lightweight OS's

[Flynn555]

hi i have a really crappy e-machines computer in my closet that is currently running ubuntu+fluxbox. i don't really know the specs of the computer except that it came with winXP and when i tried to run gnome it didn't like me. i am looking for something really lightweight to put on it.

i haven't had much experience with Linux other than ubuntu.
i considered DSL, FreeBSD, or arch Linux but i don't know that much about them. :confused:

[snowpine]

Hi there, first of all, what's wrong with Ubuntu+Fluxbox? Many people on these forums find that to be an excellent combination. If you explain what you don't like about Ubuntu+Fluxbox, that will help us make good recommendations.

If you post your system specs (please make the effort to find them), it will help us recommend a distro for you. My current favorite lightweight distro is SliTaz Cooking. If you're looking for a stable and fairly lightweight Gnome distro, Debian Etch is excellent.

[Flynn555]

well im just trying to experiment with other distros. and i on my main pc i have gnome and fluxbox installed. so i guess im just trying to experiment with something new.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Puppy seems to be a nice distro for really old computers.

[Antman]

hi i have a really crappy e-machines computer in my closet that is currently running ubuntu+fluxbox. i don't really know the specs of the computer except that it came with winXP and when i tried to run gnome it didn't like me. i am looking for something really lightweight to put on it.

i haven't had much experience with Linux other than ubuntu.
i considered DSL, FreeBSD, or arch Linux but i don't know that much about them. :confused:
Without knowing the pc specs, making a recommendation is a little hard, but try:
Zenwalk
TinyMe
PuppyLinux
siduxKDE Lite
siduxXFCE
or download Debian business iso or the Ubuntu minimal iso (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD) and just install what you need.

[SomeGuyDude]

I know you want to try something new, but Crunchbang is a cool little openbox-based Ubuntu variant. Nice for people who want minimalism and Ubuntu's general system.

[snowpine]

One tip I can give you is to install a virtualization tool such as Virtualbox if you have a faster computer. Then, you can create virtual machines with the same size ram and hard drive as your old computer. This will help you test if a distro will work, without having to burn a lot of CDs and waste time doing the actual install.

I agree with the Dude, Crunchbang is really nice. I found that it has a very thoughtful and useful selection of default applications. If you check out crunchbang.org, you'll see that the developer has been using Debian Lenny lately, which is very nice to learn since Ubuntu itself is derived from Debian.

[namegame]

Linux Mint Fluxbox Community Edition ran very well for me.

[cardinals_fan]

I recommend SliTaz.

[billgoldberg]

You could go Slitaz or Puppy but I would use Arch + fluxbox.

Because Arch is a much more complete distro.

Slitaz and Puppy should only be used as live cd's according to me.

Their package managers are useless, their repos small.

[Flynn555]

hmmm is there a command that i can type in term that will give me some sys specs. then i can post'em up.

[notwen]

Puppy (http://www.puppylinux.org/), DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/) or Antix (http://antix.mepis.org/). =]

[wolfen69]

hmmm is there a command that i can type in term that will give me some sys specs. then i can post'em up.
lspciandlsusb are 2 i know of.

[Sorivenul]

I second SliTaz, Arch, and AntiX.
The sidux Xfce edition or even Debian with Xfce are also quite good.

[zmjjmz]

hmmm is there a command that i can type in term that will give me some sys specs. then i can post'em up.
sudo apt-get install sysinfo
It's a GUI program, but it should give you the info you need.

[C!oud]

A minimal install of most distros plus a nice light WM is plenty lightweight for most people

[chucky chuckaluck]

hi i have a really crappy e-machines computer in my closet that is currently running ubuntu+fluxbox. i don't really know the specs of the computer except that it came with winXP and when i tried to run gnome it didn't like me. i am looking for something really lightweight to put on it.

if it's a secondary machine, you could try arch without X. you could use it as just a text machine, or you could use a framebuffer (i don't know anything about framebuffers(?), but i'm under the impression you could still use something like jwm, or even xfce in a framebuffer).

[1cewolf]

Give Arch a try! You manually build each Arch installation from the ground up to be as lightweight or heavy as you want and it has the added bonus of teaching you a ton about how Linux works. It sounds really complicated, but it isn't - the Arch Beginner's Guide walks you through the whole process in clear detail. There's a wealth of information in Arch's wiki and they've got a very friendly forum community ready to help if you require further assistance.

I just switched over a few days ago from Kubuntu to Arch KDEmod and I couldn't be happier :)