What is a very low resource free operating system?

Question

I am taking in really old computers and mix-and-matching them to get better used to the hardware before I build my own. I was wondering what would be a good operating system to use on a very low resource computer. I was thinking a Linux distro but I didn't know what the best to use would be. Suggestions?

Answer 1

Some great recommendations - here's mine and it's FREE Open Source!



Puppy Linux. http://www.puppylinux.org/home/overview



Overview:

# Small size, around 93MB! This lends itself to some very useful and unique features;

# 'Live' booting from CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, and other portable media.

# Ability to run entirely from RAM, making it unusually fast and particularly relevant to modern PCs with solid state CF drives as used in Netbooks

# Very low minimum system requirements

# Boot times, well under a minute

# Usability and Compatibility

# Complete range of applications: wordprocessors, spreadsheets, internet browsers, games and image editors. Extra software in the form of dotpets and dotpups. There is a Puppy Software Installer included

# Puppy is easy to use and little technical knowledge is assumed. Hardware is automatically detected. You will often find, whereas on other operating systems you had to install extra driver software to get your particular device functioning, Puppy will succesfully detect and install the driver without prompting.

Answer 2

Ubuntu or Fedora would be good except you said low-resource pc. You don't want feature-rich Ubuntu or Fedora for that. Both are designed with all the bells and whistles a linux distro can have.



you would especially run into problems if your old hardware includes old, low-capacity hard drives. Ubuntu takes up several gigs upon install, Fedora isn't small either. Your old pc's might not be able to run Firefox 3 or even Firefox 2. There's lots of other stuff that you might not be able to run, so it would likely be better to start with what would work and add other stuff later.



Here's a link to some small linux distro's that can either be installed or run from cd. Puppy linux is the most famous of these. It is famousest for being installed on tiny platforms like ipods and cell phones. There are others that are good for desktops, Mandriva is a well-developed name, you could try one of their installs



http://bengross.com/smallunix.html

Answer 3

Puppy or DSL



xubuntu is preferable but only if the machine has sufficient hardware to run it.



Avoid Gnome or KDE- based distros as the desktops will be too much for low-end machines. (the desktop environment is what will use most of your resources)



xfce and similar are good for what you're doing.

Answer 4

I would say that Xubuntu is the best ubuntu for really old computers. It uses the XFCE desktop instead of Gnome or KDE.



If your computer is really, really old (slower than 200 Mhz) then Puppy Linux would be better. Puppy Linux can run on virtually anything.

Answer 5

Most people start designing an OS the same way you should start designing your programs.. with paper and pencil.

Answer 6

k bud do you have more than one use xp put all the memory in the faster one put the hard drives in it also xp will install on 2 drives and run if one isnt enough space i have done it then set paging file fairly large at like 700 to 800 and it will run and be compatible with everything

Answer 7

Use Ubuntu or Fedora. I use Fedora mainly as a server but also for media and I love it.

Answer 8

DSL linux.



Its 49Mb, if you dont want to download something large. But as a server use CentOS, or if yo ujust want a OS to play with get Fedora. Ubuantu is Sh!t.

Answer 9

debian. knopix.