What's the OLDEST computer you have installed linux on?

[tuebinger]

I just installed Edubuntu 6.10 on my mom's ten-year-old Dell, which has a whopping 4.3 GB hard drive and 66 megs of RAM. I was afraid it might be a no-go for awhile because it was such a SLOW install... The installer actually went into 'low memory' mode while installing, and said I should create a swap file as soon as possible! All went well though, and now the kids are enjoying all the games...

so what's the oldest computer you've installed linux on?

[rzrgenesys187]

Old emachines. Used to run Windows 95. 4.7GB Hard drive, 32mb RAM (i think), not sure about other specs since it is at home. DSL runs fantastic on this

[Borbus]

I used to run Arch on my pentium 2 233MHz box. It had 128MB of RAM (I upgraded it) and originally had a 4.3GB Quantum Bigfoot, but I upgraded it to an 80GB at some point. I didn't run X on this box.

[TheOrangePeanut]

I run Xubuntu 7.10 on my older PC. I use it as a file server when I'm not at my parents house (which is where I keep it, I live in an apartment at my college town), and when I'm at my parents house I use it as a regular desktop PC.

I got it at the very beginning of 2000, but it's been upgraded a little bit. It's a P3 450 mhz and 368mb of ram.

[Dngrsone]

Slackware 10.2 on a Pentium MMX 233MHz with 128MB RAM.

I turned it into a "huge" file server with 8 hard drives totaling about 18GB.

[cookieofdoom]

I ran feather Linux on a 133mhz laptop with a 1.5GB hard drive (thought that was a little odd), and 128MB of RAM. The screen was so slow (old lcd technology) that everything faded onto it. It looked like we were running compiz fusion or something.

Anyway, it as completely useless, I didn't bother doing much with it. My friends and I submerged it in vegetable oil to see if it would still work (it did... nonconductive fluids rock) and then we set it on fire to watch it burn...

[victorbrca]

I have two really old ones:

- Firewall (SmoothWall)
. CPU - 200Mhz
. RAM - 96MB
. HD - 10GB

- Web Server, FTP and torrent - Ubuntu Dapper Server
. CPU - 200Mhz
. RAM - 160MB
. HD - 10GB


Vic.

[bufsabre666]

120mhz
48mb ram
1.2 gb hd

runs dsl, not perfect but well enough to run

[gn2]

I use an eight year old Toshiba Portege 3440CT every day, I have two hard drives and swap them from time to time, one always has Xubuntu 7.04 the other gets used for various distro testing, currently has a much customised Debian Etch on it.

[dragobr]

debian etch at a penitum 100mhz with 64mb of ram and a 250gb hd...

web server, router and firewall, ftp and torrent

[Dngrsone]

I have two really old ones:

- Firewall (SmoothWall)
. CPU - 200Mhz
. RAM - 96MB
. HD - 10GB

- Web Server, FTP and torrent - Ubuntu Dapper Server
. CPU - 200Mhz
. RAM - 160MB
. HD - 10GB


Vic.

I'm running my Smoothwall Express on a PII 450MHz... you running v2.0 or v3.0?

[Linuxratty]

It was a sever year old Conpaq that came with Win 98. ... Linspire and later freespire ran on it without a hitch once i got tired of 98'...The mother board finally died...
People called the machine a trash compactor, but it was a good machine.

[victorbrca]

I'm running my Smoothwall Express on a PII 450MHz... you running v2.0 or v3.0?

Mine is version 2, and it's a couple of years old. I have to upgrade it. All my cards are ISA and I have to restart te machine once in a while if I download too much torrent from the Green network.


Vic.

[pgatrick]

Oldest I've succesfully installed on was an old Compaq with a cyrix I think processor at like 300Mhz. Ran Caldera OpenLinux on it. Oldest I tried (my first ever attempt) was a really old HP Vectra 386 I believe. Probably would have worked but I had no clue what I was doing at the time. :D I think the distro was mu-linux or somesuch. :-k Had it on a couple of floppies.

[Dngrsone]

Mine is version 2, and it's a couple of years old. I have to upgrade it. All my cards are ISA and I have to restart te machine once in a while if I download too much torrent from the Green network.


Vic.

Mine is v2 as well... v3.0 went live about a week and a half after I got mine running (the second time... power hit took out half my components). Took me long enough to get the Smoothie running the way I liked, didn't want to start all over again with 3.

I'd definitely go with PCI cards and 512MB RAM... I'm running good with DG and ClamAV scanning all the incoming content.

[victorbrca]

Mine is v2 as well... v3.0 went live about a week and a half after I got mine running (the second time... power hit took out half my components). Took me long enough to get the Smoothie running the way I liked, didn't want to start all over again with 3.

I'd definitely go with PCI cards and 512MB RAM... I'm running good with DG and ClamAV scanning all the incoming content.

I have another PC, a bit newer, which I'm debating if I use it to substitute my Smothie or as a LinuxMCE.

Smoothie is the one on the left...

http://wazem.dyndns.org/temp/my-network/CIMG4542%20(Small).JPG

Vic

[Sunflower1970]

I think my oldest computer is my favorite...The Pentium II I have down in my siggie. Was given to us by hubby's boss. Has a 17" flat panel LCD monitor that was just given away with it. It was almost exactly a year ago I gave it 384 MB RAM (originally had 96 MB), an old nVidia GeForce3 Ti 500 graphics card I had lying around (originally it was an ATI RagePro, I think), a CD/DVD+RW burner (and it burns DVD's perfectly with either K3b or Brasero). It has its original 13 GB hard drive in it (I couldn't remove it. It's bolted to one of the sides of the computer. I had a spare 120 GB hard drive so I installed that too. I now run PCFluxboxOS, a recently reinstalled Ubuntu with pure XFCE4 (not Xubuntu), and I'll be putting another distro on it too to play around with...Maybe Antix....

[Lostincyberspace]

I have used a 1994 pc (somewhere around 60MHz Top of the line at a time) with suse 9.3 ran terribly slow but would have been an okay server.

[jrusso2]

Back in the day I had Linux installed on a 386 with 8 mb of ram.

[K.Mandla]

Oldest one with Ubuntu, for me.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=294292

[red_Marvin]

I have installed and am running debian on a 50MHz 32Mb ram old 486, with totally 2Gb hdd iirc.

[seshomaru samma]

I installed Damn Small Linux on this (http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g55384846) (scroll down to see the pix) -TOSHIBA DynaBook DB50C-about 10 years old.
celerom 500mhz , 64MB , 6GB without a LAN adapter , i neede to use some external network card to get online (this one (http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u19210098))
The only Linux that would recognise the card was Knoppix but it was too slow to run on the computer . Finally i found DSL-N which is Damn Small Linux with Knoppix hardware recognition.

[regomodo]

my laptop in my sig. it's 8 years old. It's maxed out as far as i can take it i think.

320MB of pc100 ram
just put in a new rt2500 Beng m-pci wifi card to replace the god awful rt61. Just need antenna
448MHz PIII
got a 80GB 7200rpm hitachi on the way. Can't wait because the 30gb 4200rpm toshiba was only supposed to be a stop gap measure. It's effin noisy, hot and very slow.

Runs Debian Etch with XFCE4 beautifully. Tried and tried with different Ubuntu variants. Ubuntu is too bloated even in the server install.
Also have win2k, just because i can.

[Bungo Pony]

My Pentium 133 with 36M of RAM running DSL. It's got a 1.2G hard drive, 3 DVD ROM drives, and USB 2.0. The floppy controller is shot.

I use it in my Garage to play MP3s. You can fit a good 700 MP3s on a single layer DVD. When I get enough music, I'll go dual layer :)

[tuebinger]

Wow... there are some really old computers out there running Linux! I think so many people buy new computers because their old ones start running slow and they think they just have to have the fastest processor and the most RAM etc (that's how I used to think) I wish I knew about Linux ten years ago... it would have saved me a lot of money over the years.

[Yfrwlf]

Wow... there are some really old computers out there running Linux! I think so many people buy new computers because their old ones start running slow and they think they just have to have the fastest processor and the most RAM etc (that's how I used to think) I wish I knew about Linux ten years ago... it would have saved me a lot of money over the years.

True dat, of course most of the reason to upgrade to appease the hardware vendors usually comes down to games, but Vista certainly attempted to bog down computers, luckily it's a pretty big failure. Unfortunately, aside from the games through Wine, Quake Wars is pretty much the only reason to really do a severe upgrade for Linux machines now until UT3 gets their act together. 3D shooters sure are getting boring though, would really like to see more game companies making more stuff for Linux. (Yes, I know several are, but I mean more!) ;)

Oh, and don't forget upgrading for prettier Compiz Fusion effects, even though it still runs awesome on lower-end graphics cards/computers. :D

[barbedsaber]

I was trying to prive to my friends that linux would run on really old hardware, so I got a block of wood, cut a hole in it and put an ubuntu liv cd in. I had to reconfigure the bios, but it didn't have enough ram to boot the live cd, so I need to get and alternative installer. :)

[Lostincyberspace]

why not just upgrade the ram?

[AaronMiller]

Old Thinkpad (~400Mhz Celeron, 192MB Ram, 6GB HDD) running Xubuntu

Old Compaq (133 Mhz, 32 MB Ram, 2 GB HDD), ran Clarkconnect as a router for a long time, best wired router I've ever used.

[Sporkman]

My friends and I submerged it in vegetable oil to see if it would still work (it did... nonconductive fluids rock) and then we set it on fire to watch it burn...

:lol:

[koenn]

A Compac with Pentium 100 or 133 mhz cpu, 32 MB ram and a small hard disk (1.2 GB or so). Runs Debian 4 - upgraded from Debian 3, which I installed from diskettes 'cause the thing doesn't understand boot from CD. It's running iptables and not much more and connects me to the internet.

