debian alternatives

[dbbolton]

are there any derivatives of debian designed for older/less powerful machines? i know that there are alternative desktop environments, but i haven't seen anything analogous to, say, ubuntulite.

[loell]

DSL and Knoppix comes to mind, Elive too

[dbbolton]

so, actual "debian" itself only has one release. that would make sense.

where can i find system requirements? i read the faq, release info, etc.

[Rumor]

http://www.us.debian.org/ is the place to begin.

[bikeboy]

Debian itself is infinitely customizable and configurable. There's one iso, but if you know what you're doing you could adapt it to run on very slow hardware by changing more than just the desktop environment. You can choose everything that's installed. That however, it beyond my abilities :)

[maxamillion]

Honestly, I think debian itself would be the best choice in this instance. Start with a base installation and only install what you need. I will warn though, be sure to install xorg and xserver-xorg in order to get a GUI up and running from a base install (that is generally the first "whoa, how do I...?" I get from users who I recommend this to.

The general system requirements for a fully functional debian system are (if I remember correctly) intel x86 (pentium or compatible) and 32mb of ram.

[jdhore]

it's kind of...amazing to me...there are a lot of Debian based distros out there such as: Knoppix, DSL, Ubuntu, Debian (and even more that i can't think of including varieties of Knoppix and Ubuntu), but only the ones i listed are reasonably popular

[dbbolton]

http://www.us.debian.org/ is the place to begin.

i read the faq, release info, etc.

i meant debian's faq, sarge's release info, etc.

[dbbolton]

Debian itself is infinitely customizable and configurable. There's one iso, but if you know what you're doing you could adapt it to run on very slow hardware by changing more than just the desktop environment. You can choose everything that's installed. That however, it beyond my abilities :)
that's exactly what i wondered about. i suppose the "network install from minimal bootable cd image" would be an option, then ?

[dbbolton]

Honestly, I think debian itself would be the best choice in this instance. Start with a base installation and only install what you need. I will warn though, be sure to install xorg and xserver-xorg in order to get a GUI up and running from a base install (that is generally the first "whoa, how do I...?" I get from users who I recommend this to.

The general system requirements for a fully functional debian system are (if I remember correctly) intel x86 (pentium or compatible) and 32mb of ram.
yeah, i've crashed my xserver on ubuntu a couple of times :)

not much fun, right

[mips]

that's exactly what i wondered about. i suppose the "network install from minimal bootable cd image" would be an option, then ?

Yes, good option, that is how i did my laptop sid install, started with etch net install base and the upgraded to sid and installed the rest of the stuff.