need a compact Linux distro

[SaltyDuke]

Hello

i have been given the task of ressurrecting an old PC. it is an old Pentium (i guess it's a P75, with a maximum of 16 MB of RAM).

The thing is i don't know how much hard drive space is on the thing!

is there a compact version of Linux that will fit on this machine??? i don't want to kill it with win95 (windows will not be very nice to it anyway)
i'm checking out Linux.com now, but i'd like to hear about other prople's experiences etc etc

any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Debian can fit well on a system like that. I would guess it really depends on what you are looking to have it do. Mike Wills
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

http://www.koldark.net

 

[SaltyDuke]

Thanx for the help

I'm only looking for a distro that can handle a simple GUI and a browser because it's only gonna be used to surf the 'net anyway.

did Star Wars REALLY cost the U.S. economy $3M??? i just went to see it after work!!
Again, thanks

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Debian should work great then. Mike Wills
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

http://www.koldark.net

 

[RhythmAce]

Be forwarned though SaltyDuke, that linux browsers(Mozilla/Netscape)don't like java very much. Some of the interactive stuff you are used to seeing with Windows will act a little differently.

 

[SaltyDuke]

Thanx, RhythmAce, but I already know this to be true as i have been using Linux almost exclusively for the past six months. I generally find Konquerer to be the worst, as it doesn't even support JavaScript. But it's still better than IE ;-)

However, i just found out that the machine i'm trying to install Linux on is being VERY picky about it!! Turns out the damn PC didn't have an operating system installed to begin with!

Can anyone recomment an OS that boots off a floppy??!!
back to Linux.com i guess...will let ye know!

 

[KarveR]

Possibly one of the smallest linux distros around:

http://www.superant.com/smalllinux/

______________________________________________________________________
There's no present like the time, they say. - Henry's Cat.

 

[BIS]

... or

http://www.freesco.org

, no nice x though....

 

[KarveR]

This is probably the smallest web enabled distro about:

http://www.qnx.com/

Yes, it really is only 1 floppy disk and does allow websurfing. Its not really a distro but if you want small and web, this kind of fits..(square peg, round hole).

Its got me outta the brown stuff on a few occasions tho. ______________________________________________________________________
There's no present like the time, they say. - Henry's Cat.

 

[benp07]

try netbsd it says that it will run on anything

 

[w1nn3r]

Ive installed a very unhappy redhat on a 1 gig HDD, No X, All the useless extras were taken out, it ran decent on my 133mhz with 64 megs of ram, but didnt like the space constraints at all. Mandrake is a bit space hungry but you could get it on a 1.5 gig HDD, FreeBSD(Which is Unix more than anything) can be installed on an 800meg HDD without too much complaints. Below is a link of different linux ISO's to try out:

http://www.linuxiso.org