Slightly newer : an IBM with 64 MB ram, 6GB hard drive, also an early pentium (probably 133 mhz, not sure). runs Debian 4 + squid, apt-proxy and dnsmasq

top of the bill : a pentium II, 233 mhz, 128 mb RAM + all hard disks I could find lying around - runs Debian 4 and does dhcp, web server, file server and whatever network stuff I want to play with.

[symbiat]

I THINK NOONE IS GOING TO BEAT THIS :-D

Not long after the first versions of Linux came out (I think maybe 1991) I was soon running it on a PC that by today's standards is truly ancient:

I was running a distro called SLS on a 486DX PC with 8Mb RAM. The whole install fitted on an 80Mb disk (which included a 10Mb swap partition). I had a complete Linux dev environment with gcc build tools and even X Windows too (back then I was writing X Windows applications in C).

The install process took HOURS and used 30 floppies (I should also point out, I had to make those 30 floppies myself using rawrite on a DOS PC. Some disks didn't work so I had to go back and redo some of them. So it took several days just to make the install media!)

(Of course, I was also running a derivative of BSD Unix with proprietary GUI, on an old Whitechapel MG-1 workstation in 1.5Mb RAM and 10Mb MFM disk back then, but Ill leave that story for another time).

So, considering what computing used to be like, to me, almost ALL kids today have ADS :-)

[p_quarles]

I was running a distro called SLS on a 486DX PC with 8Mb RAM. The whole install fitted on an 80Mb disk (which included a 10Mb swap partition). I had a complete Linux dev environment with gcc build tools and even X Windows too.
Yeah, but did it run Compiz? :D

My family had a similar computer around the same time (smaller HDD, though) running DOS 6.0 and Win 3.1, I believe. I would love to be able to find something similar and try to cram an old Linux distro onto it.

[slightcrazed]

I got everyone beat.....

Toshiba T1200 laptop
286 (yes, 286) w/ 4MB ram and a 20 MG HD and 1 floppy


But wait, you say, Linux doesn't run on 16 bit arch. No, it doesn't, but the ELKS project (http://elks.sourceforge.net) does, and though it is technically a different kernel, it is based on embedded linux and is close enough, I think, to count for this thread.

I tried to get a picture, but the backlight on the laptop finally died, and the screen is unreadable. Oh well, the thing is 18 years old, I think it's time has come.

[sumguy231]

It's already been beaten, but the oldest computer I have Linux installed on is a Gateway 2000 4DX2-66 with a 66MHz 486, 32 MB of RAM and a 2 GB hard drive (I upgraded it from a dying 800MB hard drive it came with). DeliLinux runs quite decently on it, Debian will run on it but not very well. FreeDOS runs the best. :)

[~LoKe]

Basically a Quad Core with 2GB of ram.

SHUT UP!

[Lostincyberspace]

I got everyone beat.....

Toshiba T1200 laptop
286 (yes, 286) w/ 4MB ram and a 20 MG HD and 1 floppy


But wait, you say, Linux doesn't run on 16 bit arch. No, it doesn't, but the ELKS project (http://elks.sourceforge.net) does, and though it is technically a different kernel, it is based on embedded linux and is close enough, I think, to count for this thread.

I tried to get a picture, but the backlight on the laptop finally died, and the screen is unreadable. Oh well, the thing is 18 years old, I think it's time has come.
Linux did run on 16bit arch I actually have a few have a few distros that will run on it I think.

[sumguy231]

Linux was originally written for and required a 386, ports for embedded stuff and 16-bit architectures came later.

[bufsabre666]

Basically a Quad Core with 2GB of ram.

SHUT UP!

amazing that linux can run on such low end computers =P

[Taino]

Slackware on a Toshiba P75, (yes 75 mhz), 40 mb ram, 500mb harddisk, custom install to fit the disk. 8)

:popcorn:

[Linuxratty]

iit was a 7 year old Compaq...Ran great for over a year with Linux till the Compaq finally died..

[Yes]

8 Mb RAM, 75 MHz Intel i486, ~350 Mb HDD. I'm running BaseLinux 3.5 now, but I'm looking for a new distro so I can hopefully get my network card working.

[wesley_of_course]

Celeron II?
XP says , " 734 MHZ - 496 RAM

Gifted to me , was doing spring cleaning and found a wireless card ,( Linksys WMP54G ) , amongst parts and
thought hmmm , Hardy . Well it took awhile , about hour and half but it installed and the wireless "worked out the box " , as they say ! XP didn't recognize it so had to use the install cd .
First update , 300 or there abouts were downloaded in fine fashion - installing them took a little while , imagine that, roughly an hour but it hasn't puked yet . Moving a window around the screen reminds me of my earlier days , ( tracers ) , and it takes awhile to populate the menus with the icons but,,,,,,, hey is that a NVIDIA GeFORCE FX 5500 256MB DDR over in the corner ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Oh it has a 15 gig hd
XP/ HARDY . No Compiz ??????? Were's that 5500 at ?

[drascus]

I have Xubuntu 8.04 installed on an 98 IBM aptiva. But I am getting rid of it because it just takes up space and really serves no purpose other than occasionally being used while something important is being run on my main computer.

[zmjjmz]

Albeit not the oldest; I have installed DSL on a 1997~ Pro-Tech (they were a small computer builder that I assume went out of business) with a 133MHz Processor and 32MB RAM. It doesn't have a network card, so I can't connect it to the internet to install stuff.
On the other hand, i have a 1996 Thinkpad that currently doesn't have any OS.
I'm going to use SBM soon, I just hope it works with my PCMCIA CD.

[Chessmaster]

I have installed DSL on a 1997~ Pro-Tech (they were a small computer builder that I assume went out of business) with a 133MHz Processor and 32MB RAM.

How do you find it runs? I am thinking of doing something similar.

[Ripfox]

I have puppy on a 133mhz laptop with 16mb ram and it runs...pretty good! :)

[Greenbean209]

Since everybody here is talkin about old computers w/ linux and im new to linux.... I thought it would be a good time to post for the first time and ask how Ubuntu gusty gibbon would work on a 2000 dell with an 733Mhz processor and 284mb of RAM

[linuxbeatswin]

Old emachines. Used to run Windows 95. 4.7GB Hard drive, 32mb RAM (i think), not sure about other specs since it is at home. DSL runs fantastic on this

Installed Edubuntu for my classroom on the same machine!! What a small freakin' world, eh?

[linuxbeatswin]

Since everybody here is talkin about old computers w/ linux and im new to linux.... I thought it would be a good time to post for the first time and ask how Ubuntu gusty gibbon would work on a 2000 dell with an 733Mhz processor and 284mb of RAM

Ran it on a 2000 Compaq P.O.S., so I don't see why it wouldn't work. Of course, it was Ubuntu 6.06.

[tomcat2007]

I once installed Redhat on a Compaq Presario 2266... Cyrix 225MHz/64MB SDRAM/4GB HD. Didn't have the initiative to learn Linux then, I upgraded the memory to 256MB (the max), installed W2KAS & it is now my domain controller.

[Greenbean209]

well im getting a cd of 6.06 and 7.10 but i wanna no if Gusty Gibbon would be slower then this horribly fragmented win 98 im using

you no just to be sure

[Ripfox]

Hard to say what that win98 install has been through...it may be slow due to excessive wear and tear ya know, but yea, Ubuntu may not be "faster" than a fresh install of 98 on an old computer (sorry guys) but it will DEFINATELY be more useful :lolflag:

I recommend Puppy Linux version 3.01 on that machine myself, if you need help with the permenant installer pm me...

[Greenbean209]

Actually my win98 isn't Fragmented it just gets exponentially slower cuz there's a problem with my HD and ive got a fresh one waiting to have the linuxy goodness installed so i really was just wondering if my processor and ram were up to speed (733Mhz and 284mb Ram)

[Ripfox]

Meh...pretty close. The ram may be a bit limiting but the processor is plenty fast enough. It will work, but maybe not lightning fast.

[CyberCod]

Fujitsu 735Dx.

The machine specs are:
133Mhz Pentium 1
32MB ram
1.6GB Harddrive
CD-rom
no floppy or ethernet
wlan0 provided by pcmcia wireless card.

Installed DSL to the harddrive and customized it to include shoutcast radio via xmms among other goodies as well as a homemade backup/restore solution with a second installation on a backup partition.

Was a great for IRC Pidgin/GAIM and listening to internet radio.

The backup solution I came up with can be found at
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=26;t=18180;st=0

[Dr. C]

I got an early version of Kubuntu kind of working on an old classic Pentium 100 MHx (actually an over clocked P90). It had 96 MB of RAM both kind of floppies (3.5 and 5.25), a 6GB hard drive, a 10/100 LAN and a serial mouse. To get the mouse to work, the mouse in xorg.conf had to be set to "Microsoft"

[zmjjmz]

How do you find it runs? I am thinking of doing something similar.

Uh, don't try to open more than 4 windows.

[900donuts]

for me the oldest is debian 4.0 on a HP OmniBook 800CT subnotebook (166mhz, 32mb, 2gig HD) i use it with mplayer to watch videos i get off youtube with links2 and youtube-dl

[gnu2tux]

I think maybe I win this contest, but only maybe.

I have installed minix (which yeah, is only like Linux, it's not true Linux) on a bog standard 286/16Mhz with 1mb ram.

However, most impressive was when I managed to get Linux to boot on a hot-rodded PC/XT 10MHz with 2MB ram (banked). I installed an 8 bit SCSI controller and got a heavily customised install of Slackware onto it. I couldn't do anything with it, and vi took about 2 days to load, but it was worth it for a laugh!

As you antique fans out there will know, the XT came before the 286 and that seems to be the oldest machine on this post - so do I win?

:)

[zmjjmz]

A 133MHz Pentium with 16MB RAM and a 1GB HDD.
I'm running DeLi .7.2 on it, and it's a bit slow so I'm going to install BasicLinux.

