Distro of choice...

I just picked up an older Compaq (12xl400) on a whim. When I am done modding it, I plan to run Linux on it.

Now on my desktop linux box I run Ubuntu Feisty with full effects and all teh toys (that one has an AMD 3500+ w/ a gig of ram and a Geforce 6600 card).

With this new pup (700mhz w/ 320gb RAM) I know I am limited. I think I will be running Xubuntu, but I have never run Linux on a laptop. Is there a better choice (meaning something that is still lightweiht, but will recognize wifi, suspend, etc... better)?

 

More important would be to find out if there are drivers for the various hardware components. I would go to ubuntuforums.org and see if anybody is running that model. Also try here.

Underneath the hood, Linux is just Linux the distro doesn't matter. It depends on what software you try running on it. That computer should be fine though so long as you don't push it too hard.

I read somewhere that Ubuntu is going to create a distro designed for laptops, but there's nothing stopping you from customizing your install however you like.

 

Thanks. I really have no doubt that it can run (I've run some of today's lighter distros on 300mhz desktops before). My goal is to get it runnign with all of the functions (suspend/hibernate) intact. I could care less if it's slow (it's basically going to be an alarm clock and word processor).

I'll post my results after messinag round with it.

 

This distribution test should help you:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

 

Linux isnt windows A 700mhz processor and 320mb of memory wont hold you back as much as it would in windows Granted running Xubuntu or anything using xcfe will be faster than KDE or Gnome, etc. those desktop managers wont be very much of a slouch. I run Ubuntu with Gnome and Beryl on a 1GHz Celeron and 256mb of RAM decently enough. So your choices in distros arent that limited. You have more of an option than you think

I'd recomend Elive. Its usually very responsive on older machines and doesnt require a lot of work, if any, to get it running.

 

Yeah. Kubuntu or Ubuntu would actually run pretty well on that machine. 320MB of RAM isn't that little, you know. It only is if you run Windows Xubuntu might be a hair faster, but I wouldn't count on it. As long as you didn't mix KDE and Gnome applications, which means both sets of libraries would be loaded into RAM at the same time, you could probably do quite well with it. And since you're already used to how Ubuntu works, it would be an easy thing to get going with. Just remember that the power management may be spotty with an older machine like that.

 

So far it has been a pretty painless (aside from the SLOWness)install. Automatix is running right now (slowly at that).

This thing had no on board network card, so right now I am using a PC card for Ethernet. Once Automatix and the first updates install, I should be good to pop in my wireless card.

So far, so good... Thanks for the help guys.

 

Debian is pretty good and highly customizable.
I just installed it on my inspiron 5000 witj 500Mhz Celeron, 128 MB ram.
I'm using fluxbox as the window manager.
With a xterm window open and top runing, it uses 70-80MB ram, and has 55 processes running
Surprisingly, it even suspends to ram fine, I suspended when xmms was playing some mp3 file, it suspended and on resuming, continued playing the song

 

If you want something a little faster than Xubuntu but still fairly easy to use, try out things like Zenwalk, Vector, and Dream. Arch or Slackware would be even faster, but they can be tough to get into.

 

Thanks for all of the assist guys! I will be testing distros on this machine all day tomorrow

 

Consider SimplyMepis 6.5, really slick distro for people venturing into the linux world. There is a really nice X configure tool(graphical) for both AMD/ATI and Nvidia that makes getting your proper stuff running really well. There is also a really nice custom wireless config program (graphical) to make everything super easy.

On the system in my signature with full beryl glory, GAIM, Firefox with a few tabs,Amorok playing music, and Xchat running, I use right about 210mb ram, 0% swap file, and my CPU is hardly touched(<10% consistently) unless I'm twirling the cube about as fast as I can ..