What distro for this configuration?

[Christmas]

I have a friend who was given two old systems and asked me to help him make them work, as he is not much into computers. He will only need them for listening to music as he has a great collection of mp3s. This is the only thing he will use the computer with.

So one system was incomplete (no sound card and CD-ROM) and I made one single system from both of them. The configuration of the PC is as follows (don't know the exact manufacturers as the system is very old and has no manuals or other stuff):

Processor: Pentium 166 MHz
Memory: 72 MB RAM
2 Hard-Disks, each 2 GB
14" Monitor
...and the rest I guess it doesn't really matter.

I tried Kubuntu 6.06 on this system, it loads the processes than the monitor turns to black and the system stops, so it is practically impossible even to try the live version, not to install it.
I read on this forums that systems like Damn Small Linux or ArchLinux could be something to fit this kind of old PCs. Can you recommend me something? It must be graphical install, don't care about the DE. Also if there is a Debian-based distro which could work on this PC it would be perfect as I know how to install programs in it.

The currently installed system is Windows 98 and I have Windows Me which I guess it would work, but I want to know if there is any possibility of installing a Linux distro. Please, don't point me to the base installation as the person who will use the computer will need GUI. Any recommendations would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks!

[AndyCooll]

DSL or Puppy will be fine.

:cool:

[tsb]

Your friend screams, "iTunes!" Get him to commit to a Mac.

[Christmas]

DSL or Puppy will be fine.
Thanks I'll try DSL, I've just seen it's based on apt-get which seems to be perfect. Hope it will detect the components correctly.

Your friend screams, "iTunes!" Get him to commit to a Mac.
He may scream but from where the money for a Mac? :D

[tsb]

Thanks I'll try DSL, I've just seen it's based on apt-get which seems to be perfect. Hope it will detect the components correctly.

He may scream but from where the money for a Mac? :D

Does he have an Xbox? If low res music (mp3) is acceptable to him, XBMC it a grand alternative.

[Titus A Duxass]

Give puppy a try.

DSL is good, but a lot of folks don't get on with the WM.

Puppy looks and behaves like early windows. The installation of both of them is really quite painless.

[Christmas]

Nope he doesn't have a Xbox. Actually he struggled for this antiquated PC so... he's not really rich I'd say.

PS: I will first try DSL and then Puppy.

Tanks again!

[bluenova]

Processor: Pentium 166 MHz
Memory: 72 MB RAM

I don't think this is good enough to play mp3's on any system. sorry. But my best bet would be somthing like 'damn small linux' with 'music player daemon'

[Christmas]

We'll see if music works, ATM I just screwed up a blank CD for nothing because DSL won't even boot on my own system. I'll try it later on the old system, right now I'll give Puppy a try.

[bluenova]

The problem I think will be with puppy is (AFAIK, as I've never used puppy) it runs directly from RAM, so this means with only 72mb of RAM, u're leaving about 10mb of RAM to play the mp3's.

[John.Michael.Kane]

List of LinuxDistro's For Older Machines..

1) Featherlinux (http://featherlinux.berlios.de/)

2) STX Linux (http://www.stibs.cc/stx/)

3) ANTEMIUM (http://www.antesis.org/index.php?lang=en)