Thread: Tech Advice Needed: Small (free) OS recommendation

Hi Gents.
I have an old laptop from back when I was doing my undergrad - it's an IBM thinkpad with and Intel Celeron 500 Mhz with 160 megs of ram and a 6G hard drive

Now that I have my workshop almost up and running, I'd like to surf the web (nothing more) and check out SRP from my Restoration Den. I've currently got Win XP SP2 on there, but it's such a slog that it's not worthwhile (and unstable to boot).

Can you guys recommend a free OS that won't blow my system specs to bits? Nothing fnacy,and preferably something fairly easy to use (since I'm relatively tech savy [I think], but can't get into any of the complex stuff).

I'm assuming Linux has something along the lines of what I'm looking for, but know nothing of Linux...though I'm willing to learn (mostly because Firefox can run Linux)!

Please help!

Mark

You might check this out: Tiny Linux

Tiny Linux is a small Linux distribution designed especially for old recycled computers.

I'd throw Damn Small Linux on there, personally.

Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:

* Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
* Boot from a USB pen drive
* Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
* Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
* Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
* Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
* Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
* Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize


Find out more info here: DSL information


Download Here: Damn Small Linux, Download the ISO


It's much more up to date than Tiny (not to knock your suggestion, Hogaloo! It is impressive that it can be installed from 12 3.5" floppies, however...), and it's very popular. Distrowatch.com, a site that tracks the popularity of linux distributions, has DSL marked at #10.

I'd also check out Puppy linux (#12) and TinyMe (#25). All of these distributions are designed to be pretty small. Damn Small Linux has what seems to be the biggest following, and usually what has the biggest following has the most resources available.

If you want info on other Linux variants, go to Distrowatch.com. The popularity tracker is on the right hand side in a narrow column a bit down the page.

Good luck!

Mark,

I think Linux could be just the ticket. I use Fedora, and that is easy to install and run. I have also heard Ubuntu is very easy to use as well, and has great hardware support. But I have never tried it, so perhaps someone else can chime in on that one. Any linux flavour would be better than Win XP in your situation I think.


EDIT: 160 M of Ram? Well, then perhaps what the other guys have already said...

James.

Wow! You guys are fast and awesome! This is why I love SRP - there's no end to the knowledge on the forum, and a distinct willingness to share that knowledge!

Thanks guys! I'll let you know what I decide to install and how I like it...

A stupid quick question first: do I have to format the hard drive on my laptop first and then install, or will Linux overwrite (I'm assuming I'll have to do a format C:\*.*)

Mark

Originally Posted by Milton Man

Wow! You guys are fast and awesome! This is why I love SRP - there's no end to the knowledge on the forum, and a distinct willingness to share that knowledge!

Thanks guys! I'll let you know what I decide to install and how I like it...

A stupid quick question first: do I have to format the hard drive on my laptop first and then install, or will Linux overwrite (I'm assuming I'll have to do a format C:\*.*)

Mark

It depends on the installer I think - Fedora will definitely blow away any existing windows partition if you ask it to. As for the others, I do not know. That is probably something that would be documented in the install manual of whatever you decide to go with I think.

James.

Damn small linux (DSL) is great and you can run it off the cd, but of course installing is the better bet. I'm not sure what it offers for disk partitioning but linux has some of the most sophisticated partitioning software out there.

PClinuxOS and more specifically Tinyme based on PClinuxOS might be a good choice for you... the desktop won't be a spartan as DSL but then it *might* be a bit hard on resources... the live cd can tell you more about that as you can use it without installing first.

A fast way to find whats out there that might be suitable would be to surf on over to DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. where you'll find all the latest release news, links to downloads and on and on......

Eh.... I forgot about another nice small one, Knoppix. Mind you, being fluent in German might come in handy, at least it used to back when I played with it, but that was some time ago.

Regards

Christian

Originally Posted by Ben325e

I'd throw Damn Small Linux on there, personally.

+1

I've been using it off and on for years now. A very reliable little OS.

Considering the OP is a newbie when it comes to linux, I'd recommend ubuntu - easy to use, easy to install, does everything he wants..
AND has a good support network for if/when he runs into trouble

As keljian said Ubuntu is nice and easy..

You might want to look into Tiny XP to,have'nt used it myself but a friend likes it.It is a stripped down WinXP.