What about trying a more up to date light weight distribution , such as Lubuntu, Peppermint OS One, or Linux Mint 11 L X D E ? Cause they are really light weight, and if you ask me. Then go for either Peppermint OS One, or Linux Mint 11 L X D E, or if you like Google Chrome , then there is always Peppermint Two, or Lubuntu.

ha lulz trust me modern full desktop linux distros will just run dog slow it's the way linux is made and work. you need a light weight linux distros or an os like 98se or Haiku.

EDIT: if it has *buntu in the name screw it it is far from light.

Watt OS
Slitaz
DSL
Puppy
Haiku
98SE
Slax
Minuet

Puppy Linux will be nice on that system. Used to connect to the net for downloads on my Dos machine last time. It has this option to download some applications like Firefox and WINE in it's "ready to download" apllications list. Was using firefox. Not very hard on system resources.

In my previous experience with my P3 450 system with 256MB RAM, SLITAZ grabbed the first place in terms of loading time. It was really fast (relatively).
And it's just 30MB for the ISO, even for the current version.

Oh yeah...and DSL (Damn Small Linux) too. It's a 50MB-only ISO and quite fast in a sub 1GHz system with 256MB RAM.

I just downloaded Feather Linux today. Haven't tried that before.

Kubuntu (debian based) is an option ... use prelink to accelerate programs

i got it on a celeron 2GHz with 512 mb ram and a slow 6gb hdd - and dosbox runs pretty fine ...

greetings

cdoublejj: I call bullshit on your statement about Lubuntu, cause Lubuntu is bloody made for being light weight. And if you do not believe me, then you can fucking check Lubuntu out with videos, or a virtual pc if you prefer. Or just do a fucking dual boot of it. Cause it is NOT bloody unity bollocks UI it uses. the L X D E did wonders for my pretty slow mini pc. And that has about the same if not less ram, than the OP´s machine. So suck the Buntu hate to some where else. To the OP, if you are not fond Ubuntu distros, then you could always try Sabayon L X D E version. And there are actually quite a few distros, that uses L X D E as their light weight variant.

ncmark wrote:

I am curious - does anyone have any experience with PCLinux? I am running it on an old P3 1100 MHz.
I'm running the 2009 version.
It's *not* as fast as win98 - I had to max out the RAM to 768 Mb to get any reasonable performance. It also helped a lot when I switched to 7200 RPM DMA 66 hard drive...............

If you didn't set up a swap partition, most Linux distributions are going to grind to a screeching halt sooner or later, even if you add more RAM.

(Always bothered me, that requirement.)

never experienced that. I run linux on my primary system without swap for over 5 years now.

Huh. How much RAM do you have?

1.7 Gb or so.

(2 gb with shared video memory)

although I did it before this machine as well on a 512 mb machine.

Also try ConnochaetOS (previously Deli Linux). - A smooth experience in my K62-500 with 512MB PC100 SDRAM.

Slackware is probably your best bet. Don't know how long since (or if ever) you used Slackware, but it's my favorite and system requirements have not gone up much over the years.

Current minimum CPU is a 486, several gigs of disk space depending on what you install, includes only the basics (GNOME not included anymore), but all packages included are the most recent stable versions.

The only problem in terms of speed I would think would be the need to compile "the extras" (though you can get "SlackBuild" scripts at http://www.slackbuilds.org which makes the whole thing automated) . KDE would definitely be slow, but you can still use XFCE et al., or just the console.

XFCE uses more memory than L X D E, which is the one I mentioned. But hey Linux land is a lot of flavours 😀 and if one persons likes one thing better, then no worries about that 😀 so redblade7 peace, we are still penguin brothers 😀

WolverineDK wrote:

XFCE uses more memory than L X D E

Never used L X D E. Doesn't seem to be included with Slackware (latest stable version is v13.37). Have to check it out next time I boot into Linux.

redblade7 wrote:

WolverineDK wrote:

XFCE uses more memory than L X D E

Never used L X D E. Doesn't seem to be included with Slackware (latest stable version is v13.37). Have to check it out next time I boot into Linux.

Nope, but it can after all be downloaded and installed 😀

L X D E is awesome. 😁 Definitely my fav GUI for Linux.

Thanks for all the feedback here. I wasn't really looking for advice, just trying to start a general discussion. I actually like PCLinux, I have had better luck with it than any other version I've ever tried. Everything actually works - internet, sound. etc...

My favorite gui for linux is QVWM but too bad that was abandoned early on.

ncmark wrote:

Thanks for all the feedback here. I wasn't really looking for advice, just trying to start a general discussion. I actually like PCLinux, I have had better luck with it than any other version I've ever tried. Everything actually works - internet, sound. etc...

So, do you in fact have a swap partition?

Yes - it set up a swap partition when it installed.

I think one of the reasons it was so slow initially was I had it installed on and old 5400 RPM DMA 33 drive. When I changed it to a newer 7200 RPM DMA 66 drive I noticed a BIG difference (and 768 MB of RAM helps a lot too)