# Lifestyles & Discussion > Science & Technology >  Linux or Unix for really old computers?

## VIDEODROME

I would like some Linux Distro recommendations.  I've been Interning at a small business and dusted off 2 old discarded Windows computers and put Crunch Bang Linux on them with Cairo-Dock to make them User Friendly.  Basically, this guy wants more computers for Internet Selling / Ebay and this saves him money by reviving old computers that were slow and or a previous employee had tinkered with the Registry and really messed them up. 


My question concerns the really old Windows98 computer I dug up from the basement today.  Yes it still works.  Any Linux disc I happened to have with me was a DVD and this old machine only has a CD-Rom.  Using Plop Boot Manager, I was able to get it to boot from USB, but the installer for my OS stalled.  I'm guessing this machine has USB 1.0  and maybe it's just to slow?  

I'm thinking an easy solution is to pick a Linux distro with an ISO that fits on to CD-Rom.  I have Bodhi somewhere, but I'm not sure if Enlightenment Window Manager would work well on such an old machine. Crunch Bang unfortunately won't fit on CD.  Knoppix might be a possibility.  

I have also considered trying CLI only Ubuntu Server and putting various network services on it.  

Another idea is a core install(The disc1 ISO) of FreeBSD and putting Xfce or Gnome desktop on it. 

It's not super critical I get this going.  I'm just doing it for the experience and it would be nice if this could be a productive machine again.

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## dannno

Hmm maybe Redhat

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## dannno

Ya so I was just thinking of distros that were popular back in the Windows 98 era.

So it looks like CentOS looks like the free community version of Redhat, if you're going to try it.

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## MRK

Can you post your RAM/CPU specs?

Try out puppy linux. Lightweight and is only 100mb on the usb/CD. 

Maybe Arch would work too, although I dont how big the file is, I didnt pay attention to the size on the USB when I last tried it out.

Linux Mint all the way for a real desktop/laptop distro, although I dont know if theres a light version for your needs. I prefer ubuntu server 12.04 for a remote server due to ease of use/availability of step by step guides for everything, but if the task is clear cut and I know everything up and down I use Arch instead.

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## FindLiberty

Try looking up Linux history (maybe wiki?) for the appropriate distro to match old hrdwr. 

Reconsider: Excessive AC power gets sucked up by those old beasts... It's not so bad in the Winter since it costs no more than electric heat (that's prbly gonna' be higher than LP or Gas), but in Summer (especially if you are running an air conditioner too), it becomes a tad expensive. Maybe that old PC isn't really "free" after all, but it may have better capacitors on the MOBO and be more reliable in the long run. 

If it's W98ish, there should be some hrdwr power management options available, like spinning down the HDD. Do you still need that audio card plugged in there? Also, watch out for any unnecessary power sucking muscle graphics cards lurking around there; sometimes they draw even more juice while producing text prompts on a black background!

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## presence

I run three computers that are all older



2GiB ram - 3.4GHz  P4

1GiB ram - Duo 1.8GHz 1.8GHz

500Mib ram - 1.5GHz Pentium M



all curb scores, w/ scrubbed out windows, now running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.  Ubuntu sends updates a few times a week.

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## MRK

> Try looking up Linux history (maybe wiki?) for the appropriate distro to match old hrdwr. 
> 
> Reconsider: Excessive AC power gets sucked up by those old beasts... It's not so bad in the Winter since it costs no more than electric heat (that's prbly gonna' be higher than LP or Gas), but in Summer (especially if you are running an air conditioner too), it becomes a tad expensive. Maybe that old PC isn't really "free" after all, but it may have better capacitors on the MOBO and be more reliable in the long run. 
> 
> If it's W98ish, there should be some hrdwr power management options available, like spinning down the HDD. Do you still need that audio card plugged in there? Also, watch out for any unnecessary power sucking muscle graphics cards lurking around there; sometimes they draw even more juice while producing text prompts on a black background!


This is a really good point. I don't run or buy desktops anymore for this reason. Laptops are all so much more efficient with energy. Then there's the portability factor, of course. When I was younger I liked desktops because they had the best cutting edge technology for games and such - then again I wasn't footing the bill for its power consumption. It wasn't until I compared the watts of my power supply on my desktop versus my laptop that I realized the difference: 800w versus 80w! Of course, most desktops don't use 800w - they probably use about half or less. When you get cheap high-end hardware, the energy costs are higher, apparently :

Good luck with finding the right distro. I did some searching and lubuntu kept popping up. However, not knowing your system's RAM makes it hard to give a recommendation.

