Which version should we use on an old machine?

[Carl Reynolds]

Carl Reynolds wrote:

> My son was given a couple of old computers. ...

> What version of Linux should he use on these machines? 



Rick Stevens wrote:

>Your best bet is probably Tiny Linux (http://tiny.seul.org/en/).
>

inode0 wrote:

> I currently run slackware 


Bob McClure wrote:

>I'd go with FC4 or FC5, but do either a server install or custom
>install (I recommend the latter) excluding most X stuff and other
>fluff you don't need.  I think it'll fit.
>
>See also http://www.rule-project.org/
>

Thanks for your suggestions, guys. My son has decided to start with Tiny 
Linux and will probably try the a full Slackware install after that. If 
we have a chance, we may try Bob's suggestion of installing a minimal 
FC4 or FC5. Although, based on inode0's comment, I don't hold out much 
hope for that working on these machines.

He also will have a look at ubuntu and see how well it works on the 
machine and then may move on to try the Linux from Scratch Project 
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

We did run into one problem so far with Tiny Linux. My son downloaded 
the startup file utils.zip <http://tiny.seul.org/distrib/utils.zip> to 
his Windows PC. When he tried to create the bare.i floppy with 
rawrite.exe, it gave a message about trying to access DMA beyond 64k, 
and the floppy wouldn't boot.

I then copied base.i to one of my Red Hat machines, used dd to create 
the base.i floppy, and it worked just fine. I thought I would mention 
this on the list in case anyone else runs into a similar problem with 
rawrite.exe.

One other thing I wanted to mention is that when the Tiny Linux floppy 
boots up, it says that it is a Slackware distribution. I'm guessing that 
it is derived from Slackware, but is not the complete Slackware 
distribution. Is that so?

I'll let you know from time-to-time how he is progressing with this project.

Thanks again for your suggestions,
Carl.