[NTLUG:Discuss] P-200's and Peanut Linux

[kbrannen@gte.net]

G S wrote:
...
> 
> These machines are P-200's, 32m RAM, 2.5 gb HD.      Am I pissing in the 
> wind wanting to run Linux with X windows on a machine this small?     Is 
> Peanut Linux any good,   Has anyone tried it.    What are the problems 
> with it.    Is there a better small distro?      I am trying Knoppix as 
> I type.
...

It can be done.  I used to have a Toshiba 1910cs that was a 486-33dx with 12M 
of RAM and a 1G HD (HD was not original but upgraded).  It actually ran 
reasonablly well with the 16 color VGA X server.  Most people probably 
wouldn't care for that, but my requirements were quite modest.  That was with 
the Slackware 3.x distros, IIRC.

I guess the older distros didn't have as much in them so they ran on smaller 
machines better.  Don't know for sure though...from time to time I do ask 
myself why the older distros ran on smaller/older machines and the newer ones 
have trouble.  I have yet to come up with an answer that completely satisfies 
me, but in reality I probably don't care enough to investigate it. :-)  OTOH, 
if someone has the answer, it'd be nice if you shared it. :-)

HTH,
Kevin