[bimmerd00d]

7.10 is on this now, and it's fairly unusable. I need to try Puppy or something. It runs, takes a good while to boot though.

Sony VAIO PCG-Z505R

366mhz PIII
192mb PC100
20GB 4200rpm HDD
CD-ROM (PCMCIA external only)
Neomagic 256AV gfx card

http://hardware.earthweb.com/ew_img/temp-sysopt/content/article/19991220/so_vaio-z505r/VAIO1.gif

[Maghik]

Emachines 333id. 333mhz celeron, 64 megs ram, 8mb ati rage pro, 10gb Hard Drive. My first ever try at linux was on this with Red Hat Linux (long before Fedora)Everything worked great except the winmodem. Went back to Windows ME:lolflag: since I couldn't get online.

[Lord Xeb]

I installed Linux on a Diminsion 5380 or something like that <_< 500Mhz Athlon processor, 256MB of ram, and a woping 10GB HDD. It was a piece of crap and didn't like windows either. The person who wanted her computer fix said I could install it for short turn until she could get a better computer. well, 2 weeks later it corrupted itself somehow since it was a partial install e_e

[OutOfReach]

Compaq Presario 7594. Installed Ubuntu 8.04, removed GNOME, and installed Openbox. Works good, not the fastest, but certainly good enough.

See the original specs: http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Compaq-Presario-7594-189713-003

Same processor, we updated the RAM to 256MB (And unfortunately supports only up to 512 MB :( ), 10 GB HDD.

[Rinnan]

Probably doesn't count because it was new at the time...

If memory serves:

386 with 4MB RAM
Linux Kernel 1.3
Slackware

Couldn't get the Xwindow stuff to work (even after installing all 14 Slackware "X" floppies...) because I didn't have enough RAM. The shell worked though.

:lolflag:

[cariboo]

How about an AST Bravo with Intel P75, 128MBb ram and a 5Gb hard drive running DSL at the moment. The big problem is that it won't boot from a CD so it has to be booted from a 31/4 Foppy with the CDROM drivrs on it. I was amazed how well it runs.

Jim

[Linuxratty]

Compaq P3 with 128 megs of ram. It was six years old when it met Lihux and ran it perfectly till old age caught up with the MB at the age of eight.

[JT9161]

Toshiba Portege 660CDT: 88MB RAM, 1.4GB Hard drive Running BasicLinux 3.5. It works pretty good, But no ethernnet port makes it pretty useless to me.

[djdarrin91]

puppy linux 4.0 on 300 Mhz 64 megs of ram 4.3 gig hdd,runs pretty smooth!

[herbr]

My original install of Linux (release 0.9.1 I think) was on a 386 25 MHz machine in 1990/1991.
It was a revelation to some of my co-workers but not all of them saw it as a "useable" OS. It was just a little too easy to crash! (and you can't say that now!)

Herb

[yabbadabbadont]

My first linux install was Slackware '96 on a 486 machine I bought in 1992.

(Packard Bell Legend 770 486-50, which is sitting beside me with FreeDOS on it. :D)

[chungy]

Red Hat Linux 5.2 on a Pentium 120 with 16MB of RAM and a 2GB hard disk. It was fun.

I still haven't figured out, though, how the hell RHL booted right from the CD. The computer didn't support El Torito, and no other CD ever supported booting on it.

[MasterNetra]

The oldest computer I've had Ubuntu on was a abacus!

No seriously just put a Ubuntu sticker on it. It runs perfectly. :P

[Squid Tamer]

I wonder how discussions like this will go 20 years from now...

"300 GB hard drive? I couldn't even fit the OS onto it."

"2 Gig of ram? How did the programs even load?"

"A single core computer! My cellphone is dual core!"

"I had to use 30 DVDs to install the OS"

"I remember those old hard drives, they were so slow and crashed so often. You had to be really careful not to drop them"

"It has USB ports on it. I remember that everything used 'em back then"

"I found iTunes on the HDD. I haven't seen an iPod in years, do they still make them?"

"It can't connect to the internet, It doesn't support IP v11."


Makes me want to make sure I keep my computer unharmed after I upgrade, and boot it up 20 years later. It would be pretty interesting.

[zmjjmz]

My first linux install was Slackware '96 on a 486 machine I bought in 1992.

(Packard Bell Legend 770 486-50, which is sitting beside me with FreeDOS on it. :D)

I have a similar computer (not here though, it weighed like what, 20 pounds?) with 3MB RAM.
Is it possible to get FreeDOS on one floppy? All I saw for it was this stuff for a CD, and this computer doesn't have a CD drive...

[yabbadabbadont]

I have a similar computer (not here though, it weighed like what, 20 pounds?) with 3MB RAM.
Is it possible to get FreeDOS on one floppy? All I saw for it was this stuff for a CD, and this computer doesn't have a CD drive...

I upgraded mine at one time, so I think that it has 20MB of RAM now...

I'm fairly certain that I used multiple floppies (5 I think) when I installed FreeDOS on it. It also has an old 4x CDROM drive in it. (which I bought solely because of The Seventh Guest ;)) I haven't booted it for a few years... DOSBox and DOSEmu work so well that I haven't needed to.

Edit: Apparently, when they came out with the 1.0 version, they dropped support for floppy installs... However, my google-fu returned the following unofficial project:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/unofficial/floppy/
Read through the, wait for it...., readme.txt file for details. :D

Edit2: for a more up to date discussion about this issue, see the following:
http://www.mail-archive.com/freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg06438.html

[smbm]

386sx 16, 3mb ram. This was circa 1994 just to tinker.

[koenn]

I have a similar computer (not here though, it weighed like what, 20 pounds?) with 3MB RAM.
Is it possible to get FreeDOS on one floppy? All I saw for it was this stuff for a CD, and this computer doesn't have a CD drive...

I imagine that once you have a running FreeDOS (eg a LiveCD session), it should be possible to create at least a DOS boot disk, if FreeDOS has something similar to the MS-DOS "format a: /s" or "sys c: a:" commands.
The rest is just a matter of creating startup files (autoexec.bat and config.sys, or whatever FreeDOS's equivalents are) and copying files over.
[ here are some MS-DOS howto's; you might be able to apply them to FreeDOS as well :
http://www.computerhope.com/boot.htm
http://users.telenet.be/mydotcom/program/batch/installdos/instdos2.htm ]

Since FreeDOS supports TCP/IP in a way MS-DOS never did, you might even be able to set up a minimal system with a few floppies, and get the rest over the network.

sounds like an interesting project ...

[mobilediesel]

I am currently using Xubuntu 8.04.1 on a Dell OptiPlex GX110, 733MHz, 384MB ram, 18GB HDD. I had Windows XP Pro on here. Switching to Linux was like unhitching a semi-trailer from a golf cart! My other computer is an AMD Duron 1.6Ghz, 512MB ram, 2 40GB drives. That one dual-boots Xubuntu and Windows XP although I can't remember the last time it actually was asked to boot into XP...

[Christmas]

I installed it on an old P1 166 MHz with 64 MB RAM and a hard drive of 2 GB. It was Debian 3.1, in command-line mode. I also used Damn Small Linux on that PC for a few weeks and it behaved very well.

Another successful install was on an AMD K6/2 500 MHz with 64 MB RAM and an 8.4 GB Seagate HDD. Debian 3.1, in both CLI and GUI mode (KDE 3.3.2 if I recall correctly). KDE worked extremely slow, but it worked. When I needed to listen to music I could use XMMS but I preferred command line, with ogg123 and mpg123.

Running Debian in command-line on an old PC is quite fun and you get to learn a *huge* amount of stuff this way.

[gatherp]

How about this.

IBM L40SX which was an old (even then) 386SX laptop clocked at 16MHz, with 10MB of memory (I know, it should not have worked, but an 8MB DIMM from a PS/2 did work). I think it had a 80MB hard disk.

I had Redhat 4.1 running on it, and X was too slow to use (and painful at 640x480 in 16 shades of grey), but it ran command line OK. Was a real pain to build, as it had no CDROM drive. If I remember correctly, I copied the install images across a PPP or SLIP serial link booted from an install floppy connected to my desktop system (which was a 100MHz Pentium system with 32MB of memory and a 1.2GB disk).

[Bungo Pony]

Hey, I can update...

The oldest computer I installed Linux on was a Compaq 486 laptop. It had a 120M hard drive and I believe 16M of RAM.

I had to do a bit of hacking to get DSL running on it, but I got it to go! Too slow for anything useful though. Although it was fun doing it.

[zmjjmz]

Hey, I can update...

The oldest computer I installed Linux on was a Compaq 486 laptop. It had a 120M hard drive and I believe 16M of RAM.

I had to do a bit of hacking to get DSL running on it, but I got it to go! Too slow for anything useful though. Although it was fun doing it.

BasicLinux would of done better.

[Jengajam2]

Debian on an hp pavilion 8590C

[meastwood]

back in about 1993 - using kernel 0.99 - linux 'distrib' came on 30+ floppies. Took about 2 weeks to configure the Xserver!! - clock plus xterm and then I gave up.

Was a DX66 133MHZ with 32MB of ram - 'top of the range - super quick', well it booted linux a lot quicker than windows 3.1

[andreaso]

Old emachines. Used to run Windows 95. 4.7GB Hard drive, 32mb RAM (i think), not sure about other specs since it is at home. DSL runs fantastic on this
That's exactly what I have! :lolflag:

[Eisenwinter]

Intel celeron 1.8ghz, 256MB of RAM, and a 20gb hard drive - computer manufactured at around 2001 - I installed Ubuntu 5.10 and 6.06 on it, back in 2006.

