Old laptop need a linux distro

**Valenstein** · 10-21-2007, 10:37 AM

I have an old laptop, and here are it's specifications:
CPU: 200MHz Intel Pentium w/MMX
RAM: system: 640K
extended: 97M

I just don't know what does system and extended mean...
So I very need a distro for this laptop, please help me, and tell what could be the best...
(sorry for my english)

**explorer** · 10-22-2007, 10:28 PM

You can get your hands on a distribution that comes as a live cd or dvd. Try it and if it is running good directly from cd than it will definatly run good when installed. your options include ubuntu, knoppix, morphix etc

Originally Posted by Valenstein

I have an old laptop, and here are it's specifications:
CPU: 200MHz Intel Pentium w/MMX
RAM: system: 640K
extended: 97M

I just don't know what does system and extended mean...
So I very need a distro for this laptop, please help me, and tell what could be the best...
(sorry for my english)

**lasanthaindika** · 10-26-2007, 06:59 AM

Various diros at

http://mirrors.kernel.org/

(Try to install only text mode and without x windows)

**ssprem_j** · 11-02-2007, 05:12 PM

Give a try on puppy linux

**debianfoo** · 11-19-2007, 07:28 PM

I have an old laptop, and here are it's specifications:
CPU: 200MHz Intel Pentium w/MMX
RAM: system: 640K
extended: 97M

I had a PIII 333MHz with 64 MB RAM and I could install debian sarge 3.1, I'm pretty sure you could run it. Debian isn't loaded with unnecessary packages, and doesn't take a lot of space, even the last version etch that I'm running on a Thinkpad T40 is only taking:
eniz@thinkdebian:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3 5.1G 753M 4.1G 16% /
tmpfs 253M 0 253M 0% /lib/init/rw
udev 10M 100K 10M 1% /dev
tmpfs 253M 0 253M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda2 649M 35M 582M 6% /boot
/dev/hda6 5.5G 141M 5.1G 3% /shared
/dev/hda5 5.1G 1.8G 3.1G 37% /usr

less than 2 GB (but I've downloaded a few more packages since I installed)
the only problem is that you may find yourself without the Xwindow, and working on the console when you start may be daunting.
you'll need a book to learn to use the console/terminal. It's fun anyway.
then one day you may be able to upgrade to a laptop which allows you to run a more recent system with the graphic this time.
to download debian sarge:
http://www.us.debian.org/releases/sa...ian-installer/
there maybe a page to your country site.
for the distros, take a look to http://distrowatch.com/
or if you have a Windows system more recent you could install linux in dual-boot, that's the best option.

**fossy** · 11-22-2007, 01:15 PM

I suggest Damn Small Linux. You will find all the details of that and other distros on http://distrowatch.com/ where you can also do a search for distros meeting criteria of your choice.