which linux should i get?

ok, i got this really bad computer from my friend (still trying to find the specs), and i was hoping i could put linux on this. but i have no clue which one i should get. any ideas? im open to anything

ill post the specs of this computer, when i find them (and is windows activation required, or is the registration required?)

 

umm..something tells me running linux on this, wont be worth it. haha. its a cyrix 6x86mx processor, and has 64MB of ram clocked at 166MHz. i was thinking of getting mayb a 256MB stick of ram, but i dont know if its actually worth it.

 

you taking the computer from your friend is worth more than actually using it
lol that thing is a joke

 

While the computer is a joke, I'm currently running Debian on a similar system. A Pentium-166 MMX with 32 megs of RAM. It has somewhere around a 2 GB hard drive if I remember correctly. Works just fine for the minimal tasks I assign it, email server and web and ftp server. That said, I just spent $300 and got an Athlon64-3200 which I am using to replace it.

A system in the 166 Mhz range with 32 or 64 megs of ram is not going to cut it, really, for running any sort of graphical user interface. It's fine for low-end server stuff or for running as a firewall.

 

do u think it would be worth it to put a 256 stick in there?

 

with 95% probability, it will not be able to take a 256 (or indeed a 128) Mb stick

 

You'll likely find it hard to locate a stick of 256MB that works in a computer that old. Even if you can find a stick, there's a VERY good chance the motherboard won't support it. And even if it does, it almost certainly will turn off caching.

So really, it depends on what you are using it for. My 166 Mhz system does just fine as a mail server (including spamassassin mail filtering) processing a hundred or two hundred messages a day as well as serving the occasional web page, etc., with just 32 megs of RAM. Like I said, though, I recently picked up a replacement machine, I just haven't deployed it yet.

So, what are you planning on doing with this system?

 

yeah, if you want something basic for linux, you can get a dell or acer from bestbuy for like $200-$300 that has probably 512MB (I saw an acer with a 15" CRT, 1GB, 200GB, DVD-RW for $250 Ithink at bestbuy)

 

I beg to differ. I ran on a P166 with 64MB of RAM for several years. While this config won't run either of the mainstream desktops, it will run a trimmed down setup. Personally, I ran on a combination of Windowmaker and ROX filer and was quite happy.

 

At the most I could suggest xubuntu. I don't have any personal experience, but the xfce interface is designed to be light for old low end machines. But that thing is so old I still don't know if even that will work. Funny thing, I have a ten year old CTX notebook with an AMD 333 I think and 32MB of RAM with a 2 gig hard drive. It's funny to think about what we've come from.

 

Might consider **** Small Linux?

 

I know that Fedora Core 5 will not install on something that amount of memory, though Fedora Core 3 will.

OpenBox is another possible window manager for an older machine, I actually use OpenBox with Cygwin for a bunch of things when I'm in Windows.

 

There are a lot of 'small' linux distributions you chould try to install...
I installed Tiny Linux ( http://tiny.seul.org/) on 16MB RAM, and it does work.
The laptop's CD drive doesn't work anymore and I just needed a machine
to experiment on, play with unix, test a few things (rather than throwing
the machine which served me so well 10 years ago ).

Have a look here:
http://bengross.com/smallunix.html

 

Take a look at Vector Linux; not only small but also functional and pretty. Should work with 32 Mb, but don't get the SOHO version, that one is bigger.

 

I completely forgot...the mother of all stripped down Linux distros...Slackware.

 

Puppy Linux is another small one.
Personally I'd run Debian with a light DE/Window Manager (Xfce4, perhaps?)