[3rdear]

Compaq Presario 5240 AMD k6 400MHz, 384mb RAM, 20 GB HD Xubuntu 8.10

[nc_jed]

First Install (you never forget your first):
1998 - Redhat 5.2 from CheapBytes (I sat on it for a while, I think 6.x was out by the time I got around to installing). Compaq Presario CDS 954 (486 / 100 MHz, 4 MB RAM (although, if I remember right, I had boosted it up to 24 MB)). I think I had upgraded the modem to 28.8 baud, bought a 3.2 GB drive and an ISA controller card for it. Was dual booting Windows 98 on this beast and unlike others in this discussion, this was my main/only machine. FVWM95. Xeyes. ha

2000 - While not my first install, the specs are lower than the other. IBM model P55 (I think). Old 486/66MHz, 8 MB RAM, 200 MB HD, Microchannel architecture (ugh). Installed Debian 3.x on it (don't recall the exact version, just remember it was discussed on Slashdot as being the "last Debian distro to be delivered on floppies" - 10, I think). Never really did anything with that machine, other than install a command line system. W/o a network connection/modem (MCA Ethernet was very expensive (for me anyway) and very hard to find), apt-get was out of the question.

Funny, a few months ago I tried to install RH 5.2 on a VirtualBox VM an couldn't. How far we have come....

- Jed

[MikeTheC]

"Beige" PowerMacintosh G3/266 (OC'd to 300MHz), running Debian 4.

It was a pain to get it set up (because of it being an "Old World ROM" machine and therefore not capable of booting up from a non-Apple-generated OS), but once it was set up, it runs like champ. It's not turned on at the moment, but I have it configured with Samba and Apache, and it handles all of that with great aplomb.

[jay576]

i ran DeLi on my compaq 486 but the system is still running windows 3.1 instead

[K.Mandla]

Not the oldest or slowest, but definitely with the least memory I've worked with.

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/success-icewm-1236-and-xorg-73-at-100mhz16mb/

[wmcbrine]

Slackware on a 33 MHz 486.

But I've also installed Minix on a 286, and NetBSD on a Mac SE/30.

[LinuxGuy1234]

Ubuntu 6.06 on a machine with 768M RAM, 40G HD.

[Mason Whitaker]

I managed to install an old version of Redhat I found at my library to a Gateway2000.

Here's the specs-
* Intel Pentium 133MHz Processor
* 16MB EDO RAM
* 2GB HD

Motherboard specification:
* BIOS: 1.00.01.CN0T
* Socket: ZIF 7
* Pins: 321
* Layout: 21x21 SPGA
* Volts: VRM
* CPUs: Pentium 75/90/100/120/133/150/166/200

[InfinityCircuit]

My newest toy is almost here:

SGI Indigo 2, MIPS processor, 1995

It will run Debian GNU/Linux.

[nibon]

I was going to take moms computer when she was planning on getting a laptop.
That computer had:
133mhz
32mb RAM
I have no idea what graphic card it was
and a whopping 900MB HDD SPACE!!
Unfortunately, that computer died right before I could convert it... after 12 years of use.

Now the oldest one I have is the one I'm at right now.
1.8Ghz
1Gb RAM
2x100GB HDD
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO

If it wasn't for the graphic card I would be very happy with the computer :) Running Ubuntu right now, it doesn't like my card so I'm playing around in Virtualbox right now, looking for other distros.

[dagnabit dang doohickey]

Debian Woody on a PowerMac 8100

[jespdj]

My 486DX2 (66 MHz) with 4 MB RAM, in 1994. Ofcourse Windows 95 wasn't out yet at that time, I was running MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 on it, and Slackware Linux.

[doorknob60]

Compaq Laptop. 400 Mhz K6 CPU, 64 MB of RAM (I later upgraded it to 192), ~4.5 GB Hard Drive, dual boot with windows 98 lmao. It has Debian with Lxde (Openbox). The CD drive's busted now lol so I better not screw it up.

[Xanavi]

p3-500mhz, 384mb RAM, 8gb HD, ran desktopBSD on it for a while, xp install and gave it away.

Got a 1.2ghz celeron, 512mb RAM, 20GB HD ran ubuntu 6.10 on it for a while along with XP. Formatted, installed Puppy linux on it, still have it.

Ubuntu 7.10 on a p4-2ghz, 512mb RAM, 120GB HD, formatted, xp installed, gave it away.

Ubuntu 8.10 on a core duo 1.6ghz laptop, 1.5gb of ram, 200GB HD, intel gma950. Using it now.

[toupeiro]

Toshiba Libretto 110CT sub-notebook circa 1998

Pentium 233MMX 64MB Ram 4.3GB HDD

Xubuntu 7.04 (haven't updated it in a while)

[semi_fiction]

Canon InnovaBook 200LS, 100mhz DX4 386, 8MB RAM, 1.5GB HDD, MuLinux dual boot with Windows 3.1

Also worth mentioning:
IBM Personal Computer 300PL, 300mhz PII, 384 MB RAM, 6GB HDD, CrunchBang Linux 8.04

[MikeTheC]

"Beige" PowerMac G3/266MHz Desktop, vintage 1997. It runs Debian like a champ, and Gnome runs (relatively) alright on it.

[sirdrakey]

because of this post I need to see if i still have my 88080 in one piece this could be fun if only i still had my trs-80

[rick08]

I got an old pentium 3 computer with 256 mb. of ram and a 10 gb. hard drive running ubuntu.

[Martin Smith]

I know a guy who uses a 3.5 mb live floppy disk boot on his 16 MB ram computer:confused:; some people really need to just take the plunge and get a new pc; I use one with 256 mbs ram ubuntu and its fine

[zmjjmz]

Soon enough I should be installing BasicLinux in a dualboot with MS-DOS 6.22 on a 486 with 8MB RAM.

[magnus0]

I think it's about 8-9 years old

Pentium 600 MHz
384 Mb ram
10 Gb hdd

DSL runs perfectly there

[gnulinuxoss]

I have 3 old dinosaurs that are, were, or will be running GNU/Linux. My very first dedicated GNU/Linux box bought off of eBay for $20, is a Compaq Deskpro 4000 with a Pentium Pro 180MHz, 96MB of RAM and an old Western Digital 4GB hard drive. I've installed Apache 1.3 and it works great for serving. It even has X on it and when setup properly nicely runs fine.
X :twisted:

The other box is still needing parts, but it's another Compaq - but a Proliant rack server with dual Pentium Pro 200MHz CPU's and it came with 512MB of RAM (iirc) along with two Seagate Hawk ST15230N Fast-SCSI-II drives connected to a Adaptec AHA-2940AU 32-bit PCI to Ultra SCSI adapter. Interestingly enough, it was apparently in eBay's care because no one wiped the hard drives. I need two processor power modules for it and I'm set.

The third is an old custom job I bought at a local church garage sale for $15 iirc. It's an AMD K6-2 500 with 512MB of RAM, and a Western Digital 17GB IDE hard drive. I have 8.04LTS on it and it runs a LAMP stack excellently (installed some groupware/portal stuff).

My firewall is a 750MHz AMD Athlon (slot A), 256MB, running Copfilter/URLfilter. Never even touches swap even with using all the features.

[dragos240]

1.2 gb compaq armada SB that used to run on 98 now runs on slackware, the non gui one. And i have to say, it works 10 times better than windows 98, much faster too!

[tetrafuran]

400 MHz
32 or 64 MB ram.

Can't remember. Ubuntu works, but the BIOS was so old that hibernate wouldn't work at all. DSL somehow did it out of the box. That's why I think prefer to have DSL in my old laptop.

[Virtualboxbuntu]

A 10-year-old Sony VAIO. I installed Linux Mint, suspend/hibernate seems to work (but not on my 2-year-old computer). The specs are:

1 Ghz single-core proc
512 mb RAM
40 GB HD
16 mb integrated graphics (no compiz-fusion, and it freezes when I run the engine screensaver)

It's not particularly fast.

[maestrobwh1]

PII 200 MHz MMX Fujitsu lifebook 770 TX with 96 MB ram. Trident video card, Netgear 401 MA wireless card. One usb 1.1 port.

It is almost funny, but it works. I installed Xubuntu, then fluxbox. I usually boot from DamnSmallLinux.

[spcwingo]

I'm running a home-rolled version of Puppy on a Compaq Armada 1592dmt with a Pentium MMX @ 233 Mhz, 96 MB ram, and a 3 GB hdd. It's old, but it still runs like a top...just a tad on the slow side.

[Twirlcan]

In 1998 I installed Red Hat 5.0 on an Everex 486 with 33mhz and 5MB of ram on a 420MB HD. I did not bother running X on it. I seem to remember that compiling the kernel took over 8 hours. That same year I did a Red Hat 5.1 install on a 486 DX66 with 16MB ram and a 1 GB HD and a 256kb Cirrus Logic graphic card. It ran X with FVWM2.

Recently I have not bothered with Linux on old hardware and instead just go straight to NetBSD.

[lanruisen]

I have a 2000 G3 imac 500Mhz 512Mb Ram running Debian Etch. Ubuntu wouldn't run on it. I still use gnome and it runs well enough.

I also have a PII 266Mhz Dell Inspiron 3200 277Mb Ram. It's running Debian Lenny with the LXDE desktop which is both pretty and fast. I have never gotten the sound to work. I use Kazekahase for web browsing, Awesome browser for old machines, Netsurf is good too, but it doesn't have tabbed browsing.

[roachk71]

Believe it or not:

Linux Mandrake 7.0 on a 486-based IBM Aptiva with 32MB RAM and a 1.8GB hard disk.

It was slow, but still ran... :biggrin:

[DeMus]

Compaq Armada E500 with a 600MHz P3 processor, 256MB ram and an 80GB hard drive.
The disk and 128 MB extra ram I put in myself.
Unfortunately it is slow. I have a dual boot with Windows XP (originally it came with '98) and I must say XP wins.
It's not completely fair since it is a tweaked version of XP, called XP-light from which much has been deleted. While running it only has a few processes in memory and I think that is what makes it "fast", well faster than Hardy 8.0.4.2

But as with my other PC, I use Hardy much more.

