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Best Laptop Linux?

post #1 of 13
3/27/06 at 12:18pm
Thread Starter 
I've had these pair of old Gateway laptops (Pentium 2 300MHZ, 64MB RAM) and I am looking for the best Linux to throw on these things. A few months ago I installed Ubuntu on one of them, and it ran alright, but not too swell. I'm wondering what would be the best Linux to run on here to get a somewhat reasonable speed on it. The obvious other alternatives are Windows 2000 and Windows 98, but I'd like to steer clear of those if possible.
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post #2 of 13
3/27/06 at 12:27pm
I think PCOS linux is a option, (IDK just sounds like it would be) Im thinking maybe a custom built distro maybe? like your own personalised Gentoo.... I dont really know anything about linux its just what I remember (not to well) others have said before.
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post #3 of 13
3/27/06 at 1:05pm
Well with older laptops it is best to go with distributions customized for them(Ubuntu is NOT one of these, though you might try an older version of Ubuntu) to help you maintain the best speed possible. Unfortuantly I dont know any right off hand(I would probably be rolling my own via Gentoo myself) so I can only help you so much, sorry.

Seablade
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post #4 of 13
3/27/06 at 2:20pm
Do not use an older distrobution of any kind if this computer is hooked up to the internet without a firewall. *NIX systems are generally a lot safer than windows, if they are current. If they aren't, they'll get hacked quickly.

Chris
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post #5 of 13
3/27/06 at 2:52pm
It is a peice of cake to upgrade a peice of software on a linux distro, especially ones like Ubuntu or other debian based distros with APT.

Just cause the distro is older doesnt mean that it cant be updated software wise.

Seablade
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post #6 of 13
3/27/06 at 3:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Siul1313
I think PCOS linux is a option, (IDK just sounds like it would be) Im thinking maybe a custom built distro maybe? like your own personalised Gentoo.... I dont really know anything about linux its just what I remember (not to well) others have said before.



I'm partial to PCLinuxOS also. It can be had in vesa,ati,or two nvidia live-cd's.
On my M6811 everything just works with the least tinkering othr than Linspire 5.0 and Xandros (I like them cause they work for me!). Kanotix is sweet to. I'm not sure what the minimum reqs. are though. I think your ram may be light for kde.
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post #7 of 13
3/27/06 at 3:15pm
you can do a server install of ubuntu and then add the windows manager or any slim windows manager. Knoppix is an idea, DSL is also both are CD or live versions but can be installed to the HD as well.
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post #8 of 13
3/27/06 at 4:30pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks. Yeah Ubuntu ran like a pig. Are there any specific suggestions for another Debian varient? I tend to like the ability to use Apt-get. I'm guessing that Fedora 5 is out of the quesiton? Even without KDE/Gnome?

I'm not real worried about the laptop being "secure" I'm just going to be doing some development work, and surfing the net for a few minutes at a time. That's not a real main concern.
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post #9 of 13
3/27/06 at 5:23pm
I have heard good things about Damn Small Linux recently for this type of project.

Seablade
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post #10 of 13
3/28/06 at 12:20pm
Thread Starter 
Right now I'm running Damn Small Linux off the LiveCD and it seems to be working well.
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post #11 of 13
3/28/06 at 3:14pm
I tried DSL and thought it was just too stripped down, very little functionality. Of course, that was when I was fairly new to Linux, I should take another look at it now.

Anyway, I had a similar machine once, and installed an old version of Vector Linux, a Slackware derivative that's easy to use. Worked super well, slightly faster than Win98, and very stable. I don't remember whether apt-get was part of that, I know the modern version of Vector that I'm using on my desktop has it built in.
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post #12 of 13
3/29/06 at 3:42pm
DSL is a debian based distro, so apt is availiable and expanded it should be a peice of cake I believe.

Seablade
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post #13 of 13
5/2/06 at 6:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bKT
Pentium 2 300MHZ, 64MB RAM

The obvious other alternatives are Windows 2000 and . . .

Win2k will run like a very fat pig, if it even runs at all on that hardware. The laptop would be nice as a server.

Sorry, I have no suggestions for a light weight Linux distro to suggest.
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