which Linux distro would run on a 486 or a pentium 200 (even with MMX)

[Brian K. Garel]

Lloyd D Budd wrote:

>On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 20:50:33 -0500, Simon Tonekham
><simon_128-PkbjNfxxIARBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>I was just wondering, which linux distro would run on a 486 with 4 to 8MB of
>>RAM with 1GB hard drive or maybe a Pentium 200 (even with MMX technology)
>>with 16MB of RAM and 2GB hard drive. The reason that I'm asking this is that
>>I want to know if older machines could run Linux depending on the distro and
>>can be capable of surfing the internet and doing work processing tasks.
>>    
>>
>Debian is your best bet .  As a general purpose distribution that does
>not leave anyone (any old hardware) behind .  If you are using it for
>limited server tasks then there is likely a specialized Linux distro
>for the hardware and the task .
>
>  
>
>>In
>>my opinion, If I want something substancal for example playing music files,
>>I have to get a bigger system like a pentium 2, 3 or 4. Currently, I have a
>>P4 Computer with 256MB of RDRAM, 30GB Hard Drive (planning to upgrade to 80
>>or 120GB hard drive by the end of the year) and my computer is currently
>>running Windows XP Professional with SP2 ('i'm going to dual boot with
>>Fedora Core 3 by the end of next year, just to try out with Linux. 
>>  
>>What is your suggestion?
>>    
>>
>
>You can try a liveCD today !  -- allows you to run Linux from the
>CD-Rom .  MEPIS seems to be a winner .
>
>  
>
Hi Lloyd,

I have been playing around with distributions for my new laptop...ok 
used laptop which is an IBM ThinkPad 390e (PII/300)  I was working for a 
little while with DSL but after reading your post quoted above and your 
endorsement of MEPIS I decided to check it out...it took me less than 24 
hours to make a decision to blow away the DSL installation.  I don't 
know if you use that distro or not but I wanted you to know that it's 
really great...Super simple install, Picks up EVERY piece of hardware I 
have...I'm sure it even recognized my diswasher at some point....anyway, 
I just wanted to say thanks for mentioning it.

B
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