[blueturtl]

Mine.

Pentium 233 MHz (later upgraded to AMD K6-III+ 400 MHz)
64 MB RAM (later upgraded to 256 MB)
6 GB HDD (later switched to 120 GB)
24x CD-writer
Dual floppy drives
S3 ViRGE DX video card (later switched to Matrox Millennium G200)
3Dfx Voodoo2 3D-accelerator
Yamaha OPL3 Sax sound card (later switched to Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream)
Realtek NE2000 10 Mbit ethernet
2 USB 1.1 ports (later added 4 USB 2.0 ports with pc-card)

Despite the heavy upgrades this system is so dang old.

Apps used with the system (after upgrade):
OS: Debian Etch 4.0 (same)
GUI: X with Fluxbox (same)
Browser: Links2 or Opera (Firefox 3)
Email: Sylpheed (same)
IM: CenterIM-UTF8 (Gajim)
IRC: irssi (same)
Audio: MOC (same)
Video: Mplayer (same)
P2P: rtorrent (same+linuxdcpp)
Others: rxvt-unicode, emacs, zxgv, xpdf, gimp...

I usually run all my apps at the same time, here follows a subjective performance review:

RAM is most crucial, even with a slow CPU the system is very usable if you have 128+ megs of RAM. With 64 megs or less, one must rely mostly on command line apps or very light GUI apps. With 256 megs or RAM, I can even use multiple tabs in Firefox. :D Forget Youtube though, Flash requires a 1GHz+ CPU and the quality of videos is still bad enough not to bother.

[kbutcher5]

An old unnamed laptop, 64megs of ram 433mhz, 5gb hdd :P

[unoodles]

I think you guys all lose.
I have an old computer that originally ran MSDOS.
I don't know the CPU specs right now. (Ill edit this later).
It has 128k ram. Yes I'll say it again 128 kilobytes.
I booted a-linux on a floppy. (asm.sourceforge.net)
There is no hard drive anymore, it broke, but I think it had about 10MB.

[ebernan]

I am typing this on a pentium 2 350 Mhz machine: intel 440 bx mobo, 512 mb pc100 ram seen as 256 by bios, ati rage pro graphics card. While this isn't anywhere near the slowest machine in this thread I did manage to get Intrepid running on it. I didn't even have to use any of the alternative install disks or methods, it took over an hour to install and the installer hung at 95% but seemed to boot fine after a reset. The computer runs gnome a little slow and desktop effects won't work but it's entirely usable and even seems faster than win 95 did when the rig was new(96 or 97 I believe).

Last week I installed Intrepid on a 1.4 Ghz athlon machine with a geforce2 mx 440(64 mb) and was shocked when desktop effects actually worked, and even more surprisingly it didn't slow things down. I installed emerald as well but it did slow things down so I took it back off.

My next linux project is on the other end of the spectrum. I will be deleting the win 7 partition on my new i7 rig and trying a few linux distro's. I'm curious to see how multithreaded some of the linux apps are and whether they can utilize all 8 threads. Besides win 7 doesn't like any of my games so what's the point.

[MasterNetra]

A abacus, just add sticker. :p

[JackieChan]

I used to run Arch on my pentium 2 233MHz box. It had 128MB of RAM (I upgraded it) and originally had a 4.3GB Quantum Bigfoot, but I upgraded it to an 80GB at some point. I didn't run X on this box.
That's cool! :)

[billgoldberg]

I just installed Edubuntu 6.10 on my mom's ten-year-old Dell, which has a whopping 4.3 GB hard drive and 66 megs of RAM. I was afraid it might be a no-go for awhile because it was such a SLOW install... The installer actually went into 'low memory' mode while installing, and said I should create a swap file as soon as possible! All went well though, and now the kids are enjoying all the games...

so what's the oldest computer you've installed linux on?

I install Ubuntu 8.10 yesterday on an 8 year old APTEC pc.

Never heard of that brand, everything worked OOTB.

[afm93]

An old Windows ME machine. I first installed Xubuntu, but I hate the XFCE environment, so I installed Linux Mint Felicia Fluxbox Edition.

[Dragonbite]

I got an (I believe) 2001 Pentium I w/MMX technology ( @233 MHz) running with 64 MB of RAM and I tried a few distributions on it; DSL, TinyMe and Suse 9.1 (w/KDE) were the most successful ones to install.

I'm actually now looking at setting it up again, and installing Ubuntu Server ed. to make it into a (portable) web server which I can fool around with. If I had 2 NICs in it I would make it into a router/firewall/content filter, but it only has 1 and it's in the PCMCIA slot (no internal NIC) and there is only 1 USB 1.0 on board.

Oh, actually even older than that is the Sony Vaio desktop I bought in 2000 (P3 @ 500 MHz with 128 MB ram) which I had Edubuntu running on it for a while. At that time it was the kids AND it was my primary computer.

Thankfully I've moved up... to about 1.4 GHz (laptop).

[mamamia88]

old windows 98 computer 680mhz processor with 128mb ram

[jelle_]

i only installed linux at two machines, but the slowest was an pentium 3 1000 MHz 384 mb ram. it is currently broken

[HermanAB]

A circa 1995 Sparc Station. The Linux version is called 'Splack' and is unmaintained now.

Herman

[Macchi]

Now revived in its fourth reincarnation, I still have a lovely Samsung laptop Pentium II 300MHz 168MB memory 40GB drive (was 3GB) from 1999.
It has been running Ubuntu 5.04 to 9.04 with some tweaks.

PS: There is no logical explanation. That computer has been kept alive mostly as a thin client due to an excellent keyboard and - have to admit - for sentimental reasons.

[mingtien]

A 25 MHz 386, with 4 MB RAM and a 105 MB hard drive, SVGA Greyscale monitor (that's black and white for those of you under 30).

It ran the Linux kernel 0.12 when that came out (early 1992), and kept running Linux until August 1993, when I replaced it with a 486-33 with 16 MB RAM and 2 130 MB hard drives (and a 15" colour NEC MultiSync monitor!).

[trentscott4]

A Dell Inspiron 630 too underpowered to be a frisbee.

[Dragonbite]

I'll have to get the model number, but it is a Pentium I w/MMX chip at 233 MHz and I maxed it out at 128 MB of RAM.

I've had Fluxbuntu, TinyMe, DSL and Suse 9.1 installed on it. The Suse 9.1 was KDE and it actually worked ... alright. Slow as molassis but anything running on this is going to be.

I am currently looking at putting Ubuntu Server on it for a portable demonstration box.

[linutic]

My first Linux box was a CAF Aqualite II laptop. 386SX 25MHz, 4MB RAM, 120MB HDD. 640x480 passive greyscale screen, some CL abomination for the graphics (never got X working on it; played lots of sasteroids tho! I ran Slackware with kernel 1.3-something. I had *no idea* what I was doing but I thought it was the coolest thing in the world when my little laptop said "going multiuser" :-D

[toupeiro]

I wanna say the oldest may have been a Sparc Station Ultra40, but the oldest that I currently still use is a circa 1998 Toshiba Libretto 110CT running Xubuntu. The true predecessor to the Netbook. :P

http://www.notebook.co.pl/image/40.jpg

[Dark Aspect]

Slowest machine I have ever had Linux running on was a 266 Mhz, slowest one I have now is 400 Mhz. Performance on the 266 Mhz was completely horrible but I didn't try DSL.

Fastest machine I have every seen Linux on was a AMD 4400 X2 and the fastest machine I have running is in my sig. Performance was incredible on the 4400.

[kjkrum]

I installed Slackware via serial console on a 110 MHz SparcStation 5 salvaged from an early Kodak digital photo kiosk. I also have the matching touch-screen CRT, but I've never tried to make that work...

[bzhao]

I install 486DX 80M with Redhat5.1(only1 cd) in 1997/8
I set a web server on it at that time.

[Exodist]

Well one of my friends and I originally installed some distro that came with a Linux book around +/-14 years ago on a Pent 60Mhz HewittCrapperd with 32MB RAM. It was CLI only and I have no idea what it based on. But my first Linux Box was a K6-2 400Mhz with 192MB RAM and a 2GB 5400RPM HDD (Slack7). It was my first main Linux box, but after I got the hang of stuff less then 6 months later I said to hell with windows on my Winbox and then moved my Linux os to my K7-550 with 384MB RAM and a 7GB 7200RPM HDD.

[RabbitWho]

My IBM Aptiva from 1999 has tried Puppy Linux (but couldn't connect to the internet) and is very happily running on Spri now.

[Jallu59]

Hi

Here is my lowest end linux computer

Compaq Deskpro 575 & NecMultisync15"
Pentium 75MHz
RAM 24MB
Cyrix videochip with 512kB VideoMemory
hardDisk1 420MB (/)
harDisk2 256MB swap'
Operating System DSL3.3.

Installation was a bit tricky
I had to install the system via command line, because there wasn't enough ram to do it with graphical environment. But anyway it runs now with 800x600 graphics.

Your Jallu59

[Chame_Wizard]

Compaq desktop(from 2000:0)

CPU: Pentium 3,1GHZ(Coppermine)
RAM:512 MiB SD-RAM
HDD:Maxtor 40 GiB(IDE)
Graphic card:ATI Rage 128 Pro
Soundcard:Ensoniq Audio
Network:10/100 Mib integrated

OS:Ubuntu Server 8.10(temporarily with KDE GUI)

[LinuxFanBoi]

In 1996, I ran Slackware 3 on a 486 DX4-100 with 8MB of ram and a VESA SVGA video card. I was able to get X up and running with a minimal window manager, setup a PPP dial up script to get online and downloaded and installed a Netscape browser via ftp.

This machine could barely run windows 3.1 and forget about running 95, but Linux ran like a champ.

