Linux for very outdated (128-512MB RAM) machines?

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SuperSubZero

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A friend of mine, she inherits antique computers and tries to recycle them to her foreign community friends. They are mostly laptops. They are Pentium II, sometimes Pentium III machines, with anywhere from 128MB to 512MB RAM and 6-10GB hard drives.

Is there any somewhat usable Linux distro I can put on these things? They really just need an OS, a web browser (no Youtube req'd) and an office suite. I don't mind using really old stuff, I just want to give her an alternative to her current practice of using pirated XP.

I tried using Lubuntu a while back but the installer kept hanging. I'll still try it but I'm looking for alternatives in the same vein.
 
SuperSubZero said:
A friend of mine, she inherits antique computers and tries to recycle them to her foreign community friends. They are mostly laptops. They are Pentium II, sometimes Pentium III machines, with anywhere from 128MB to 512MB RAM and 6-10GB hard drives.

Is there any somewhat usable Linux distro I can put on these things? They really just need an OS, a web browser (no Youtube req'd) and an office suite. I don't mind using really old stuff, I just want to give her an alternative to her current practice of using pirated XP.

I tried using Lubuntu a while back but the installer kept hanging. I'll still try it but I'm looking for alternatives in the same vein.
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Hi, SuperSubZero,

I have never used it, but I'm think of trying MijnPup on a Dell 5150. It sounds like it will accomplish what you are after.

Hope this helps and hope folks with hands on experience will comment.

Chuklr
 
The office suite is the toughest requirement with 128MB. OpenOffice 2 can run painfully slow on a P3 with 128MB under Linux.

Some Puppy-based distro as Chuklr suggested should work.
 
Puppy Linux is probably your best bet.


As for an Office Suite, I wouldn't attempt Open Office. Too hefty. However, there are lighter alternatives when it comes to individual components I believe. A lot of people use Abiword as a good lightweight word processor for one. I'm sure there are more alternatives.
 
I recommend a minimal install of ubuntu. It's like a 12mb iso that installs everything over the net. It installs a basic text only version of ubuntu then you can add whatever packages you need. This way you don't have the bloat of a default install. Plus, because you are getting the packages over the net you only get the latest packages - it's up to date as soon as you finish installing.

I had a dell c600 with 1 ghz p3 and 192 mb of ram. Put Ubuntu minimal install then added fluxbox and firefox and it was very fast.
 
Well I'd still need a GUI, these users are people from the backwoods of depressed southeast Asian countries, not nerds.

My big concern is something the user doesn't have to *think* about. If they ever need a terminal, **EVER**, it's useless to me.
 
I have to agree with puppy linux or you can make your own ubuntu minimal install. That way you can clone it very easily with packages you want or need.

When you say office can you break that down more specifically? I mean office to me is Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Outlook.
If you don't need all those and you just need a word processor than your requirements are very very different and much easier to obtain.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Well I'd still need a GUI, these users are people from the backwoods of depressed southeast Asian countries, not nerds.

My big concern is something the user doesn't have to *think* about. If they ever need a terminal, **EVER**, it's useless to me.
Click to expand...

I like what you and your friend aqre doing but that's one tough requirement.


TinyCore gets my vote and it has a light GUI.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/welcome.html
 
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