NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › just got a junker computer, but dont know which linux to run
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

just got a junker computer, but dont know which linux to run

post #1 of 8
7/4/06 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 
ok, so my friend just gave me his POS computer, which i must say...is pretty bad. its dual booting windows 98, and XP. haha. anyways, since i got it for free, i was hoping i could run linux on this thing. but i dont know which linux to run, where to get it, how to work it. haha. its pretty much a learning experience.

and i cant really see what the specs are on this comp, but i assure you, its pretty bad. so think of worse case scenario, and see if its possible for me to run linux on this machine

*cyrix 6x86mx processor, and has 64MB of ram clocked at 166MHz. im thinking i wont be able to run anything on this
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 8
7/4/06 at 5:10pm
DSL.. aka Damn Small Linux

Should be worthwhile to try, the entire distribution can fit in the memory on it

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 8
7/4/06 at 5:11pm
How the hell did the run XP on 64 Megs of ram? Does that even install?

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 8
7/4/06 at 6:46pm
seablade, its possible, i had XP installed on my old desktop with 64mb ram and a 233mhz Pentium MMX. I don't remember how i installed it, i think I had to plug the hdd into my other more recent desktop and then trasfer it back to the shitbox, and then install all the drivers and junk.

that said, wow...the computer is indeed ancient. my advice is well...you can try gentoo to try to juice out the maximum speed, but it will take you DAYS to compile stuff, I am gonna venture to say 20 hours of the kernel alone..haha...

but yeah, something along the lines of DSL should do it.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 8
7/4/06 at 7:30pm
Thread Starter 
im trying to think if i wanna put a 256mb stick of ram in there. but still, even if i did, the cpu would be pretty bad.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 8
7/4/06 at 9:20pm
Of course, you could always use a live-CD Knoppix or Ubuntu or various others. Trouble is, CD-based OSs have to be slow.

And the right browser for that would be K-Meleon, EXCEPT K-M is Windows-only. It is a freestanding Moz family browser, Gecko-based, and the darling of the Windows 98se set. Fast and light. You get it from the K-M General Forums website. But it won't help you on Linux. I mention it only for in case you end up playing with Windows; any Windows. (Linux is to FF as FF is to IE. It's as fast as Opera.)

I'm not a great 98 enthusiast myself, but I've known quite a few people who are. If you do keep 98, you can get 98Lite if you look for it; and/or you can get the unofficial service pack for free somewhere. Both are well-loved. 98 will run faster than XP on that computer (by far). XP is a faster OS, but only when it has enough to eat. I'd expect 98 to perform faster than Linux, but with Linux you'd be up to date instead of being unable to run things that 98 can't handle.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 8
7/4/06 at 10:51pm
I think Cyrix uses the generic x86 architecture, so you can use pre-compiled Gentoo Reference Platform (GRP) packages without having to spend days compiling.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 8
7/5/06 at 1:19am
98 Running faster than Linux entierly depends on the setup. Linux is quite capable of stomping 98 on that(Or really any) computer to be perfectly honest, but it really depends on how you have it configured.

And yes Cyrix does use a standard x86 architecture, but I dont believe there are any extensions on it, maybe mmx but that is it if anything. So any 386 based distro will definitly work, newer ones may take a bit of tweaking but could probably be gotten to work. Anything that depends on SSE or the like though will run awfully slow most likely if I remember that processor.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Linux & Other OS's
NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › just got a junker computer, but dont know which linux to run