Puppy on a 10 euro PC (32 Mb RAM and a 2 Gb HD)

[MunkieNL]

Hi all! I haven't been looking at Linux for a long while. Just scored an old Compaq 233MMX with 32 Mb RAM and a 2 Gb HD for 10 euro. I've got 160 Mb RAM in it now and 3 HD's and various CDr's
I got XP SP2 on a 2 Gb GD. It works but starting progs is slooow. Vector Linux on a 2.5 Gb old Bigfoot, it's not what i would call a " compact" Linux distro with 2 Gb installed but it works. Very stable and professional package but alas a bit much for this old machine.
On to the live CD's. DSL wins here because of the faster bootup, the lesser prompts and the auto network setup. DSL keeps spinning that CDr drive all the time though which can get on your nerves. Puppy runs completely from memory, impressive on this old thing!
Puppy installed on a tiny 1.2 Gb HD. Now this is fun. Once installed just 1 prompt for GRUB, that's it. I got Firefox 2 and Open Office running, amazing on a 10 year old PC A shame Dillo isn't being developed anymore, lightning fast browser but a bit primitive anno 2007.
I must admit Linux has come a long way since Slackware. It's so easy to get started nowadays, any experienced PC user can do it. And it's all for free

[Bruce B]

Welcome!

* I'm surprised to read that DSL doesn't release the CD Disc, is this with the 160MB RAM?

* About Vector Linux, they keep old versions also, 4.3 or maybe even 4.0 might make a better 'fit', you could update some important apps like the browsers.

[puppy233]

I have looked into why DSL continues to have the disc spinning after boot-up. I have read that with 128 MB of RAM, it can load completely into RAM. However, there is a boot command (cheat code) that must be used to do this. I believe this code is 'toram' (no quotes).