Which linux or *BSD for P-133 laptop. Used as learning/test

[wallsfd949]

I am going to setup an old Toshiba Satelite 305CDS laptop as a learning tool / testing ground for linux. It is a:
P-133 MMx (as far as I can tell)
48MB Ram
4.8GB hd - 2.2GB for Linux (+500mb swap) 2.4GB for win2k

I want to set it up for several purposes and need a suggestion of an OS to use.
-We use Unix on an IBM E-server at work and I want something to help me learn command line so it has to have similar/same commands as Unix.
-I run a webserver on win2kS and eventually would like to switch to Linux or BSD / Apache.
-The last time I installed RH9 I put the GUI with it and it was extremely SLOW. I want to avoid that if possible.
-I currently have a DL of RH 9 and RH 6.2 but I am not partial to RH or linux so anything is open.

Please suggest which OS I should use.

 

[Sunner]

I'd go with Debian if you want Linux, or OpenBSD as my first choice for BSD, NetBSD being the second.

 

[wallsfd949]

I am a n00b to linux. With my limited resoureces on processor and ram, will Debian work well or is there another OS that will work better?

 

[xcript]

Debian'll do the job. I've got it running fine on my old P100 Laptop (40MB RAM).

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: wallsfd949
I am a n00b to linux. With my limited resoureces on processor and ram, will Debian work well or is there another OS that will work better?

The problem will be your RAM, that's very little to run any modern windowing system on, aside from that Debian or the BSD's will work fine, though of course not stellar.

 

[Kadarin]

Use a lightweight GUI rather than one of the DE's. For example, twm has consistently set standards for ugliness, yet is functional after a fashion.

 

[wallsfd949]

Sorry for not specifying before, I probably won't be using a GUI as this will be for test/training similar to our UNIX box at work (e-server AIX)

I will only be using command line.
I am going to DL one this week so if you have any more suggestions based on my new info (kicks myself), please post.
Sorry for leaving important info out!

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: wallsfd949
Sorry for not specifying before, I probably won't be using a GUI as this will be for test/training similar to our UNIX box at work (e-server AIX)

I will only be using command line.
I am going to DL one this week so if you have any more suggestions based on my new info (kicks myself), please post.
Sorry for leaving important info out!

I'd probably go with Debian then, if only cause the old BSD vs SysV stuff might cause confusion between Net/OpenBSD and AIX.