Vegard Lundby Rekaa wrote:
On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 14:54 +0100, Vegard Lundby Rekaa wrote:I need some advice. Is debian fit for a Pentium 100MHz PC with 16MB RAM and approx 4Gb harddisk? Are there anyone who has experience with such a slow machine running debian (or any other linux dist)?Depends on what software you decide to install on it. What do you want to do with the box?With this box I am trying to convince my father that linux is an excellent replacement for windows98se for writing textdocuments and maybe some scientific documents. He needs a machine with a simple gui, openoffice.org and some other simple programs. For the window-manager I had xfce in mind, which is as I have understood, the easiest to lern of the small wm's.
Is this the same machine he has been using, or another one that was lying around available for an experiment? If the latter, I hope this machine doesn't have a crummier spec than the one your father is already using. It needs a lot more RAM, as others have noted. I used to run linux on a P-160 with 96MB, and it was usable. I don't know if openoffice would've run on it, though.
If I were trying to get my dad to use linux I'd try to pick up a cheap used machine of more recent vintage or (better) a bottom of the range new PC. It would be much easier to install and more pleasant to use and hence an easier sell. Supporting really old kit is IMO a royal time-wasting pain at the best of times. I know some people enjoy it, but I can think of more fun things to do.