[Ilugc] Qn about linux on old systems
- From: girishvenkatachalam@xxxxxxxxx (Girish Venkatachalam)
- Date: Tue Oct 17 04:51:26 2006
On Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 01:59:59PM -0400, Anoop John wrote:
I would like to install linux on a PIII 500MHz processor with 64MB RAM.
I would like to have a decent (good looking window manager) and would like to
use openoffice on the system.
Will this be possible? If so which distro, which window manager.
I have a machine PII 233 Mhz 128 MB RAM on which I am running FreeBSD 6.0
I have another PIII 350 Mhz 128 MB RAM on which I am running OpenBSD 3.9
I delibrately installed Debian GNU/Linux in the faster machine since I knew
linux too well...
Anyway I have tried installing Debian on the other machines and it installs
without any problem. I have tried installing Gentoo and it failed.
I have previously installed and worked on Debian in a really crappy piece of
hardware, but I don't recollect the configuration.
In fact I never realized that Debian is one of the few distros out there that
simply works on any damn hardware you install...
Certainly not true about other distros though...
As Shakthi said, RAM is key, buy a 64 MB RAM if money is a problem because
unfortunately even though pen drives and other flash memory prices are having a
free fall RAM prices aren't. Moreover there are so many varieties which are so
confusing to my brain.
OpenOffice? It is bloatware, if I were you I wouldn't try running it.
Since your processor is much faster than mine if you add RAM you might get away
with it. But I wouldn't advise using it on a regular basis since you will waste
your time and patience and it is not worth it.
Good looking window manager? I have not tried too many but IMHO the best
looking and most convenient is windowmaker(
http://www.windowmaker.org).
There are several several of them like ratpoison,matchbox and so on.
Avoid KDE. Gnome will work like a charm.
What to talk of the superiority of C vs C++? Gnome is written in C though it
uses OO concepts and it blazing fast.
KDE can be used to squeeze and torture your system if you are into that sort of
thing...
Best,
Girish
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