New Linux Convert - Distro for Pentium II 200 Mhz

[AljoshaNL]

Hello,

My classmate has to install an old computer for home/desktop use and python programming (nothing professional). He knows about linux and already runned Knoppix on a relatively new PC.

Unfortunately, the PC that has to be installed is very old (Pentium II 200 Mhz). What would be a good distro for a computer such old? It has to be running reasonably fast but also needs (at least) python 2.4.2 and OpenOffice 2.0.

By the way, I did the Linux Distribution chooser. It said Madriva. It's for i538. Isn't that too new for an Pentium II?

Any help would be appreciated.
Aljosah

[Lovechild]

How much ram does that thing have?

I've recently deployed Ubuntu with great success on slow machines, what really mattered was the amount of ram.

He might want the XUbuntu version though or something cooked up with fluxbox in a more custom set up to conserve ressources.

[AljoshaNL]

Sorry!
32 MB
Is that enough?
Oh BTW: he hasn't got a internet connection so far

[trickster]

I agree with Lovechild. Try Ubuntu with Fluxbox or perhaps Debian. Or Slackware with TWM or Fluxbox.

[Lovechild]

[quote author=AljoshaNL link=board=13;threadid=10786;start=0#msg96764 date=1131018058]
Sorry!
32 MB
Is that enough?
Oh BTW: he hasn't got a internet connection so far
[/quote]

I assume it's edo-ram based on the machine type, if it takes upgrades you can find some on ebay or if you pay for shipping I have a bunch lying around.

32 megs just isn't enough to use OpenOffice, maybe you can make AbiWord (the superior word processor btw.) run if you beg and plead it, but no way will OpenOffice run on that.

Since he has no internet you'll need something that has all the packages he needs out of the box or easy access to a source of downloads. Debian looks nice but it's not up to date with OpenOffice, maybe you can make SuSE 10 install in text mode and settle for a minimal install using fluxbox or a similar low impact environment.

*edit*

I think maybe damn small Linux is for him

[AljoshaNL]

Wow, thanks for the abiword sugestion! Just apt-getted it, it looks even nicer than OOo writer! Are there any leight-weight WM's/desktops on the Ubuntu CD?
I'll also try DSL...

thanks for the help

[mojo jojo]

xubuntu has xfce as its desktop and works great on old pcs

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu

[Compunuts]

I also have some 32 or 16 MB sticks of EDO RAMs laying around and you can have them for the shipping. The difference with Lovechild's offer is I will be shipping from US.

Other than that, your system will do find with light weight DEs such as Fluxbox, IceWM or even xfce. You might also want to look at either Ubuntu or Debian. Fedora might be a little too overweight for that kind of machine. And many are correct that Oo.o just won't run on that kind of hardware.

[AljoshaNL]

Hey!

First we found some EDO-RAM lying around, and we plugged it in. Now its about 90 MB of ram.

We tried almost every distribution sins Friday, without succes for now. We got different problems every time:
SuSE 9.1: Can't mount VFS on unknows block (after we booted the CD)
CollegeLinux (OBI-WAN): error during package install, if we skip a package the same happens to the following one
Debian: It needs internet connection during the install
DSL: Complaining about blocks after GRUB-install
Ubuntu: Problems (don't know which one right now, just to let you see we tried it)

Fortunately, he isn't someone to give linux up and re-install Windoos

Anybody knows a distro that might work?

Aljosha

[mojo jojo]

what hard drive manufacturer (sp?) is it. cause you can download a utility cd from there website and run a low level format. and I have found doing that get rid of error like what you got.