[geeks] How low can you go...

[velociraptor]

On 3/15/07, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am researching various OS options for this Dell Inspiron 3000 laptop (P/166 MMX, 144 Meg RAM, 4 Gig HD, bright screen and useable battery), and came across this distribution - "ttylinux":
>
> http://www.minimalinux.org/ttylinux/showpage.php?pid=1
>
> It runs in 5 Meg of RAM, requires 4 Meg of HD, and wil run on Intel i386SX CPU or greater... I plan to burn it to CD, but it doesn't even support Ethernet/WiFi - that is a very minimal distribution (designed for command-line dial-up use)...
>
> Any suggestions appreciated (I'd love a distribution that supports my atheros WiFi card, DSL doesn't quite do it) - I'm using it now with Win2K, but that seems a little sub-optimal...

I've been fiddling aroudn with DSL in Qemu with the thought of keeping
my personal info off of my work computer.  I must say I do like the
you add software to the USB stick and can create a tiny OS "partition"
on the stick, with a separate area for your storage that can be
loopback mounted so you don't have to boot the stick, but I've found
that the hardware virtualization mixture with Qemu is kind of wonky.
>From what I understand that's an issue with Qemu across the board.

I started to look at Puppy Linux (very small, but a little "windowsy"
looking as it's targetted to folks switching away from Windows with
low-end hardware), but haven't gotten that far yet.  Another one that
seemed like it might good to play around with was Kanotix.   Keep in
mind I was looking at these for booting off of a USB stick, so YMMV.

If you are looking for something slim but full-featured, Xubuntu is a
good choice, in my mind.  I just won't consider using an RPM-based
Linux unless forced to, so no suggestions on that front.

=Nadine=