Need to install Linux with a nice GUI on a P2 - 266Mhz; is that possible?

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RavinDJ

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Need to install Linux with a nice GUI on a P2 - 266Mhz; is that possible? Something that will work at a relatively normal speed. Any ideas? I have two Dell machines (old Dimension XPS) that I would like to donate, but I need to wipe the drives and install some sort of flavor of Linux.

Any ideas? Also, would OpenOffice work on those or not really??

Thanks!
 
For the P2 look into some distros like DamnSmallLinux, VectorLinux, xubuntu or the better known guys like a minimal install of Debian or Slackware. Actually any Linux distro should allow you to configure the amount of resources it uses, even the piggiest distributions out there. For example, for Window Managers, try fluxbox instead of kwin. For Desktop managers, try xfce or enlightenment instead of KDE or Gnome. For office apps, try Abiword and Gnumeric instead of Oo_O. For web browsing, try Dillo or the graphical version of links instead of Firefox/Iceweasel.

OpenOffice works on any Linux distribution (given that the distro provides the necessary libraries for it to work), but it can be pretty slow with older PCs.
 
You didn't mention how much ram you have there..

I would try booting simplymepis on a livecd to see if it can cope with the hardware.
 
on a p2, 266, i run FreeBSD 6.0 ( _7 here on this p4)
with the "desktop" /usr/ports/x11-wm/ratpoison
that's /usr/ports/ (where installable program details are kept)
/x11-wm/ (desktops for them, kde, gnome, etc)
/ratpoison/ (a minimalistic desktop)
.....................
IIRC
once it is loaded
cntl-t "c" loads an xterm
cntl -t 0,1,2 etc cycles between your initially-configured programs ( I have
/swisswatch/, and 2 others )
tons of other cntl-T commands I've not had time to learn on that one. VS icons/menus
on other desktops...
................
not any icons (yet) though on that one
 
I've run Damn Small Linux on a 300mhz AMD Geode with 64mb of RAM and it runs surprisingly fast for those specs.
 
Damn small linux is the way to go if you want something that's pre-configured and ready to go. If you've got the time you could make your own custom job with gentoo or freebsd.

Remember, though, that linux isn't magic...it can't make your computer magically fast if its not. Giant programs like openoffice are going to be horrible on it, especially if you have less than 256mb of ram. If you only need word processing, Abiword would be a much better option for a slow machine.

Machines that slow work great for firewalls and console-only servers, but don't expect to have a silky-smooth desktop experience on one.
 
yeesh.. I remember running KDE3 on my old p2-500. wasn't bad, certainly better than 98. Granted, that's quite a bit faster than what your running, but if you have 64mb of ram or more you would be fine under kde or gnome. Don't expect quickness, but its usable. I also remember using KDE 2 I think it was on my p1-166 with 64mb ram. It's a bit more advanced now, but shit I liked it back then!

xfce4 will run awesomely. Look at xubuntu if you want a prebuilt.

openoffice will work. It'll be slow, slower than actually an MS product at loading, but once its in memory you should be fine.
 
"Linux" and "nice GUI" cannot be used in the same sentence.

The most I'd use on that machine would be Xfce. It's the only super-light VM I've found that doesn't completely sacrifice usability for speed. Check out Xubuntu if you want the idiot-proof route, or look at FreeBSD if you want a real operating system. ;)
 
InorganicMatter said:
"Linux" and "nice GUI" cannot be used in the same sentence.

The most I'd use on that machine would be Xfce. It's the only super-light VM I've found that doesn't completely sacrifice usability for speed. Check out Xubuntu if you want the idiot-proof route, or look at FreeBSD if you want a real operating system. ;)
Click to expand...

I totally disagree. There are tons of guis for linux and plenty of them look very nice. KDE, e17, Gnome, and xfce all can look very very nice. And I personally find the minimalistic look of the *boxes / fvwm / windowmaker to be very pleasant for the eyes.

Though I agree freebsd does rock. I don't think it's superior in any particular way to linux, though. They're both nice, just a slightly different take on the same fundamental principle.
 
