Which Linux distro for 750MHz Desktop?

I've tried Ubuntu & Xbuntu, but they just aren't fast enough. I used to run a P2 with Red Hat Linux and it was much faster.

What I need to be able to run:
Eclipse (Java IDE)
Firefox (not Opera or one of those other less known browsers... I need Google docs)
Gaim/Pidgin
VLC
OpenArena
Tux Racer =D

That's about it. So, what's the absolute fastest Linux distro that would do this?

p.s. I have an old NVidia card.. not completely sure which one. Can someone tell me how to find out in Ubuntu without opening up the computer? lol

 

to find out what video card you have just go to System->Preferences->Hardware Information. That'll open up a device manager that should tell you what card you have somewhere probably in a drop down list. My video card is under Computer->nforce2 AGP

As far as a fast low requirements distro I don't have any first hand recommendations. There is a "Best Linux distro other than Ubuntu" thread just a little bit down the page in the NBR Linux forum. Try that, or maybe someone else will post a suggestion.

Hope that helps,

Robert

 

I like Gentoo, just install it with the bare minimum and what your needs are and away you go.

 

PuppyLinux is very popular. It runs completely in Ram, but it can be installed to the hard drive as well. 94mb download for main distro is compact.

 

Ok, I've been looking at Gentoo and Arch Linux. Puppy Linux seems like "dsl 2.0." I want a distro designed to be more permanent.

 

Oh, does Arch Linux have good nvidia graphics support? & what apps/package manager does it use?

 

Arch has as good nVidia support as every other distro out there, and they use their own (very easy to use) package manager, pacman. Arch is sort of like a binary version of Gentoo, being that you start with just the bare minimum and build up your system from there. It's very fast and very extensible. You should give it a try, the base install disk is only around 140MB.

 

Running Arch + nVidia here, no problems setting it up.

The setup for Arch is like many of the other "expert" distros (I put that in quotes, because I don't think it's really THAT hard to use), in that once you install the base system, you basically have a bash shell, and the package manager (pacman). Besides pacman, there really aren't any default apps, it's up to you to configure the system, and build it up as you see fit.

Read this Arch wiki page to see what they have to say about it.

 

PuppyLinux is a good rabbit to keep in your bag of tricks, especially with a 750MhZ processor. The lead developer, Barry Kauler, is sort of an engineering legend (even has some old tech books for sale on Amazon), and is very responsive on the forums at murga-linux.com/puppy.

Puppy uses .sfs modules to add functionality, for example, you can use the OpenOffice 2.2 sfs module, and you can boot from a usb key w.o ever burning a CD, if you prep the key originally with syslinux, while initially in windows. Or, you can burn a CD, and use the built in script to prep the USB boot key. Or, you can always boot from a CD, and simply save your preferences to a key. Hard drive installs can be done. Make sure you set your root password, since Puppy is root at all times, with no password, on first use. type "passwd" in the terminal to do this.

Puppy comes ready go (minus java and OpenOffice, which are easy to add) and plays dvd's and music right out of the 94mb download file.

 

It will take forever to compile things (needed for Gentoo) on that machine, so I won' recommend it.

How about Zenwalk? Its Slackware based lightweight distro, using Xfce.

 

How do i know what my "ethernet module" is? http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide

EDIT: nevermind... i figured it out

 

Woohoo! Arch, good choice.