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Joined: Feb 25, 2008
Posts: 1
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Posted Mar 24, 2008 at 12:27:34 AM
Subject: Very Old Laptop
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-9401 and it's soo old that one of the RAM ports doesn't work leaving it with a grand total of 128MB of RAM. I want to install Linux on it (any distro that will work) but it stops reading the disk and shuts off after a while. The battery has completely died so it does not carry a charge anymore. What solutions do you guys suggest when I have a 12GB hard drive? Linux distros I have tried: [list] [*]Ubuntu (alternate CD) [*]Xubuntu (alternate CD) [*]Vector Linux (standard gold) [/list] I'd like to use this for homework (OpenOffice.org), messaging (Pidgin or Gaim), and Internet browsing (Firefox)
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abdool
Joined Mar 26, 2008
Posts: 2

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Posted: Mar 26, 2008 9:06:45 AM
Subject: Very Old Laptop
Try [url=http://www.damnsmalllinux.org]DSL[/url]
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Snowman
Joined Mar 26, 2008
Posts: 13
Location:Florida, USA

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Posted: Mar 27, 2008 4:31:14 PM
Subject: Very Old Laptop
Puppy Linux and SLAX are good alternate choices too.

What if Bill Gates had a nickle for every time a Windows computer crashes... OH WAIT, he does!!!

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oldcity
Joined Mar 27, 2008
Posts: 2

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Posted: Mar 27, 2008 11:04:27 PM
Subject: Very Old Laptop
Take a look at www.slitaz.org Using on a generic box with 128MB RAM currently as LiveCD and am pleasantly surprised with its speed. hth oldcity
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Penguin
Joined Mar 28, 2008
Posts: 88

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Posted: Mar 28, 2008 4:09:35 PM
Subject: Very Old Laptop
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux-newbie/8441-distro-look-here-before-posting.html ^^ Useful link that, though the only one it suggests that hasn't been is ZenWalk (haven't tried it personally). The other solution is to do a very minimal Debian install, and then use something like XFCE (reasonably lightweight) or (for the very lightweight) FluxBox, IceWM or FVWM (there are more lightweight ones, I just can't think of them right now) as your window manager. http://www.go2linux.org/installing-a-light-linux-operating-system-debian-fluxbox ^^ If you ignore the irrelevant parts of that, it's a good quick reference for a light install (really, it's just "Install *base* Debian [not the desktop environment version, just base] setup sudo, install FluxBox and a few choice apps" and you're done). Edit: Fixed typo [Modified by: Penguin on March 28, 2008 04:10 PM]
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