InorganicMatter said:
"Linux" and "nice GUI" cannot be used in the same sentence.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

pay no attention to this fool....

if you want quickest possible, go with one of the *boxes, if you want something a bit more fully featured, go with XFCE, or even a stripped down gnome if you have a decent amount of RAM
 
Thanks, guys!!!

I just want something minimalistic so that I can install and then donate the machines.

I went to www.distrowatch.com (awesome site, by the way) and looked into Damn Small Linux:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Looks good so far!

I can't believe how many distros there are... I have a couple of older P3's and P4's that I'm planning to install Ubuntu, Fedora 8, and FreeBSD to play around with. Also, maybe Suse and Debian.

Thanks, guys!
 
You can get VERY light desktops

I use openbox and XFCE-panel (uses ~40meg of RAM)
 
Here's a good article written specifically for your purpose. It focuses on fluxbox, lightweight panels and icon managers to enhance the fluxbox desktop, and light applications to use as alternatives. They don't mention this, but firefox 3 (beta at this point) has significantly reduced memory requirements and better performance than firefox 2, so it'd be worth checking out a beta buid.
"Building a highly function desktop with lightweight software"
http://www.linux.com/feature/128940
 
Sure, just about any of the GUIs will work. I'd suggest finding a decent video card (that will work with your AGP slot, obviously) that has support for hardware acceleration.

I set up a FreeBSD 7.0 box running WindowMaker for a friend of mine a few weeks ago...Was a PII/300 with 256M RAM and a GeForce2. It works. It's not the fastest, but it works well enough for him. He uses it for web-browsing, e-mail, some OpenOffice usage and other basic tasks.

It will never be a speedy machine. Don't expect it to be fast. If the motherboard supports it, see if you can find a faster CPU for it for cheap...Picking up slot-one PIIs should be cheap/free. Since you've got PC66 RAM you may have to find some faster RAM if you go to a 100MHZ-fsb PII.
 
I'd suggest starting with Arch Linux as the foundation and then using KDEMod, a KDE mod(ification, go figure) designed strictly for Arch itself, with a lot of customization possible. Arch is precompiled for i686 operation so there won't be any need to really mess around with those aspects of it. All the packages you acquire (using that most excellent package manager, pacman) are already i686 also. The whole thing runs smooth as silk when you get it up and running and installed.

Great first distro that's small and very efficient. And the online help and guides are truly top notch. Follow them step by step and wham, you're done with minimal muss or fuss...
 
Last night i picked up an old P4-1.2GHZ/256mb ram/40gb hdd - dell 4300. It had more dust than I have ever seen. After cleaning her up, I popped in ubuntu 7.10 and it ran quite well. I'm going to install 8.x HH version because it is faster.

So to stretch this thread a bit, what are the minimum hardware requirements for ubuntu gnome/kde-type installations?

btw DSL should run fine on that p2 266 - how much memory do you have?

edit: looked up recommended requirements - ubuntu is 384mb memory, xubuntu is less.
 
If you are going to donate the machines, XFCE is probably your best bet as it will be the easiest to use from the standpoint of someone coming from win or macOS.
 
On a p4 1.6ghz, 256mb system:

I made a "discovery" that should have been quite obvious: turning the appearance eye candy setting to none will speed things up, even though an nvidia geforce2 would handle the graphics. Turning the resolution to 1024x768 (from 1680x1050) makes things a lot faster too.
 
Surprisingly enough, lowering the colour palatte also speeds stuff up depending on the system. My ancient laptop can run at 24 bit but refreshes slow as hell that way, switch it to 16 bit and it's snappy.
 
D-EJ915 said:
Surprisingly enough, lowering the colour palatte also speeds stuff up depending on the system. My ancient laptop can run at 24 bit but refreshes slow as hell that way, switch it to 16 bit and it's snappy.
Click to expand...

yes this is quite common, many of the older graphic drivers perform poorly in 24-bit mode. Also, on machines with small amounts of vram (8mb or less), it is quite often the case that there isn't enough memory for DRI to be enabled in 24-bit color mode. On my thinkpad x24 with an 8mb mobility radeon, I have to use 16-bit color to get DRI at 1024x768, for example
 
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