Who else is running linux on Super old pc's??

G25r8cer

G25r8cer

Active Member
Well I just recently received a super old Compaq pc for free from my dad. It had windows 98 installed so hooking it up to internet would do me no good because literally no websites are compat with IE6 anymore. So, I was thinking about installing XP pro on it but, it would be almost impossible to find drivers for everything. Then, I was thinking a bit more about what to do with it and, finally it hit me "Install or run live Linux cd". Duh, why didnt I think of that first? So, im just wondering if anyone else is running linux out there on their SUPER old pc's. So post the specs of the pc and what linux your running.

Here's the specs of mine

- Puppy Linux (live cd for now)
- 128mb ram
- AMD K6 @ 395mhz
- 14gb IDE hdd
- Floppy drive
- Standard cd/dvd read drive

Also, for some reason I cant get audio working on Puppy. Anyone have an idea? I also, first tried DSL (Damn Small Linux) but, I prefer the Puppy appearance and theme. But, DSL does seem to work better on this old pc.
 
Sure that isn't a 13 or 16gb hard drive? That would more a more typically seen drive size at the time those were out.

Linux is essentially the expanded open source UNIX platform going back before even those were out. For board along with sound drivers you may have to browse some Linux forums especially on an old boat anchor like that. Someone must have a link for a site still carrying the drivers needed.
 
^^ I am fairly sure ubuntu takes more ram than what I have. If I can remember the live cd requires 256mb of ram. Plus, I imagine that if it did work it would be really slow.
 
older versions should run just fine though. whats stopping you from identifying the RAM speed in the old system and asking around for free old ram (from people like me :) )
 
SUSe, ubuntu, Puppy, Zenwalk, Mandriva, etc. will all run due to Linux being far less bloated up when compared to Windows. The bulk of the support seen at this time however is mainly for the newer hardwares that have come out since.

For the latest 8.04 release of ubuntu that now sees a design on the desktop instead of the usual solid color for the background. XP would run like a turtle due to only seeing 128mb of memory while a fairly recent release for a small distro shouldn't be any real problem.

WD meanwhile saw the 13gb while Maxtor saw the 16gb drives at the time. The 16gb Maxtors were known to be rather brittle and one description heard was "fly apart"!
 
On any system that old you can practically choose the Linux "flavor of the month" and still see good results as long as you can locate the drivers needed. Since that's a model that's been out for several years now someone will probably know where you can get the drivers you need.
 
PC eye said:
SUSe, ubuntu, Puppy, Zenwalk, Mandriva, etc. will all run due to Linux being far less bloated up when compared to Windows. The bulk of the support seen at this time however is mainly for the newer hardwares that have come out since.

For the latest 8.04 release of ubuntu that now sees a design on the desktop instead of the usual solid color for the background. XP would run like a turtle due to only seeing 128mb of memory while a fairly recent release for a small distro shouldn't be any real problem.

WD meanwhile saw the 13gb while Maxtor saw the 16gb drives at the time. The 16gb Maxtors were known to be rather brittle and one description heard was "fly apart"!
Click to expand...

Yeah XP would have ran like a dog. It would have been really slow.
 
I had Ubuntu running on an old system and it worked alright, I'm going to try puppy linux now.

Best Regards,
Francisco
 
i believe that you can easily download older ubuntu versions, which were still fairly new (2003ish) but require alot less ram/cpu. the newer live cds need 386mb ram, and 256mb to run efficiently when installed, but you could find that older ubuntu versions will work, and still have support
 
True but, for now Puppy is working fine. I am also receiving another Super old pc soon. It's my mom's bf's old pc. I cant remember the exact specs on it but, it has a 13gb hdd, 900ish mhz proc, and 64mb ram. So that machine I will most likely be running DSL on. Did you know DSL's min ram requirment is 8mb??
 
Im running it on an Athlon XP 3000+ - 1GB RAM - 80GB IDE HDD - GeForce MX400 Integrated. Sure its not ultra low end, but its low enough :p
 
A small distro like Puppy is far from any system hog. In fact some of the older small distros only need 4mb of memory to begin with.

Essentially Windows requires the larger increments there when you look at 98 needing 16mb, ME needing a bit more, and then XP seeing a 128mb minimum rec. The Red Hat server distros like Fedora, Mandriva, and other large distros will see a need for 128 or 256mb while XP and Vista seem to fare well with 2gb installed.
 
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