I have an old laptop (133Mhz, 64MB Ram), which I like to call my communications laptop. At any given moment, I run AIM, YIM, MSN, ICQ, Outlook Express, and 2 IE windows on it. Anyways, it runs sluggish. I really wanted to experiment with Linux, so I put 2 and 2 together, and maybe linux would work well on this laptop. I just don't know what distro would work well with that crappy config. Some help?

Try DamnSmallLinux or one of those tiny installs. Use GAIM so all your IM clients are together and tabbed, then use Mozilla so you can use tabs for windows and keep the mail client in the same process. This would basically mean you're running an OS with two heavy programs, rather than an OS with 7 programs, in a sense.

That's what I planned to do. But you mentioned "one of those tiny installs". I don't know any of them! That's why I asked! Looking up DamnSmallLinux.

Wow DamnSmall Linux is cool! Do you have to wipe Windows to use it straight off of the CD? I wanna try it before installing.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-hd-install.html read the very beginning. ;)

I keep getting these free Linux distro's in some pc mags. The ones you can just run from cd.. I tried the out pretty sweet... latest was Morphix

Originally posted by DanX
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-hd-install.html read the very beginning. ;)

Thats only to do an HD install, I meant to run it straight of CD. I think it is possible, as far as I can see.

Go for it, then!

Holy crap... I'm running Linux. Cool.

Another (http://www.vectorlinux.com/index.php?menu=1) small distro.

Wow... this is just weird... posting on WHT from a linux browser.... umm... it's called Dillo. I dunno... I don't really like this... seems to run slow on my PC. At least scrolling is slow... maybe I'm not doing something right. Oh well, not like I installed anything. Hehe. I'll test the AIM stuff.

Originally posted by Xshare
I don't really like this... seems to run slow on my PC.


All of the Live CD distros run a little laggy, espcially if you have an older [slower] cdrom drive. If it was installed in the HD it would probably go a bit faster, although with that hardware you never know.

Originally posted by Xshare
Holy crap... I'm running Linux. Cool.

Go to the light my friend! :D

Its running a bit slow, because its of the CD...

I think you should try knoppix, it runs of the CD as well... but if you do a hard drive install and use at as your OS, its as good as any other distro :)

BTW - you can have linux and windows on your laptop at the same time... all you need is some free space.


www.linuxquestions.org - there's a laptop section there. ;)

Knoppix - I don't meet the system reqs.

Are tehre any other tiny distros? (Dont have to run from CD. I'm doing an HD install later.)

A couple things to keep in mind:
A traditional X install will take between 600 and 800m. I'm not even sure XF86 4.x will run on a slower laptop that well, but it's worth a shot ehh?

A linux (console) can fit on 150-300m, but if you want to start adding driver support, card support, Xfree86 (the linux windowing system), you're going to start adding stuff up quickly.

Depending on the hardware, you might be able to throw mandrake (http://www.mandrakelinux.com) on there. They'll at least be able to tell you how muc space you're going to require for the install. Who knows, eventually you may decide to throw caution to the wind and blow windows out totally. With Wine and other very good software, it's not like you can't run a large majority of Win software on Linux any more.

As soon as I find somethign I like, I plan to throw windows out totally.

www.linuxquestions.org << go here now!

That question has been askd a million times there... a simple search of the posts will give you all the answer you need...

And you don't have to register, If I remember right... ;)

I already registered and posted. :0

Originally posted by Xshare
I already registered and posted. :0


Well, then you should get your answer... if you didn't already. ;)

I got one reply, but not exactly what I was looking for.

Looks like I'll try Vector Linux. I hope it works, but I mean, worst case scenario I reformat and install Win95.

ive heard about some linux distro that runs completely off a floppy
[no gui obviously]
supports basic commands
forgot the name
but its cool stuff