Need quick hardware check for Linux

[Zugzwang152]

Well I have this old machine and I want to use it to play around with linux, because its useless as a windows box.

Some distros I am interested in: Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo. Any other suggestions?

Debian's min. system requirements for a desktop are pentium 100mhz and 64mb ram for the latest 3.0 release.

this computer is a pentium 200mhz with 192mb ram. is this going to be a painful process for me, or will it be sufficient to get my feet wet with decent responsiveness?

 

[Aenslead]

No; it will just be a tad slow.

 

[Zugzwang152]

thanks for responding. looking for the usual linux experts to come out of their shells. i know Nothinman has been dying to say something besides "Debian"... :Q

 

[Aenslead]

Use Mandrake 10; it is very easy to install and is quite stable. Used it for a while, and I'm a complete newbie.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: Aenslead
Use Mandrake 10; it is very easy to install and is quite stable. Used it for a while, and I'm a complete newbie.

Ugh, mandrake is horrible IMO.

Use a distro that has some sort of decent package management... debian/ubuntu/suse/fedora would all fit the bill.

Just make sure to use a lightweight window manager, gnome and kde will kill your system.

IceWM, fxce, or *box should work just fine.

 

[Zugzwang152]

installing ubuntu now... its taking forever :Q

 

[Sunner]

Ubuntus default desktop is kinda heavy, and will be ass on that box.
If you still wanna use Ubuntu, make sure to install one of the above mentioned window managers, personally I'd go with one of the boxes(openbox, blackbox, or fluxbox).

 

[nweaver]

yeah, that will die on the GUI. One nice thing about linux on old hardware is that you don't have to use the gui. I have an old Compaq M700 laptop that I drag around. Sure, it CAN run gnome, but I normally avoid it. I just use it for services/apps. I have some decent net tools, such as NTOP (gotta be carefull with that one, not a long term ntop box), Nagios, eth/tethereal/tcpdump, apache, perl, mysql, etc. It's also nice to be able to quickly provide a temporary source of network services in the test lab. Need a DHCP server while you get windows installed/patched/configured? Grab my craptastic laptop, and startup the DHCP service. Need some DNS? I already have the forward lookups setup for our company, so I just have to turn it on. I couldn't run NTOP, NAGIOS, and services on top of gnome for very long, so it's nice. I kinda wish that Win2k3 had a runlevel 3, I would find it more useful

 

[nweaver]

oh, and to the OP, try one with package manager is a huge yes. I started on Redhat, and moved to Gentoo. Emerge/Apt-Get/Yast are very very very very very nice. This is yet another idea that MS should stea...er, use.

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: nweaver
oh, and to the OP, try one with package manager is a huge yes. I started on Redhat, and moved to Gentoo. Emerge/Apt-Get/Yast are very very very very very nice. This is yet another idea that MS should stea...er, use.

Doesn't fit the business model they want.