Linux distros for older hardware

linux.com — Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. Feb 24, 2006 View in Crawl 4

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letmereplynow Feb 24, 2006

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hmm this is easyno digg

babbling Feb 24, 2006

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One of the big mistakes of the free software community is the term "distro".Each Linux "distro" should really be referred to as a separate operating system. That's what they are. Different operating systems that share mutually compatible programs.

foshizol Feb 24, 2006

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I run Ubuntu on my old Pentium 700 mhz Sony Vaio with 256 of ram. It works great, but I would eventually like to increase the ram to 512 just for that extra boost. Ubuntu recongnized everything on my laptop. What's really cool about the older Sony Vaios (at least the FX series) they came with built in NICS. I bought this laptop brand new at the time most laptops still didn't have built in NICs. The only problem I have with it is when I install a new distro I have to make sure I turn off ACPI otherwise the install just stops.

Closed Account Feb 24, 2006

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"I am disapointed not one of the BSD's was listed."Did anyone read the last page?"Of course, Linux isn't the only operating system that runs well on older hardware. The BSD variants -- FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly, and PC-BSD -- all have similar hardware requirements to Linux. If you prefer to run a BSD flavor, you shouldn't have any problem finding a BSD that fits your needs."*End minirant*- Ben