's pretty snappy. KDE works fine, and I can multitask with /lots/ of apps without a problem.

 

Hope this helps!

 

--Andrew

 

That's the great thing about linux...........

 

 

The other OS would grind to a halt. And it eventually does no matter what the hardware............

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