I have to strongly recommend against using an old version of any distribution unless you know for sure that it is rock solid. Having a 10+ year old distribution that doesn't receive updates anymore is liable to be rife with security vulnerabilities that have emerged over time and were never patched due to the version no longer being supported. I could be exaggerating the danger here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

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## cjm

The latest Slackware comes on both CD and DVD:  http://slackware.mirrors.tds.net/pub...ware-14.0-iso/

The 32 bit version is compiled for 486 instead of 686 to work on junk hardware.  If you can't get the latest slackware installed, you'll probably either need to go to an older linux distro/version or look at FreeBSD.

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## pcosmar

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?ca...=Old+Computers

I had one,, Beatrix (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=beatrix) but it is no longer available it seems.

It would run on old and low resource machines,, a bear to install though.

My current choice has a striped down version that may work for you, http://www.pclinuxos.com/ and look for the "minime" download.

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## VIDEODROME

Thanks for the feedback.  Grabbing some ISOs and I might mess with this old PC again on Friday.  

I will also consider the comments about it being a potential energy waster.  The store owner said I could take this computer if I want to.  Maybe I could just use it for computer lab projects and testing so that it's not running all the time.

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## CPUd

I've gotten Slax to run well on old Compaq Presarios.
http://www.slax.org/


My oldest machine is a IBM Aptiva 2144 like the one below- it is running Coyote:



Those old machines can be repurposed to do other things, like hardware firewalls, system/network monitor, NAS, ...

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## VIDEODROME

I had considered Slax, but wasn't sure if it would run.  Even Knoppix failed to boot from CD.  

I managed to get the core install of FreeBSD on it with just Xfce desktop.  The one good thing is it recognized a modern mouse which Win98 failed to do.  Otherwise, it is running slow and laggy.  

I'm thinking at most this machine is realistically a NAS or Ubuntu Server.  

I think next I will slap Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS on it and try a few things.  Some time ago I said I wanted to try an old style BBS and maybe this would be a good machine to try that on.

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## CPUd

> I had considered Slax, but wasn't sure if it would run.  Even Knoppix failed to boot from CD.  
> 
> I managed to get the core install of FreeBSD on it with just Xfce desktop.  The one good thing is it recognized a modern mouse which Win98 failed to do.  Otherwise, it is running slow and laggy.  
> 
> I'm thinking at most this machine is realistically a NAS or Ubuntu Server.  
> 
> I think next I will slap Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS on it and try a few things.  Some time ago I said I wanted to try an old style BBS and maybe this would be a good machine to try that on.


If you try slax, go for slax 6 (the one at old.slax.org), not slax 7.  You'll have better luck getting modules to work on it.  If you format the boot partition as FAT, it should be able to boot from CD.  I have been able to do random things to a CD-ROM to get it to boot a CD, like switching cables, or setting jumpers to-from cable select or master.

If you are trying to boot from USB, make sure the BIOS supports it and it is enabled (usually would be an option "boot other device").  Another option would be to get a network card with PXE, and boot from there.  Or if all else fails, boot from a floppy.

FreeNAS is a good OS if you want to make it a NAS.  Another thing you can do with an old machine is turn it into a log server / monitor.  You could set up scripts to do all sorts of things, like parse out log data from other machines, remote hardware monitoring, inspect packets over the network, do intrusion detection, etc.

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## VIDEODROME

I had tried the bootable USB, but because this is USB 1.0 I think it was causing me problems just from being to slow.  I don't think the BIOS has a clue about bootable USB, but I did it with Plop Boot Manager running off a Hirens CD. 

So I tried the core FreeBSD install which can fit on a CD-Rom and just booted that way. 

I think the CPU on this thing is just 400 MHz with a 8 GB hard drive. I believe it is a i386.  

Anyway, I just see it as something to tinker with and maybe learn something.  It's nice to get hands-on experience after so many boring college classes driven by Power Point lectures.

I have FreeNAS on another beatup PC.  I might consider monitoring tools or other things working off a simple CLI only OS.

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