[pookiebear]

currently have xubuntu 8 on a p3 1ghz laptop with a cisco wireless card it is my backup laptop. Also have installed old redhat versions on a bunch of pentium 133s and 486 66's. But none of those boxes are still around.

[MooPi]

I have a minimal install on a Mac iBook Graphite 466MHz cpu and bumped up memory to 320mb. Have Openbox window manager pcmanfm and lxpanel rounding out the desktop. Boots and functions using 40 to 60 mb. I just have it around to show others how low a current Linux kernel will function. It's a nice music player word processor , and simple game player but not much else. It actually functions better than the OS 9 that was the original software.

[HermanAB]

I have installed Linux on a 400MHz 1995 Sparcstation. It worked pretty good.

[dragos240]

I have a laptop that has a modified version of archlinux on it. It's a i586, so I compiled all the packages manually for it. Works like a dream. Can run firefox, google chrome, and epiphany at the same time (And then it halted). XFCE works very well on it. It's not a REALLY old computer. But it's the oldest I got. EST 1998?

[Zoot7]

I've Puppy on a Pentium II based machine at the moment.

[julianb]

I have Ubuntu 9.10 with IceWM (no GNOME) on a Summer 2000 iMac:
128MB ram, 30GB hard drive, 500mhz processor.

It's not particularly fast nor slow, if you don't multitask much.

Its wired ethernet card works and it can view internet sites in Firefox 3.5. I'd use puppylinux but I don't think the powerpc version is ready for prime time yet.

[skybiker]

Don't laugh.... (yes, I have grey hair)

SlackWare on P2's...... a stack of them. Helped set up one of the first ISP's in Dallas. Racks of Hayes modems (28.6kb), racks of Pentiums running SlackWare & yggdrasil, lots & lots of serial connections. Data General Dasher D2 serial terminals.....

OK, stop laughing will you!

[markp1989]

Don't laugh.... (yes, I have grey hair)

SlackWare on P2's...... a stack of them. Helped set up one of the first ISP's in Dallas. Racks of Hayes modems (28.6kb), racks of Pentiums running SlackWare & yggdrasil, lots & lots of serial connections. Data General Dasher D2 serial terminals.....

OK, stop laughing will you!

thats quite a cool experience to have, i think.

[LinuxFanBoi]

Back home tucked away in a basement, I have an 8088 with a 4.5 Mhz CPU a massive (takes up 2 5.25" internal bays) 10 MB HDD, 128kb RAM. If I'm not mistaken it had the optional math co-processor added to the motherboard (what made it an 8088 rather than an 8086 i think). If I'm not mistaken I had an additional amount of memory on an ISA card that looked like this. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=270479816699)

I would like to see if I can get my hands on a very early Linux distro to see if I can at least get a CLI up and running on it, but how the hell am I going to get it on a DS/SD 5.25 floppy?

is there even a way to get Linux on an 8 bit machine?

[petebarchetta]

running dapper on my tosh tecra 550cdt, writing this now from it :)
233mhz mmx 160mb ram

machine 1 in the sig

[Yes]

Back home tucked away in a basement, I have an 8088 with a 4.5 Mhz CPU a massive (takes up 2 5.25" internal bays) 10 MB HDD, 128kb RAM. If I'm not mistaken it had the optional math co-processor added to the motherboard (what made it an 8088 rather than an 8086 i think). If I'm not mistaken I had an additional amount of memory on an ISA card that looked like this. (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=270479816699)

I would like to see if I can get my hands on a very early Linux distro to see if I can at least get a CLI up and running on it, but how the hell am I going to get it on a DS/SD 5.25 floppy?

is there even a way to get Linux on an 8 bit machine?

Perhaps not Linux, but with enough Googling you ought to be able to get Minix on there.

Or here's (http://www.sorgonet.com/8086/8088_linux_dumb_terminal/) another cool project you could try.

e: According to this (http://www.kniggit.net/wwol22.html) page, as of 1999 there was an effort to create a Linux branch that would run on the 8088. So if you want Linux, your best bet would be to try and find that branch and hope they got somewhere with it.

[samalex]

Hope you guys don't mind me bubbling this thread back to the top.

I used to run Red Hat 7.3 on a 486-DX 50Mhz computer with an EGA monitor and three modems to allow my parents to dial into the Internet using my broadband connection. This was only 6-7 years ago, and it worked great!

I've actually been wanting to find something to load on my old Tandy 8088 laptop which is 10Mhz with 20 Meg HD and one 1.44" Floppy drive. I bought it used YEARS ago, and it works great! Very small, great screen, and heck the battery even lasts like 45 minutes on a single charge! It has MS-DOS 6.22 loaded on it now, but I'd love to find an older version of Linux or even Minix to throw on it. Granted I doubt I could get it on my network, but it'd be neat to see what I could get running on it natively.

Worse case I can set it up as a dumb terminal, which I've done
before.

Take care --

Sam

[RT236]

About a 10 year old Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop. Nice machine. I swapped out the system board recently from a junker on eBay, P3 750mhz, upgraded to 500MB mem and a 40GB drive. Runs like a champ on 9.10. Toshiba knows how to make a laptop, 8100's are solid. I use it as a backup system if one of my desktops goes really down. I am really impressed with how well 9.10 runs on it, zips right along. In fact I'm using it more and more, kinda fun!

[dragos240]

It was around 1998 - 2000, it had arch on it, but I opened it up and ripped it apart and tried to put it back together, I did, but it wouldn't boot, no loss, got it for free.

[Phrea]

Blueflops, running via 2 diskettes live on a 486 laptop with 4MB memory.
I managed to get tcp/ip working, both Links [browser] and rhapsody [IRC client] worked.

And who can forget the amazing QNX Demo Disk (http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html).

[desnaike]

P III 700 mhz 8 mg onboard video ram 15 gig hdd cd rom floppy.

[Brian88]

IBM Personal Computer 330, Pentium 133 (upgraded to Pentium MMX 200Mhz), 64MB EDO RAM, 5.25" + 3.5" diskette, 1.2GB Quantum Fireball (which is so noisy).

Installed Puppy Linux using USB disk, dual booting with Microsoft Windows 2000.

Actually I tried to install ELKS (Embedded Linux Kernel System) on my 80286, but it seems that it has defective floppy drive (hasn't used nearly 3 months). Usually I just "heat it up" by running some games every 3 days, but I haven't used it and whenever I tried to insert a diskette, it always making a strange noise (like car brakes).

Got those PCs free from my auntie. She had a Pentium III Dell which runs Windows 2000 + Microsoft Office dual-booting with Ubuntu 8.10, which is so fast on that machine.

[lisati]

Digital Venturis FX 5133, 64Mb RAM, 133MHz, 3Gb Quantum Fireball (originally had 1.2Gb), sound card & modem replaced with ethernet & 2-port USB 1.0 cards.

I did have Puppy on it for a day or two, but it ran too slow. I've currently got a copy of Ubuntu 6.06 with apache2, but no GUI (seems to choke when installing one, probably insufficient RAM or some such problem)

[frank_white]

i have a sony vaio cpu 1.2 ghz, 256 mb ram, 60 gb harddrive, running xubuntu 8.04. the computer was bought in 1999 or 2000 i think.

did not try any other linux distros on it yet.

[tom66]

Pentium II / 64 MB RAM / 3dfx video card / 6 GB HDD. Once got Xubuntu on it; came with Win 98 (a donor computer). Motherboard packed in. Currently I am running Ubuntu 8.10 on a Pentium III / 256 MB RAM / Intel 2D accelerator / 80 GB HDD / Compaq machine.

[dnel]

A 486 DX4@100MHz back when I first started using Linux, I also tried Gentoo on a Pentium 90 laptop which was not an experience I'll be repeating! In the last few years probably a Pentium MMX@233MHz for a firewall.

[mattlach]

That would probably be in the early 90's when I tried to install slackware (came on free floppies with a computer magazine I boought) on my 286.

It was a fun learning experience, but I was only a kid, and was more interested in playing Prince of Persia and Civilization so the experiment didn't last long :p

As for more recent installs, I installed Gentoo Linux on an old AMD K6-2 someone gave me for free to run as a server box (this was in 2002/2003 some time, I think). The box slowly became unstable and I had to keep clocking it down from its 500Mhz speed until one day I reached the lowest jumper setting and that wasn't stable anymore either.

Oh well. It was free though :p

[KegHead]

dell b130

[98cwitr]

Dell GX1P, 9 year old box

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ban_gx1/specs.htm

with Fedora Core 6...worked ok. I regretted installing a GUI Linux distro and then surplus'd the box.

[chessnerd]

I have Xubuntu installed a Franken-puter machine. It is comprised of two machines from 2001 (A Dell Optiplex GX240 case, motherboard, floppy drive, and a Gateway Mid-Tower's CD-RW Drive, DVD-ROM Drive) and another one from 2003 (A Sony VAIO's CPU, RAM, and GPU).

If you base the age on the mobo, then the computer is 9 years old.
If you base the age on the CPU, then the computer is 7 years old.

I say it is 9 years old because the mobo is the main part of the computer and the majority of the parts are from two computers that are 9 years old.

[Mark Phelps]

Desktop running a really-old Pentium that came out in 1997. Didn't work well though. System had 32MB video card and only 128MB of system memory.

But ... it did install.

And, BTW, of all the Linux distros I tried, PCLinux OS worked the best.

[WidgetPhreak]

The oldest computer I've gotten Linux working on is an IBM 755CX Laptop.

Pentium(R) 75mhz
40 MB RAM
500MB Hard Disk

The Distro I used is Called PYGMY Linux
I can't find any development information for the Distro anywhere, and all of the download locations seem to be dead now.
Luckily I still have backup copies of the Distro, and all of the files I would need to deploy it to a new system if I ever wanted to do it again.

It's based on a really old version of Slackware (like 1999 old).

