OT: PentiumMMX, 100mb RAM - recommended dist?

[Recusant]

Hi all,

I know this is really not in the Mint area what with such limited specs, but i've found the Mint community so helpful to date that i thought i'd ask this question here before hunting the internets for distributions that might work.

It doesn't boot off USB, but it does have USB. So i'll need to make CD (not DVD) to boot it. I'd rather not create too many coasters looking at the huge number of options.

The user of the laptop is not tech savvy, has never heard of Linux, but has limited needs from this device so should be easily satisfied. I'd prefer it if the OS looked least foreign to the Windows user to avoid scaring him unnecessarily The laptop in question is intended to be set up to simply attach to a Windows network and to display PowerPoint presentations. I presume LibreOffice will be able to do that but which OS can i use for such an ancient piece of kit? It's only got 3gb HDD too.

Thanks in advance

[exploder]

antiX should run fine on that hardware.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=antix

Edit: The description mentions a 64 MB PII 266 system but it also says 128 MB of RAM recommended. I think it would work. You could ask on the antiX forum just to be sure.

[wayne128]

You can consider also another small distros, SliTaz.

Here I captured an image showing installed version 4.0 , open with htop, package manager and showing it is running on 76MB.
If I just run openbox and htop, it is running aroung 60MB-67MB.

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/7122/5d6o.png

[swiftlinuxcreator]

Wow, this computer is ancient! Given the Pentium MMX, 100 MB of memory, and a 3 GB hard drive, I'm guessing that this computer originally came with Windows 95 or 98.

antiX Linux and Puppy Linux are great lightweight distros, but even this computer may have difficulty with them. As mentioned by a previous poster, SliTaz is another distro to try.

But if antiX, Puppy, and SliTaz are too heavy, I recommend Damn Small Linux or TinyCore.

Another option to consider is upgrading to a newer computer. Given my experience with getting rid of old desktop computers, you should be able to procure for free a machine that is "only" 10 years old. Puppy Linux and antiX Linux will work very well on such a computer.

[swiftlinuxcreator]

A budget of $50 should be enough to acquire a desktop computer that is 4 to 5 years old. Such a computer should be fast enough for Ubuntu (if you don't mind Unity) or derivatives like Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint Main Edition, etc. Linux Mint Debian Edition (which bypasses the heavy Ubuntu overhead) will be even faster.

[rokytnji]

Just another way of thinking

http://kolibrios.org/en/

SystemRequirements
Jump to: navigation, search

a pentium compatible processor (486/386 will not work!)
at least 8 Mb of ram (you will want more to run applications, have a background etc), night build - at least 6 Mb of ram
a medium to boot from (floppy/cd-rom/harddisk/usb/network)
a VESA compatible graphics card (however, VGA modes are also supported)

That's all you need to get started!

[url=http://oi44.tinypic.com/1t3fk7.jpg]I have Blue Flops running on this[/url]. A P66, 12MB ram, Floppy only, Netbook. Done mostly as a learning exercise. I have better
gear than that. It might become a museum piece eventually. Still runs.

[Recusant]

Thanks guys. These guys want to keep this laptop more because they hate the idea of throwing out stuff that works, no matter the age. It's not about the money. I'll try Anti-X, with LibreOffice Impress and if it's too slow or doesn't work then i'll just tell him "it's just too old". Heh, he's probably got another, less ancient laptop around under all this mess. You should see this study. 3 PCs (one reasonable, runs XP, 2 barely run XP, 14" LCD on one, that laptop, 4 printers junk everywhere. 5.25" floppies, probably 20 headphones and usb sticks down to 64mb. Funny thing is, they only use one of the PCs, but 3 are hooked up and work. They're kinda hoarders.

Cheers.

[Recusant]

Actually, while i'm here - is there a lightweight Office PowerPoint compatible reader? I haven't yet tried, but LibreOffice might be a bit heavy. Thanks.

[Lingula]

PowerPoint reader through wine works well on a single monitor or if you make your projector the primary monitor.

Microsoft doesn't play well with others, so none of the FOSS solutions will consistently display all PowerPoint presentations properly.

[rokytnji]

You only get one per computer free and you have to give them your email address to download a .deb file. Also to get your activation key.

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofl_en.htm

It is lighter than libreoffice and can even run in Puppy Linux

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SoftMakerOffice

SoftMaker Presentations is a presentation program developed by SoftMaker and compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint. It is part of the SoftMaker Office productivity suite. It is a commercial software, but some older versions were also released as freeware (SoftMaker Office 2008).[4]

SoftMaker Presentations 2008 and 2010 is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Windows CE, and Pocket PCs (Windows Mobile handheld devices). A version for Google Android is also available.

The application reads and writes Microsoft PowerPoint's .ppt, .pps, and .pptx files.

[wayne128]

You only get one per computer free and you have to give them your email address to download a .deb file. Also to get your activation key.

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofl_en.htm

It is lighter than libreoffice and can even run in Puppy Linux

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SoftMakerOffice

rokytnji, Thank you very much for the info on Softmaker.
I wonder if that is really free for Linux OS ? and Windows OS?

[wayne128]

You only get one per computer free and you have to give them your email address to download a .deb file. Also to get your activation key.

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofl_en.htm

It is lighter than libreoffice and can even run in Puppy Linux

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SoftMakerOffice

rokytnji, Thank you very much for the info on Softmaker.
I wonder if that is really free for Linux OS ? and Windows OS?

[rokytnji]

I wonder if that is really free for Linux OS

I installed it on one partition of AntiX on a base iso install that came without libreoffice and it was free.

Windows, I have no clue.