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For what it's worth any of the Linux/GNU or BSD's will run on older hardware; provided you don't go overboard with X. If you forgo Gnome or KDE in favor of FVWM
by JeremyChase 17y ago
For what it's worth any of the Linux/GNU or BSD's will run on older hardware; provided you don't go overboard with X. If you forgo Gnome or KDE in favor of FVWM2 or XFCE the system will run very well on less than 256Megs of ram.
Unfortunately, if you are forced to run Firefox the system resources immediately become a problem. Seamonkey is a viable alternative, but is dated. Chrome may be the way to go, but that is yet to be proven.
- dtf 17y agoChromium dev builds are working great on my older laptop. Plugins aren't that stable but you'd probably want to avoid them anyway. The Arora browser (also WebKit) is worth a look too.
- steiger 17y agoSure, but some (Ubuntu, for example) are just undesirable as a distro to run on an old hardware. Some don't even support old hardware, say the 586 archtecture (Pentium). More important so, distros have different goals and mentalities. I don't think it would make sense, for example, to strip Ubuntu, for example, to make it run on a very old hardware. So, it's not _any_ distribution that you _can_ or _should_ run on older hardware. Some just don't suit.