I've successfully gotten PCMCIA support working, so I can connect to the internet over ethernet.
I've gotten X working with mouse support, at one point, with the netscape browser installed (it's slow as heck though on only 75mhz and 40 mb RAM but it is able to load web pages).

Without X, I can view image files like gif animations, jpegs, bmps, pngs etc using ZGV from the command line.

I can access command line internet with lynx.

I can do all of the typical command line based stuff...
I need to find an old version of openSSH and the dependancies to get it running on it though, because currently i can SSH out... but not in.

Apache also runs on it very well.
Samba works too.

It runs from a Fat16 filesystem using the LOADLIN executable from a DOS Prompt.

PYGMY has always been one of my favorite unknown Distros.
If anyone knows more about it... or would like me to throw up a mirror with the files I have... so you could check it out (since all info about it seems to lead to dead ends now) I'd be happy to zip the whole thing up and throw it on my FTP or something.

[WidgetPhreak]

Blueflops, running via 2 diskettes live on a 486 laptop with 4MB memory.
I managed to get tcp/ip working, both Links [browser] and rhapsody [IRC client] worked.

And who can forget the amazing QNX Demo Disk (http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html).

Dude! The QNX Demo Disks are AWEsome.

I used to use them when I was in High School in (1990s) to bypass my schools locked down local machine security.

Boot from the floppy, punch in the proxy information, and boom... internet access without permission from the Teacher, or Librarian.

Did you know that the New BlackBerry Playbook Tablet is running a QNX based MicroKernel?
:KS

[jimmyjones]

I've got 11.04 on an old Compaq IPAQ, 20G HD, 512M, 933M Celeron.

It runs with 'Classic' it's slow but functional.

10.10 on an old AMD 1.2G, 768M, GeForce graphics card. Dual boot with Win98

[aG93IGRvIGkgdWJ1bnR1Pw==]

An ancient IBM thinkpad, Pentium 1 (133 MHz) and 64MB of ram if memory serves correctly. I put Debian 1.3 on it. It was a tremendous improvement over Windows 95.

[Dustin2128]

I'm trying to get a borked debian 6.0 install working properly on an old pentium 3 I've got, but it has fairly decent specifications, 384Mb RAM, Rage 128 32Mb video card, Pentium 3 ~800Mhz (not sure) 10Gb HDD. I've got it down to two problems. Either the 12 year old hard drive has failed, or the ancient video card is having open driver problems. I'm pretty close to swapping it to a slack machine if I can't figure this out. Or buying a cheap nVid card.

[youbuntu]

I have never installed just Linux on a computer. I would not know how, although I have installed many GNU/Linux distros, and probably - I'd say - a Pentium 166.

[cptrohn]

Hmm I have an old windows 98 machine with PuppyLinux running on it.

[youbuntu]

Hmm I have an old windows 98 machine with PuppyLinux running on it.


"an old windows 98 machine" does not comprise a specification :)

Could you clarify, please?

thanks

[cptrohn]

"an old windows 98 machine" does not comprise a specification :)

Could you clarify, please?

thanks

Darn it you are going to make me work tonight! LOL Hmm it's an old HP pavillion 6530, 512 MB of Ram, Celeron processor, 40 GB HD... Couldn't really upgrade it because the MB is proprietery..... I could throw a bigger HD in the thing though.... But it runs great as a puppy machine...

[wweeks]

A Compaq iPaq that originally shipped with Windows 2000. Has a 20GB HDD and 512MB RAM. :D (Not sure of the processor speed.)

[FreeAsInMe]

Darn it you are going to make me work tonight! LOL Hmm it's an old HP pavillion 6530, 512 MB of Ram, Celeron processor, 40 GB HD... Couldn't really upgrade it because the MB is proprietery..... I could throw a bigger HD in the thing though.... But it runs great as a puppy machine...

He, presumably, meant CPU speed to be included too :-/

[jerenept]

I installed DSL on my neighbour's old computer: AMD Duron@900MHz, 128MB RAM, no graphics card (as in NONE, not even a crappy integrated one).

The BIOS corrupted afterward (totally not my fault :P ) and I pillaged it for parts.

[racie]

I have no idea how old it is, but it was originally running Windows 98 and I believe it has 256 MB of RAM. Don't know the processor speed at the moment.

Sometime in the future, I'm planning on making it a little arcade machine with Arcade Puppy. :) I installed it on the 40GB hard disk I found sitting around, but I haven't actively done anything with it yet.

[Dry Lips]

I've tried DSL & Tinycore on a celeron 500mhz with 64megs of ram
and 6 gigs hdd. Latest version of puppylinux didn't run well at all,
it is way too heavy. I plan to install Ubuntu server 7.10 on it, as it
is supposed to work fine with those specs...

[Spice Weasel]

I've tried DSL & Tinycore on a celeron 500mhz with 64megs of ram
and 6 gigs hdd. Latest version of puppylinux didn't run well at all,
it is way too heavy. I plan to install Ubuntu server 7.10 on it, as it
is supposed to work fine with those specs...

I have a machine with similar (slightly worse) specs. Debian Squeeze loves it.

[pl@yer]

pentium 233Mhz 64MB ram big old laptop running vector linux, icewm I think was the WM ran very well.
Compaq armada 1700

[fuduntu]

It's a tossup between a Compaq Contura 486 laptop, a Compaq Presario 486SX, and an AT&T Starserver S.

I don't know which was older.

Edit: There was also a Packard Bell 386DX that I toyed with it on in the early 90s.

[Dry Lips]

I have a machine with similar (slightly worse) specs. Debian Squeeze loves it.

Really? I tried puppy linux from a live CD, and that worked miserably;
it froze all the time... If I had done a true install it would possibly have
been better though. On the other hand DSL & Tinycore ran just fine.

Did you run the LXDE version of squeeze, then?

[Spice Weasel]

Really? I tried puppy linux from a live CD, and that worked miserably;
it froze all the time... If I had done a true install it would possibly have
been better though. On the other hand DSL & Tinycore ran just fine.

Did you run the LXDE version of squeeze, then?

I installed it without a desktop then added FVWM and Xorg.

[Dry Lips]

I installed it without a desktop then added FVWM and Xorg.
Ahhh, I see, that explains it!
How would you install it? sudo apt-get..., something?

[Shadow Warrior]

It isn't exactly the age of the computer that I'm looking at when installing any release of linux. It's which version of linux would detect an attached serial mouse and pass that information on when it is upraded to a more recently release of linux.

Any suggestions? I have the latest Ubuntu loaded, read different solutions to my problem; but, haven't executed any of them successfully So, the solution above seems the best route to take - unless there is simple patch to run that will kick Ubuntu in the butt and make the blind - see!:confused:

[desnaike]

Compaq 5000 PIII 700mhz 512 ram 80gig hdd. Ubuntu 6.06,8.04,Lmint6,7.

[TeamRocket1233c]

Ubuntu 9 on a Celeron 400MHz with about 300Mb RAM and a 30Gb HDD that I pieced together out of spare parts in my vo-tech class, and Ubuntu runs fine on it, although it's slightly slow. :)

Intend to eventually install Puppy 5.2.8 on my Pentium II 266MHz with 128Mb RAM as a replacement for Win98.

[cariboo]

I have Debian squeeze installed on an Apple G3 From 1998.Up until a couple of months ago it was in Daily usage as an mp3 player. I don't have as much time to spend in the shop these days, so it only gets fired up a couple of times a month these days. :(

[sanderd17]

I tried to install some Arch variant (that could run on i386 and not only i686) on a PII, as replacement for Windows '98.

It installed, but the screen resolution was so bad I couldn't even view my entire login window.

[sffvba[e0rt]

The oldest system I have ever installed Linux on was also my first install; Peanut Linux on a PII 266Mhz back around 1999(ish) (I have no idea anymore how much of what else it had...)


404

[1clue]

Oldest in what way?

Oldest as in earliest manufacture date: A 486, I think it was 16 mhz. I think Bill Clinton was running for office. No X, that was a curiosity that didn't really work very well. Both RAM and hard disk were measured in megabytes. This was my first ever box to install on, but not all that old at the time. Kernel was 1.x.

Oldest at the time I installed it: Not sure if it was a Mac or a Sun box. Mac from the Gassee period, I think it was a 6200 or similar. Installed MkLinux, and did so after MkLinux was inactive for a few months. Sun box was a sparc station, lower end model. They were both pulled from the same junk pile. Also no X on either of those. Again, gigabytes hadn't entered my world yet for RAM and I think the same for hard disk.

Longest lived single installation: I think it's a P4. It was installed November 15, 2000. My first day on my current job. It has never been re-installed, and it has been up pretty much ever since with maybe 2 days downtime over all that time. This is also my personal uptime record holder by a long shot, it was once up for just short of 2 years. Redhat, not sure if it's 6 or 7.

[TeamRocket1233c]

Cool! :) DSL (Damn Small Linux), although it's been dead for a while, has been known to run on a 486 with 16 megs of RAM.

[JustinR]

A thirteen year old Compaq Armada M300 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,13400,00.asp). (Btw, for being 13 years old, it's the thinnest laptop I've ever used, thinner than my current one!)

I installed Lubuntu onto it and it worked pretty well.

12.1 inch screen
256MB of Ram (Top of the line config option)
6GB Hard Drive
233MHZ CPU.

It lasted all of these years and still looks new (it has a full metal case, and it's only 3.4 pounds).

[Rasa1111]

Lubuntu 9.10 on a 13-14 year old IBM Thinkpad 600E.

6 GB hdd, 133 (i think) RAM,
don't even know the cpu speed anymore.
Doesn't get used much. lol

Runs lubuntu pretty well though!
for emergencies or something..

But dont try to play large-er videos/movies on it.
Not happening. :P

Basically just good for music or typing a paper or something.

[BrokenKingpin]

I first started using Linux on a P3 box many years ago... Red Hat 9 worked great on it.

