Can I Run Linux On My Old Pc?

[Jonne]

I have an old portable 486, with 16MB Ram, and a HD of about 1GB. I was wondering if i could run linux on it, because i would like to get to know the OS. What version of Linux should I get and where can i get it? Will i be able to connect it to the rest of my home network?

[shn]

Originally posted by Jonne@14 August 2003 - 01:30
I have an old portable 486, with 16MB Ram, and a HD of about 1GB. I was wondering if i could run linux on it, because i would like to get to know the OS. What version of Linux should I get and where can i get it? Will i be able to connect it to the rest of my home network?

Youd be better off running dos or windows 3.1 on that thing.

Tis true the saying, 'Linux runs on "almost" anything"

But take it from an experienced linux user like myself , 16 megs of ram aint gonnna cut it!

And even if you did increase the ram on that, youd be better off not installing a gui and just using it in text mode which can be a lot of fun if you liike that and know what your doing. But in order to experience the full potential of lany distro of linux in this day and age youll want to have a graphical user interface and X server (gui) is gonna use about 60 percent of your ram in all its brilliance.

Why do people think that linux is only useful on old less capable pc's?

Its actually the other way around. Analogy--->>> You woudnt buy a mercedes or any other luxury car and not have leather seats or the best interior money can buy.......would you?

[4play]

i would go with any recent distro and just install some of the smaller gui's.

im guessing kde and gnome are too much for that machine.

[Jonne]

right now it runs win95. where can i find a small gui? and what's a distro?
sorry about the dumb questions, i don't know a lot about Linux...

[shn]

Originally posted by Jonne@14 August 2003 - 01:52
right now it runs win95. where can i find a small gui? and what's a distro?
sorry about the dumb questions, i don't know a lot about Linux...

There are some window managers that dont require as many resources as gnome and kde like icvm and windowmaker. But in this situation it really doesnt matter because its not the window managers or desktop enviorments thats going to be a problem. Its the amount of physical memory that the X server needs to even run any gui or desktop at all.

And there is only one X server. There is no substitute. Without x you cant run any type of gui at all. Go to http://xfree86.org/ it will tell you whats needed to run x.

And a distro is simply a linux kernel with lots of packages (software--free software) bundled into a distribution so that you can just sit back and install all the packages you want without downloading rpms one by one or untarring files one at a time and installing them manually.

http://linuxiso.org

But Im telling you now, save yourself the headache, time, effort, and bandwidth because its not gonna be able to run the x server on 16 megs of ram...........sorry.