What os/distro should I use?

[Horgrathi]

I am on war terms with money since I cant afford a new laptop with lots of space and memory. So i had to downgrade it a little bit. I found and old dusty IBM thinkpad in the basement with 6GB of space and 128 MB of RAM.

Here is the problem, putting windows onto it leaves me about 1GB left. I have looked at ubuntu too, and with gnome it does not look any better. I need some help, what should I install.

Things I would need to do:
- Firefox (Internet)
- Some kind of word (Open Office seems big, any other ideas?)
- Pidgin
- Maybe some small games, like doom!

The game part i am not worried about since I can put it on my usb flash drive and run it from their.

But what os/distro is small and let me run all those things?

Thank you in advance for the help!

[tuxxy]

You could try xubuntu, which will perform better on older hardware

[Flyingjester]

you could try damn small, or puppy linux

[snowpine]

I am on war terms with money since I cant afford a new laptop with lots of space and memory. So i had to downgrade it a little bit. I found and old dusty IBM thinkpad in the basement with 6GB of space and 128 MB of RAM.

Here is the problem, putting windows onto it leaves me about 1GB left. I have looked at ubuntu too, and with gnome it does not look any better. I need some help, what should I install.

Things I would need to do:
- Firefox (Internet)
- Some kind of word (Open Office seems big, any other ideas?)
- Pidgin
- Maybe some small games, like doom!

The game part i am not worried about since I can put it on my usb flash drive and run it from their.

But what os/distro is small and let me run all those things?

Thank you in advance for the help!

1gb of hard drive is too small for anything in the Ubuntu family. I would recommend DSL or Puppy. ps A good light-weight word processor is Abiword.

[Horgrathi]

Are all those capable of running everything you could run on ubuntu?

Thank you, snowpine. Saw your reply to late. I will look at Abiword.

[snowpine]

Are all those capable of running everything you could run on ubuntu?

Thank you, snowpine. Saw your reply to late. I will look at Abiword.

Sorry, but your old computer is never going to do EVERYTHING you can do with Ubuntu on a modern computer... but it will be just fine for surfing the web and playing old games. :)

[Flyingjester]

no, just for the simple reason that the hardware specs on that computer is so low.

[ibutho]

Also consider Vector Linux and Zenwalk.

[lukjad007]

If you are using Puppy Linux, check out TEENpup. It is my favourite one. (200th Post! Yeah!)

[Joeb454]

Moved to Other OS Talk, as it's going to cover more than Ubuntu :)

[molom]

Definately Vector Standard Edition (XFCE) or Light Edition (LXDE or Fluxbox). Don't find Zenwalk to be as friendly.

[sujoy]

go for debian net-install, get openbox, abiword, firefox3 and whatever else you might need.

[zmjjmz]

Distro: If you want to, Arch will be fun (but a bit challenging, just follow the wiki and ask questions in IRC)
Applications:
AYTTM should replace Pidgin
Abiword should replace OO.o
And while you could probably run FF3, you could try Kazehakase if it's going too slow.
Use LXDE for a WM, you can find an Arch guide at www.lxde.org

By the way, use a DWL-G650 to get wireless on that thing. Works perfectly on my Thinkpads.

[cardinals_fan]

SliTaz is awesome.

[dominiquec]

Try a customized installation of Ubuntu. Use OpenBox for the GUI.

See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems for instructions.

My own experiences here -> http://ubuntuliving.blogspot.com/2008/06/minimalist-ubuntu.html

On my laptop, I'm currently using 1.5GB of disk space for the system files (allocated 6GB). My RAM usage is at 193GB, but that's because I'm running Firefox.

[molom]

Distro: If you want to, Arch will be fun (but a bit challenging, just follow the wiki and ask questions in IRC)

If someone wants something easy and ready to install Arch and Debian are not the solution. I thing their is a livecd called ArchLive or something that provides XFCE as default though.

[Sorivenul]

I thing their is a livecd called ArchLive or something that provides XFCE as default though.

That would be Archie (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=archie) or FaunOS (http://www.faunos.com/) - Google for both, or I think Archie is available on DistroWatch. Tried both, bigger fan of FaunOS, though the HD install is still problematic on some hardware.

A custom Ubuntu install using the mini ISO is awesome. I build all of my *buntu systems this way. A light WM (OpenBox, or something even more minimal, or LXDE (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=738958)), Abiword, Pidgin, and Firefox 2. You can go smaller if you're willing to user something like Dillo, or go command line only.

For a great command line setup check out the package list from INX (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=859914)

Good luck to you.

[L815]

Does Faun use Arch's repos?

[namegame]

Does Faun use Arch's repos?

I'm pretty sure it does. Faun, at it's core, is just Arch which has been customized for you.

[L815]

I'm pretty sure it does. Faun, at it's core, is just Arch which has been customized for you.

Now this has got me excited :lolflag:

[tel93]

You could try xubuntu, which will perform better on older hardware

Not on that hardware. Xubuntu is no faster than Ubuntu

Try Debian with Openbox (not fluxbox).

[K.Mandla]

go for debian net-install, get openbox, abiword, firefox3 and whatever else you might need.
+1. Or the same with Ubuntu, although it won't be as clean and neat as a ground-level Debian system.
Distro: If you want to, Arch will be fun ...
+1, and really the best suggestion, in my humble opinion.
If someone wants something easy and ready to install Arch and Debian are not the solution.
Perhaps its been too long for me, but I really didn't think installing Arch was much more difficult than a basic Ubuntu system. And performance is night-and-day by comparison.
Not on that hardware. Xubuntu is no faster than Ubuntu ...
Unfortunately, I'd have to agree. Last time I checked, Xubuntu was just regular Ubuntu with a different face on it, and a few new applications here and there. My fastest machine is 1Ghz and I gave up on Xubuntu around 6.10. As soon as it got popular, it got bloated. For some reason it still gets suggested as a solution for old machines, but for my money, anything under 1.4Ghz suffers with it.

And if I can, I'll make one pitch for Crux. It's probably the last thing you want to try, but it will make everything run faster and cleaner on that machine. It's not for newcomers, but one day try it out and you will be impressed. :)

[liquidfunk]

+1 To Debian, try the Netinst CD.