Linux for an older computer

[Jfielding]

What distro is recommended for installs on older computers? ie: 386, 486 series. I have read the posts and seems some like Mandrake, some like Redhat, some like Suse, etc, etc, I really don't care except that I am brand spanking new to the world of Linux.

Got an old paperweight and want to play with Linux to see if new life can be had. Has a 2Gig hd, 486SX (remember those), I think the modem is 2400BPS (I obviously have not used it for net work lately). At this point if I remember I've got is setup with Dox 6.2 and Win 3.1 but I could consider a complete reformat if needed.

Thanks in advance

:D

[FantomLord]

I was told caldera 2.4 works well with a 486
and redhat 4.2 works also.You can get the caldera one at www.caldera.com (http://www.caldera.com) and I think you can the redhat at their ftp site

[MandK_10]

I use RedHat 6.2 on a P90. It is a little slow but not bad.
Mandrake 8.0 will be awefully slow.
I have heard of people setting up slackware or debian on older systems because they are very configurable and can strip out any unneeded junk more readily with them than other distros (this is not necessarily easy though).

Just stay away from the latest greatest GUI's (Gnome, KDE) because they will slow your system down. I have an AMD K6-2 550 with 448Meg of ram and the latest Gnome with Nautilus runs slow on it.

Also, this would be a great machine to work on your CLI (command line interpreter skills). If you like Dos OK you will love the CLI, more powerfull than you can imagine.

If you have Broadband access to the internet, or know somebody who does, try downloading a few distros and trying them out.

Mike

[Gaccm]

I would suggest any distro, BUT, you are NOT going to be able to use the graphical interface (unless you like to wait), so if you go with the more popular distro, try to get an older one. Also, Mandrake and Turbolinux wont work for you, they require at least a Pentium. I would suggest redhat 6.2, or debian, but since you said you are new to linux, dont use debian.

[danrees]

If you want to try running a window manager, fvwm2 is worth a try. I believe it is installed as default on older Redhat distros, but most recent distributions include it on their installation CDs.

[ryan00002]

I use slackware 8.0 with p75, 24 megs of ram. though i installed xwindows i don't use it much because it is way too slow to be productive.

[Jfielding]

Thank you everyone for your comments. :)