linux on i486?

[sledge_hmr]

I have been seeing a lot of stuff posted on the web about turning an old 486 into a server. Unfortunately, none have mentioned what distribution is best suited for such a task? What's the general consensus? Will, say, the most recent release of Redhat be not be too advanced for such an old machine?

[Inctoan]

I've run Redhat 7 on a 486/100 with 12 megs of RAM, but I done a text install.So I don't know how the graphical install would go. If you just want basic routing try this site
http://www.coyotelinux.com

[ 04 April 2001: Message edited by: Inctoan ]

[FoBoT]

linux doesnt' really work that way, newer distros don't exclude older boxen the way it works in the winders world

you just have to be careful which "pieces" you include

linux is just the kernel, ie the actual part that runs things

each of the distros throw on lots of other "stuff"

so you should be able to load any distro you want, just be choosy about what parts you load, ie only load the minimum stuff

you didn't say how much ram you have, a 486 might not have as much ram as will "optimize" the performance of your nice little 486 boxen

have fun and have a nice day! :)

[bdg1983]

none have mentioned what distribution is best suited for such a task

Actually the question has been asked here on quite a frequent basis.