Usable Linux distro for POS machine?

[dgouldin]

I have an old machine that I'd like to give a second life as a Linux box. I have very little experience with Linux but am willing to dive in and learn what I need to in order to accomplish my goal. The two primary purposes for the machine will be to browse the web and to play mp3s. It's an old P233 with 48mb of RAM. What distro would you guys recommend I use? Thanks for the help!!

 

[n0cmonkey]

Use a lightweight WM instead of the heavy duty Desktop Environments (KDE, Gnome). IceWM is windows like, but I prefer blackbox.

 

[redbeard1]

vector linux

 

[AnonymouseUser]

You may be interested in Damn Small Linux as it is intended to be small and light, perfect for older hardware. It is a live CD (runs directly from the CD) but can be installed.

 

[Sunner]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with a box with only 48 MB of RAM.
That will be more than sufficient for numerous light server duties, but for a workstation, it's a tad little.
Does it use SDRAM? If it does, finding another 64-128 MB should be easy, and nearly free.
If it doesn't, even finding a used computer should be nearly free as well, I got a P2-233 with 32 MB for $25, and this was ~3 years ago.

 

[Nothinman]

Debian.

 

[Klixxer]

Slackware.

I would go with IceWM or XFCE as a WM, flux or blackbox are good alternatives but for someone not used to edit config files they are a bitch.

 

[dgouldin]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to see if Vector will work for me, and then try a few other options you all have presented here. If I can't find a good solution, I'll probably just install m0n0wall on it and use it as a firewall and such.

Edit: At the moment I'm waiting for a PS/2 to AT keyboard adapter to come in. Yeah, it's not even an ATX board. If anybody can tell me how to install and configure Linux with just a mouse, I'd be interested to know 😉