[NTLUG:Discuss] 486SX Distro

[Chris Cox]

Stephen Klein wrote:
> Slackware should run easily (if slowly) on this type of system.  I've
> run it on a 486DX/2 66MHz system with only 12MB RAM and 120MB of disk
> space (TOTAL!!), but not with X-win (wouldn't fit with all the other
> packages I really needed for the job it was doing).  The default kernels
> are compiled for 386s and also include Math Emulation compiled in if
> it's needed.  It can be downloaded from slackware.com.
> 
> To run X-win, you really need 32MB RAM minimum, but it can be done with
> 16MB, just be sure to make a very good sized swap partition (at least 2
> times physical RAM).  I don't recommend trying to run KDE, or GNOME, but
> some of the minimalist window managers will work fairly well.

I ran a P90 with 8M for almost a year running Yggdrassil (sp?) kernel 1.1.71
including X11 (fvwm).

It works... but it will definitely be slow.  I'd shoot for 800x600 and 8 bit
color... you might do alright with 1024x768... depends.