Linux on a pII 233Mhz--Any suggestions

[badbaldboy]

 

[badbaldboy]

I have an extra PII 233 kicking around and was wondering about playing with Linux.. Is this a bad idea or not. I think my 233 will handle it with 256megs of sdram. Is the Mandrake 9.1 stuff i see around any good?

 

[pac1085]

Put something like Debian, [Free|Open|Net]BSD or Slackware on it and use a lightweight window manager if you need to run X (not gnome or KDE) and you should be ok.

You could install mandrake or redhat on it if you really wanted if you cut some of the fat off it would run OK.

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: badbaldboy
I have an extra PII 233 kicking around and was wondering about playing with Linux.. Is this a bad idea or not. I think my 233 will handle it with 256megs of sdram. Is the Mandrake 9.1 stuff i see around any good?

I wouldn't recommend Mandrake with that config, or redhat for that matter...

Go Slackware or xBSD as vortex said, be careful about what you install (you can always add more later on) and use a window manager like IceWM or Blackbox...

As a CLi box it would be great with any distro...

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: badbaldboy
I have an extra PII 233 kicking around and was wondering about playing with Linux.. Is this a bad idea or not. I think my 233 will handle it with 256megs of sdram. Is the Mandrake 9.1 stuff i see around any good?

Mandrake would run on it pretty well, but only if you avoid KDE and Gnome. They would run but waiting oer ten seconds for things to show up on your PC isn't very fun. Like the above poster said, though, Debian would be a better choice because of its customizability.

 

[Haden]

Mandrake would work, but you better go straight to Debian.
256MB Ram would make things fly, for multimedia (if you'll want it) I suggest trying mplayer, get packages with MMX support or compile yourself, try using "-vo dga" if playback is slugish (I think 233 should cope with most DivX files).

 

[Schola]

If you want something good like debian with just as good as a package manager(better in my opionon) then use gentoo.

It has awsome documentation and excellent forum for support. I have it on my PII 266 with 270meg of ram. Runs preety good.

schola

 

[drag]

I'd say debian. Gentoo is cool too it's package managment is probably the most advanced solution aviable in any operating system. ALthough with your limited hardware compiling the entire OS will take several days, so use the pre-compiled stuff.

Of course you could always get one of the BSD's. They have a steeper learning curve, but it is a bit more coherient in design then linux. Anything you learn in any Unix will apply to any other one including Linux.

 

[drag]

Damn darn double posting.. hehe

 

[Chrono310]

Slackware all the way... Get Slack!

 

[Serp86]

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6 debian, 1 slackware
You get the idea dude

 

[LuckyTaxi]

bsd

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: Serp86
6 debian, 1 slackware
You get the idea dude

Yeah, very few people here know what they're talking about!

Slackware!

PS: In case you missed the blatant sarcasm, I AM KIDDING.

 

[Spyro]

PS: In case you missed the blatant sarcasm, I AM KIDDING.

Oh, O.K. Can I flame you anyway?

 

[neuro4848]

If it wasn't for this forum.... I would have never seen the goodness that is Debian...

Debian runs on all my servers, and pretty soon... my desktop.

:beer:

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: Spyro
Oh, O.K. Can I flame you anyway?

Sure, just let me get my fire retardant suit on first.

 

[TheCorm]

I ran Red Hat 8.0 on a P166MMX + 64MB Ram....worked okay but took a long time to install....and was slow, plenty of swap file usage!

Jamie

 

[pukemon]

I still have my old P2-266 with 128MB RAM, and for me, I've found Debian to work very well. You only really need to download the first disc (from linuxiso.org or elsewhere or buy it from cheapbytes) and once your basic system is up, you let apt do all the dirty work for you (provided you have a high speed internet connection). The text based interface takes some getting used to, but really once you get used to it, there isn't going back.

Oh yeah, using blackbox or icewm in X is probably a very good idea.