Which version for 128 mb ram?

[AlbertP]

If your processor is a Pentium I (often just named 'Pentium' without II, III, 4 or M), or an AMD K5/6, you might need a '486' distro, like AntiX' 486 version.

[lmintnewb]

One I know could handle it. Provided you can get it to install ( such as using nunol's adding a swap before installing tech. At least he's the 1st person I saw mentioning that approach on the boards.) Might even install w/o having to do that. Cause it's specifically intended for low resource systems. Vector linux light 6.0, on my comp at boot up and idle uses 43mbs/ram.

It'd be the one I'd go with. My comp has 512mbs/ram. Which is considered low by today's standards. So why I've gotten so interested in lighter weight distro's. AntiX 11, could probably also do it (65-70mbs/ram at idle on my box). Though with any of the popular full browsers running. Think it'd be furiously using the swap and laggy on a box with 128/mbs ram.( antix, might even flop out with a brower running.) VL 6.0 and Antix are both full featured linuxy goodness.

Another that's supposed to be really good on system resources while still being really nice. CTKarch, haven't tried that one myself though. Don't feel like adding another distro atm. But seen things to suggest it could maybe be even lighter than VL light, shrugs.( edit: With a tad of tweaking anyway). Which would be friggin amazing if it is. But don't quote me on that. Know it's supposed to be super light regardless.

One thing you're up against n no matter which distro you want to go with. You might consider using a low resource web browser. Midori was the best I found for that. Though midori in earlier versions also found to be buggy. That may've been sorted out in the newer versions recently released for it. Don't know for sure about that though. With 128mbs/ram, thinking use of a web browser is where you're likely to get sunk otherwise.

You might have to get good at logging out n shutting off your GUI, when you do web browsing. Then learn to fire up your web browser in CLI ( command line ) Restart your gui, when you're done. Pain in the butt, with 128mbs going to have to get a bit crafty if you want a good computing experience on it.

Summin else that occurs that could really improve a persons experience with a low resource box. Adjust your OS's swappiness value. Just google vm.swappiness=10 to get the general idea. I mean once you get one you like installed. With the default value of 60 which seems to be the standard most distro's come set at. On a 128mbs/ram system, it'd be constantly using the swap and doing disk writes at that value setting. No need for that if there's still available RAM free. Harder on hardware n has to make things more sluggish. Swap shouldn't kick in until you've topped out the boxes RAM n it's actually needed.

Long story short ... I'd say look at Vector Linux light and CTKarch. Won't really know until ya try. Wouldn't be surprised if the Magic Mint team have releases that could be made to work on it. Oddly haven't really tried Mint's low resource stuff. So can't offer opinions on them atm. Guessing there would be mucho tweaking and trimming + other obstacles you'd have to sort out if your heart is set on summin Minty with only 128mbs/ram though.

Note: To Mint HQ, might not be a bad idea for you gals/guys to apply your dev talents to coming out with some versions for old, neglected hardware. Might help improve Mint's adoption. Are plenty of people in the world with oldish hardware ... n low system specs. Just a obs ... nobody makes linux as Minty as the people behind Linux Mint.

[chiefjim]

How about if that were 256? That scenario came my way this past week when a coworker presented me with his Toshiba A15-S129 laptop. Win XP had quit. Offered it to me to "do some magic" before committing it to be a door stop.

None of my tools could get XP to work. Tried multiple Linux distros but all came up short until I tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Granted not Mint but a near cousin.

Because of the lowered system requirements it worked fine. Gave it back today to one very astonished owner. Had to inform him that the severely crippled ram seriously affected what the computer could do. Before the day was over he was asking if Linux would be different on his mainstream computer.

I sense another convert.

[lmintnewb]

Think with 256 there are a ton that could all run reasonably well. That's about the bottom limit I'd say would be a comfortable computing experience for people. W/o having to tweak and make some adjustments. VL light 6.0 would zip along just fine on a box w 256/ram. As mentioned ... along with a ton of others available. Not even going to mess around posting em. What would be the point ?

Case here ... being someone with 128. Stuff that could do it no doubt. Vector would be the one I'd recommend to people with ultra-low specs. Of course in terms of anything ram ... 256 is going to be mucho better than 128, shrugs. Good work on the convert though. Linux devs of the world worked hard to share what they've done. Think it's only right when people try to promote their effort n share it with others.

Just more of my babblings. Sorry bout the book I posted above this, lol.

[nunol]

There is a thread about a PIII with 256MB of RAM: viewtopic.php?f=151&t=54194

Mint 10 LXDE, Mint XFCE and Mint 9 Fluxbox LTS are nice Mint editions for that computer.

[AlbertP]

Yes, but with 128MB I'd recommend putting more RAM into the box, or using a lighter distro like AntiX or Puppy.

[Troken]

Its not worth the trouble with the 128 mb ram computer I own, it's very expensive with a new old memory ("new old", now thats an oxymoron, right?). I think I better let it be till I decide what to do with it. The distro that ran smoothest was Puppy, which I don't fancy much, and Rox was really not for me.

[lmintnewb]

Out of interest ( n after typing a friggin bk above.) Would be curious as to which you've tried on it so far ? N what the outcomes were, what did you manage to actually install to h disk ? Which did you have to abort for one reason or another ... etc ?

Just curiousity.

[AlbertP]

Indeed Troken, it may be hard to get SDRAM's now that every computer uses DDR2/3. But I know someone who has a box full of them, so if you live near me (the Netherlands) I could send you some of them.

[nunol]

The distro that ran smoothest was Puppy, which I don't fancy much, and Rox was really not for me.

It's hard for a current distro to be faster than Puppy but you can install Arch or Debian CLI and then install only what you need, a WM, a browser, a music player, a PDF reader, etc. Chose your applications carefully, keep it simple.

There are plenty of Puppy derivatives, maybe there is one that you like better than Puppy standard: http://pupweb.org/wikka/CategoryDerivative

[jeffreyC]

You could try the new antiX 11 which comes with Thunar file manager.
It is made for older computers with low RAM.

[lmintnewb]

As mentioned, antiX ... while it's feather light and would work well enough on 256mbs imo. Would almost certainly run like deep fried s**t on a system with 128, once a decent quality browser got started ... Problems n more problems. No word from the OP about what they've even tried on it yet. Oh well ... not my system or concern, shrugs. Guess OP's decided to use it as a coaster instead. It will certainly run a cup of coffee well enough.

[shengchieh]

mini pinguy recently came out. It has all the tweaks (jave, flash, etc), just little software which is easy to add in via synaptic package manager or software
manager.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pinguy- ... _OS_11.04/

Linux mint is like ubuntu on steroid. Pinguy is like Linux mint on steroid (at least that's what I heard).

Sheng-Chieh

[Troken]

mini pinguy recently came out. ...

Even though it sure looks interesting, don't you think this was a little off topic?

[shengchieh]

At first I didn't think so. I know people got mini pinguy running for 384 MB. I, myself, have been thinking about running on this 256MB dinosaur.
Thinking about it, I think you are correct, 128MB is alittle low. For him, it's trouble-matic trying to think of an user-friendly distro and yet low
RAM. In the past, I was able to run MiniMe, a stripped down version of PCLinuxOS which uses bloated KDE. It was fairly snappy on this 256MB dinosaur.

For his case, antiX or crunchbang is probably the best deal.

Sheng-Chieh