I currently have a P4 box running Debian, which also works pretty good (much faster than Win7 on it).

[TeamRocket1233c]

A thirteen year old Compaq Armada M300 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,13400,00.asp). (Btw, for being 13 years old, it's the thinnest laptop I've ever used, thinner than my current one!)

I installed Lubuntu onto it and it worked pretty well.

12.1 inch screen
256MB of Ram (Top of the line config option)
6GB Hard Drive
233MHZ CPU.

It lasted all of these years and still looks new (it has a full metal case, and it's only 3.4 pounds).

Sweet! The three types of PC's that are best for putting Linux on are custom-built desktops, old desktops/laptops (PII/Slot 1 Celeron/PIII era), and netbooks. Also, if I had some spare RAM and an empty 30Gb HDD and a Puppy 5.2.8 disc, I could probably save the 11-yr-old Gateway Essential 433c we have laying around the house somewhere with that. Just need to bump the RAM from 63Mb to about 300Mb (if it can handle that much RAM), and I'd be good to go, the CPU's a Celeron 433MHz, which should be more than enough clock speed for Puppy.

Although Lubuntu could probably run on a 433MHz CPU/300Mb RAM/30Gb HDD hardware spec, it would just be a little slow. Lubuntu/Ubuntu/Debian would be best on at least an 800MHz CPU/750Mb RAM/100Gb HDD hardware spec though.

[BBQdave]

This one: dell inspiron 1100 with 1g of ram and a 30gb disk (notebook is 8 years old). Still going strong (with new battery).

And I am happily running Debian6 on this machine!:D

[amjjawad]

http://ubuntuforums.org/album.php?albumid=2136&pictureid=7114

[BillyBoa]

Any computer with Win 2000 installed is very old. I tried to install ubuntu in such one with 256 RAM, but is not working properly. Actually with Win 2000 it was working better.

[Bandit]

Slack7 on a 486 DX4-100 with 16mb RAM. CLI only install, but ran great.

[bluexrider]

Home built AMD K7
80GB HD
1024MB Memory

Must be at least 11 years old running LinuxMint Julia

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

This one: dell inspiron 1100 with 1g of ram and a 30gb disk (notebook is 8 years old). Still going strong (with new battery).

And I am happily running Debian6 on this machine!:D

The oldest computer I have with Linux installed on it is a Dell Inspiron 5100 that is 8 years old. The Dell 1100, 5100, and 5150 Inspirons were very similar models. I upgraded it to 1GB RAM, a 60GB HDD, and a new battery. I also have Debian Stable running on it. It still works for basic tasks; however, it is challenged when playing flash videos. The serial com port and ps/2 interface have come in useful. Sad to say it; but, it is destined to be recycled shortly.

I have had older computers with Linux on them; however, I can't remember what they were. They were put in the rubbish bin a long time ago.

[TenPlus1]

Redhat linux on my Amiga 1200 PPC 133mhz with 8mb gfx memory and 16mb ram... 800mb hd

[Matti L]

I tried Xubuntu, DSL, Puppy and some other light distros on a 2000 HP Brio BA400. Didn't work well, but I think that machine was in pretty bad shape already because Windows 98 didn't work well in it anymore either.

[irrdev]

Pentium 2, 64MB RAM, ~5GB HDD. It used to run Windows 95, but I had to have some fun and see how Linux ran on it. It

[BertN45]

What about the following new Ubuntu versions:
Dell CSx laptop PIII 500mHz, 384MB, disk 40GB Xubuntu 11.10
Siemens Scovery PII 400mHz, 384MB, disk 13GB Ubuntu 10.10
both are used daily.

In the past in 2005 and I hope my memory does not cheat me:
Dell desktop: PI 133mHz, 64MB, disk scsi 2+2GB as LVM, Ubuntu 5.04

[foxhead128]

Pre-Y2K Dell Inspiron 3700 that I just picked up today. Originally ran Windows 98 and is currently running the similarly-antiquated muLinux 14r0. Pentium III processor @ 466MHz; 128 MB RAM; 6 GB HDD. It's not as old as some computers that have already been mentioned on this thread, but it's still old-enough so that it has no CD drive and lacks dial-up, let alone Ethernet and wireless. Forget about booting from that USB 1.1 port - the BIOS won't support it. I ended up using floppy disks as installation media - a first for me, since I'm a pretty recent convert.

[Desert Sailor]

I have Puppy running on my old IBM original ThinkPad. 386 with 128K memory and a 80 meg hard drive.

[maounique]

Back in the days i had a 386 SX 20 MHz and installed a really old debian, dont remember which version, hdd was something like 800 mb and memory 16 MB.
Command line only, used as web server to put up the pages I was making for my webdesign class (max DHTML but later added PHP to it).
Connection was 4 K at the time so the machine wasnt really important as the speed was terrible anyway. Run Apache, not some light server, ssh, I even compiled the kernel on is (2.2 or 2.4 flavour, dont remember exactly and it took longer than one night) and it was in the year 2000, so the machine was really junk even for those days.
I also have an XT from 1986, original IBM, still alive but didnt put linux on it since 386 is the bare minimum for a "normal" kernel (runs windows 3.0 tho).
Last project is did last month was an 120 Mhz Compaq Armada 1510 DM iirc, with PCMCIA usb card and usb2Ethernet convertor, CDROM but terrible TFT display max 1 mb memory and 800x600 resolution. Has 80 mb ram, and tried many distros on it.
Problem is with the display, VESA is extremely slow and I couldnt get any distro to recognize it the video card out of the box, managed Puppy the LuPu variant (Lucid Puppy) in the end in paralel with win98 with kernelex on a 4 GB hdd.
Everything works, cant play MP3 tho, it is too choppy, but can use it for browsing, email, the battey lasts a wooping 2 hours (after reformating it), even the mobile (GSM couldnt make the CDMA stick to work, but didnt try too hard either) internet is working. Too bad is so chunky, otherwise would have carried it with me for the sake of attracting geeky crowds wondering about it...
M

[TeamRocket1233c]

Crunchbang 10 Statler on my old PII~266 with 128MB of RAM and a 10GB HDD, and it runs great, despite the ancient hardware specs. It originally ran Windows 98 until I screwed up the install trying to install Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 a while back, due to the disc being burned off incorrectly at the time, then it gathered dust for a while. Properly burned off a Crunchbang 10 disc Monday, and installed it as soon as I got off school.

The res sucks though, the highest it can go up to being 800x600, but I think that's due to the PCI video card and ancient CRT monitor. Also, it's slightly laggy, but that's a given with old hardware.

Heck of a lot faster than Windows 98 though.

[aaaantoine]

Packard Bell Pentium 100 with 16 MB EDO RAM.

I installed Red Hat on it before the Fedora project ever existed.

It wasn't a very practical install, sadly. But, it was my first.

[LillyDragon]

I once pulled a DSL Linux dual boot on a old Compaq Presario with Win98SE on it. (Just 32Mbs of RAM and a 322mhz AMD CPU, without hardware-accelerated graphics.) Can't remember the exact model number, unfortunately, but it must have been built in 2001, iirc.

Would have tried installed Deli (Crazy) Linux on an even older Presario model with Win95 installed, but its hard disk hardly had 198MBs of capacity; barely enough space for the OS. The rest of the system specs were fitting, though, which is a shame, 'cause it would have worked! (33Mhz i386 CPU and 48MBs of RAM)

[TheFu]

Around 1993, I loaded Slackware on a 486/33 with 4MB of RAM and a 40MB HDD.
I think the video may have been 256KB and 256 colors.

The day I brought up X/Windows for the first time was fantastic. I could remote into my DEC machine at work over the 9600baud modem!

[a2j]

does minix2 on 80286 count? I can actually work on that machine, not just run OS on it. Even wrote and compiled my first C "hello world" program.

[TheFu]

does minix2 on 80286 count? I can actually work on that machine, not just run OS on it. Even wrote and compiled my first C "hello world" program.

Minix isn't Linux, so with a strict interpretation - NO. Heck, HP's C compiler had a "strict interpretation" too and lots of my code wouldn't compile on it either.

Before Linux, I tried to install an UNIX-like OS from Mark ... something company ... Coherent? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherent_%28operating_system%29 I was an ultimate noob at the time and in way over my head. Ended up sending it back because I wasn't ready yet. I'd never actually used a UNIX OS at that point, but I knew I wanted to understand UNIX. At the time, my day job was actually writing real-time software for IBM 360 mainframes.

If you have an i286, you might want to check out Coherent v2. It ran in i286s and was really polished for a CLI-only solution.

[linuxsyst]

XD lol now im using Asus W5F 10 yr old but it has 2.0 GHz CPU and 1 gb of memory (I added some) 2nd Fujitsu Siemens S612D 9 yr old laptop.
:) the 2nd fuji there is ubuntu 11.04 lol i was sitting 2 months wit it I CANT put 11.10 there lol on the asus im writing from 11.10 :D :P it works very good.

[jsalin]

Oldest PC I ever installed Linux to was 20MHz 386SX with 387 FPU. It was fun to watch the boot text with 2MB of memory it had but I never managed to squeeze past init to shell like some had. With 8MB there was no problem ofcourse and xfree86 worked with the HGA display card as well. :) It was some now really old Slackware version.

Speaking of old HW I'm getting an embedded 486DX4 100MHz / 8MB board from friend, which has also ethernet and SVGA. Will try if any recent distro will work with those specs anymore. I'd be happy with SSH and Links, but X with links-x11 would be something.

[HermanAB]

A 200MHz Sun Sparkstation. It worked OK.

[jwbrase]

Does it count if I ran a Linux-on-a-floppy distro rather than installing it to the machine's hard drive? In that case it would be an old AST machine with 40 megs of RAM and a BIOS copyrighted 1995. The hard drive is significantly newer than the rest of the machine, so it doesn't count.