Best distribution for my configuration

[LOLZpersonok]

I've been on the hunt for a Linux distribution for my Dell OptiPlex GX240 which has a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 w/o Hyperthreading (32-bit only), 512MB of RAM and ATi Rage 128 (I think it is) graphics with 16MB of video memory. I've been looking for something that's not going to bog down the system and looks half-decent at the same time. I've tried Ubuntu and Elementary OS, both are too slow. I've also been looking for something that would preferably fit onto a CD-RW because I don't have any rewritable DVDs lying around, just regular DVD-Rs and I don't feel like burning one. The machine also doesn't appear to support USB boot.

 

Does anyone have any ideas of what the most ideal Linux distribution could be? Remember: I'm looking for something that's not going to bog the system down and looks half decent, preferably fitting onto a CD-RW.

[Azgoth 2]

Lubuntu is a version of Ubuntu that's been configured for maximum lightweightness.  It uses the LXDE desktop environment, which is MUCH more lightweight than Unity, and has had a lot of its default programs swapped out for alternatives that use less system resources.  E.g., instead of Nautilus for the file browser, it uses PCMan; instead of LibreOffice Writer, it uses Abiword; etc etc.  I actually just finished a project where I installed Lubuntu on a bunch of old laptops (Dell Latitude D505s and D600s, mostly), which have specs not too dissimilar from your machine, and it worked great.  Since Lubuntu is essentially identical to Ubuntu aside from the desktop environment and desktop apps that come pre-installed, it has all the same software compatibility and availability as Ubuntu, except where something specifically needs Unity to run.

 

If Lubuntu is still too slow, there are some other options.  If you have some technical know-how, you can install Arch Linux, which will give you a very minimal install that you configure pretty much from the ground up.  It's a lot more work--your system doesn't "just work" out of the box--but you get a lot of control, and you can pick a bunch of lightweight software options to make it a nice, fast little system.  But, again, it'll take more work to set up than most other distros.

 

If that's still not to your taste, there are two perennial titleholders for "best ultra-small ditro": Puppy Linux and SliTaz.  The system images for both distros are small--about 200MB for the biggest Puppy Linux one, and about 50MB for SliTaz--and they both run entirely in memory, making them probably faster than any other OS on comparable hardware.  Puppy Linux is a bit more user-friendly, and you can get a version based on Ubuntu, which I believe will have the same (if not very similar) software compatibility as Ubuntu.  SliTaz is a bit less user-friendly, and isn't based on any other major distro, so it has some quirks to it, but god damn if it isn't super cool.  It's actually designed from the ground up to support either a full hard drive install, or a permanent install to a flash drive.  It has much less software available then the other distros mentioned here, but if you're not doing much more than internet browsing and document editing, it should be suitable.

 

Lubuntu is going to be the easiest to use, and probably the first one to try.  Then Arch if you've got a reasonable amount of Linux experience, or Puppy Linux otherwise.  SliTaz, as awesome as it is, is probably the last one to try.

[Maximoose]

Lubuntu

[LOLZpersonok]

6 hours ago, Azgoth 2 said:

Lubuntu is a version of Ubuntu that's been configured for maximum lightweightness.  It uses the LXDE desktop environment, which is MUCH more lightweight than Unity, and has had a lot of its default programs swapped out for alternatives that use less system resources.  E.g., instead of Nautilus for the file browser, it uses PCMan; instead of LibreOffice Writer, it uses Abiword; etc etc.  I actually just finished a project where I installed Lubuntu on a bunch of old laptops (Dell Latitude D505s and D600s, mostly), which have specs not too dissimilar from your machine, and it worked great.  Since Lubuntu is essentially identical to Ubuntu aside from the desktop environment and desktop apps that come pre-installed, it has all the same software compatibility and availability as Ubuntu, except where something specifically needs Unity to run.

 

If Lubuntu is still too slow, there are some other options.  If you have some technical know-how, you can install Arch Linux, which will give you a very minimal install that you configure pretty much from the ground up.  It's a lot more work--your system doesn't "just work" out of the box--but you get a lot of control, and you can pick a bunch of lightweight software options to make it a nice, fast little system.  But, again, it'll take more work to set up than most other distros.

 

If that's still not to your taste, there are two perennial titleholders for "best ultra-small ditro": Puppy Linux and SliTaz.  The system images for both distros are small--about 200MB for the biggest Puppy Linux one, and about 50MB for SliTaz--and they both run entirely in memory, making them probably faster than any other OS on comparable hardware.  Puppy Linux is a bit more user-friendly, and you can get a version based on Ubuntu, which I believe will have the same (if not very similar) software compatibility as Ubuntu.  SliTaz is a bit less user-friendly, and isn't based on any other major distro, so it has some quirks to it, but god damn if it isn't super cool.  It's actually designed from the ground up to support either a full hard drive install, or a permanent install to a flash drive.  It has much less software available then the other distros mentioned here, but if you're not doing much more than internet browsing and document editing, it should be suitable.

 

Lubuntu is going to be the easiest to use, and probably the first one to try.  Then Arch if you've got a reasonable amount of Linux experience, or Puppy Linux otherwise.  SliTaz, as awesome as it is, is probably the last one to try.

I actually did get Puppy Linux Slacko running on the machine, but I really don't like the interface. It's decent in speed, but the interface doesn't appeal to me. I'll keep this post for reference, and I'll probably end up trying Lubuntu at some point.

[Azgoth 2]

1 hour ago, LOLZpersonok said:

I actually did get Puppy Linux Slacko running on the machine, but I really don't like the interface. It's decent in speed, but the interface doesn't appeal to me. I'll keep this post for reference, and I'll probably end up trying Lubuntu at some point.

You can change the look of any distro--I think all the Puppy Linux versions use the LXDE desktop environment, but you can probably try XFCE for a different look and feel.  XFCE is the other big lightweight desktop environment, and while it's not as light as LXDE, it's much more customizeble and has a bit more polish to its look and feel.  Using XFCE on Lubuntu (or just downloading Xubuntu, the XFCE-based Ubuntu variant) might be a bit much on the computer, but on something as light as Puppy Linux, it might not impact performance too much.

[LOLZpersonok]

23 hours ago, Azgoth 2 said:

You can change the look of any distro--I think all the Puppy Linux versions use the LXDE desktop environment, but you can probably try XFCE for a different look and feel.  XFCE is the other big lightweight desktop environment, and while it's not as light as LXDE, it's much more customizeble and has a bit more polish to its look and feel.  Using XFCE on Lubuntu (or just downloading Xubuntu, the XFCE-based Ubuntu variant) might be a bit much on the computer, but on something as light as Puppy Linux, it might not impact performance too much.

Since I didn't feel like installing a new desktop environment (the last time I did I screwed everything up), I just decided to install a new distribution. I did a little picking around and I found another fork of Puppy Linux called Saluki. That one uses XFCE by default. I booted it and it looks far better than Slacko, so I installed it. I rebooted the computer and it came up with a "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found" error. I think the boot loader might not be installed because I did reformat the hard drive before installing Saluki, but I'm not entirely sure. 

 

Edit: That's exactly what was wrong. Booted it back into the live CD and installed the Grub boot loader that way. Now it's just fine.