Why people on Linux related forums under-estimate hardware

[NightwishFan]

It could probably handle any task but hd multimedia or 3d games, so I do not see the problems. ;/

[lisati]

I was running ubuntu on my 1.6ghz atom netbook.

it tested my patience
less than windows would have, but still...

That's nothing: the machine I mentioned here, which flies along at a whopping 133 MHz, tested my patience while finding a flavour of Ubuntu that would actually install, let alone work. That's right, 133 megahertz!

[johntaylor1887]

If I can get them satisfactory enough, I will probably install Debian XFCE on them and donate.

If possible, get 256mb ram for Debian. I have done much testing on older hardware with various distros, and can tell you that debian will run on 128, but it will be pretty slow, even with a minimal install. The best distros I've tried on 128 or less is Tiny Core Linux, followed by Slitaz.

[NightwishFan]

Yeah a full gnome desktop is not very fun on 256mb but it works. (Doing so right now).

 free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           245        241          3          0          2         59
-/+ buffers/cache:        179         65
Swap:         2859        225       2634

Granted I am on 64-bit and have a lot of stuff running (evolution, totem, banshee, and firefox)

[barbedsaber]

It really depends on how you use your computer

Personally, I have some 50gb of music that a program has to keep track of and search through all the time, I don't remember the last time I had less than 6 tabs open in chrome (and before I had FF with some 6 quintillion addons), I watch HD movies, and use fullscreen HD flash content. I have a torrent client keeping track of some 200 torrents 24/7, and I mash alt-tab like a madman between my half a dozen programs that I'm flogging at any one time.

Some people browse one tab at a time, don't listen to music, or have smaller collections, don't watch movies, and really just work with documents.

Good thing about linux is there's a solution for both of those people.

[K.Mandla]

I suppose I should weigh in. I run Debian Squeeze at 120Mhz / 80Mb, Crux at 150 Mhz / 32Mb and Debian Lenny at 133Mhz / 32Mb. The trick isn't getting the machine to run the software, it's to get your perspective in line with how best use Linux at low speeds.