Very old laptop converts to linux! What's the best distro?

[dannyboy]

These are the specs of the Winbook LM Model 7S30GA.

CPU: Pentium 133Mhz Winbook with Coprocessor
System RAM: 640Kb
Shadow RAM: 384 Kb
Cache Ram: 256 Kb
Video Memory: 896 Kb
Hdisk: 1.443 Gb
Peripherals: COM Ports, LPT Ports, PS/2 Mouse
BIOS: 1985-1985 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

Current System: Windows 98 SE

Prognosis: The system is fine, I just tweaked it and I'd say it is fast in terms of opening the Word program and File Explorer program. I want to convert to faster & stable OS, something that a normal PC user won't expect from an old hardware. This is not being used as it should be now, but I want to raise the value of this machine. I don't know what to expect since this is really old and non-upgradable hardware.

What do you guys think is the maximum potential of this laptop? Any suggestions on the best distro? Puppy? DSL? Any specific from Slackware? Remember i don't have a floppy and a CD-ROM drive, but I got LPT ports for Laplinking and FastLink in the system already. Do i have to convert the filesytem to linux filesystems? Or maintain fat32, since some linux also works in fat32? Will Knoppix run on fat32?

From my farthest sight of my brain, I remembered that my teacher used a 486 as a file server in the LAN. Tsk, Pentium 133 Mhz is better, server anyone?

[Harry Kuhman]

There is no simple answer to "best distro". There are plenty of factors, including what you want to do with the system and personal choices that come into play. You give a lot of specs, but seem to leave out the amount of memory of the system (in megs). Also, you say that there is a co-processor, but the P133 has the math processor built in. Are you telling us there is some other sort of co-processor or are you just reafirming the math processor that we all know is part of a Pentium? You certainly should be able to install Debian to this system (likely can't install Knoppix except a "poor man's install" since the disk is so small and it hardly ever goes well any way.

[dannyboy]

Thanks for the quick response...please forgive me on the too many specs, tsk, newbie alert here ehehehe...i just copied it from its bios startup and I don't know what is the RAM value in there. Where could it be?

I want it to work as a plain typing and mp3 tool, good for students in college. Can type and can do presentations like it did with PowerPoint. Done! But if it can be pushed towards oblivion as what Linux does amazingly with old hardware, why not.

I am just since February2006 on Linux and wow the results amazes me!

Ok my FastLink ver 2.0 is now working, I just changed the parallel cable, tsk the new one does not work.

I have decided to use ZipSlack from slackware with X windows and activating the fourmeg.zip to enable a swap file o 8 MB for linux. Thank you very much Harry!

[Tom Tiger]

I would go for a lightweight distro, damnsmalllinux springs to mind. Otherwise install knoppix but you might want to disable KDE and got for a smaller windows manager. But.... this can be tricky if you are a newbie. I would try DSL first and see how it runs on you laptop. DSL is only 50 megs and has a full gui. On the system you have now Knoppix will have a problem since you don't have much ram. To be honest I've never tried Knoppix on a low end machine like this. The lowest I used it on was a P2 233mhz with 64 mb of ram and a 4 gb harddisk.

Otherwise if you just want a lightweight server, you could allways go for the even smaller distros that just have a commandline. These will run pretty fast on your laptop aswell but.... no gui so you'll have to learn the CLI (Command Line Interface) There are many of these around.

These are the specs of the Winbook LM Model 7S30GA.

CPU: Pentium 133Mhz Winbook with Coprocessor
System RAM: 640Kb
Shadow RAM: 384 Kb
Cache Ram: 256 Kb
Video Memory: 896 Kb
Hdisk: 1.443 Gb
Peripherals: COM Ports, LPT Ports, PS/2 Mouse
BIOS: 1985-1985 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

Current System: Windows 98 SE

Prognosis: The system is fine, I just tweaked it and I'd say it is fast in terms of opening the Word program and File Explorer program. I want to convert to faster & stable OS, something that a normal PC user won't expect from an old hardware. This is not being used as it should be now, but I want to raise the value of this machine. I don't know what to expect since this is really old and non-upgradable hardware.

What do you guys think is the maximum potential of this laptop? Any suggestions on the best distro? Puppy? DSL? Any specific from Slackware? Remember i don't have a floppy and a CD-ROM drive, but I got LPT ports for Laplinking and FastLink in the system already. Do i have to convert the filesytem to linux filesystems? Or maintain fat32, since some linux also works in fat32? Will Knoppix run on fat32?

From my farthest sight of my brain, I remembered that my teacher used a 486 as a file server in the LAN. Tsk, Pentium 133 Mhz is better, server anyone?

[Kowood]

For something that old, I'd go with Debian, maybe even a BSD.