Linux on a 486

[linuxguy853]

hey all I want to start using linu and I have a 486 with 12mb. ram and 100mb. hard drive I also have a cdrom drive.
I was wondering what linux I can put on it and from where

thanx

[X_console]

I'd go with Slackware. You'll need to go with the expert install and install only packages that you'll seriously need. I've been able to install Slackware with a bit of extra stuff to fill up only about ~150MB hard drive.

In short, don't expect to use this machine as a desktop machine. It'll make a good firewall and router for a home LAN.

[outlander78]

Why not install DOS instead? You'll have to cripple Linux to get it to work on such a small drive - an OS without anything else isn't really useful, more like a drill without bits.

[X_console]

That's not really true. DOS can't really do anything, not even act as a firewall. A barebones Linux install can still do NAT and packet filtering, and provide DHCP to a LAN.

Again, it depends on what purpose this machine is to serve. If you're going to use it as a firewall, you could also just use floppyfw, which is Linux on a 1.4MB floppy that provides packet filtering and NAT.

[drmbb]

I used to run http://tiny.seul.org/en/ on an old 486Sx laptop with 8Mb RAM and an 80Mb HD, before I got rid of it. It worked fine as a CLI install.

You could also check out the specialty distros listed at http://www.linux.org/dist/english.html

Obviously, trying to put X on there is not a good idea, but there are several CLI installs that will work well on that machine (for coding, scripting, firewall, etc). Good Luck.