What Linux distro for me?

Hmm well, linux is just at version 2.6 yet, I assume you mean version 8.2 of a particular distribution?

For starting out Mandrake (mandriva now) is a good choice, but a word of caution, with 64MB RAM, Gnome or KDE based distributions (mandrake, fedora, suse, ubuntu ... heck most of them) will be a little slow with 64MB RAM out of the box. You can, of course, switch to XFCE or a light window manager after installation, but if you want good performance out of the box, look at something like Vector Linux. It comes in two editions, the standard edition is a small ISO which has a nice and compact collection of software to get you by. Or you can go for the SOHO edition, which uses KDE (optional). I recommend the SOHO edition as it is newer and has some really good improvements.

This distro is optimised for slightly old hardware, so it will run quite fast indeed. Now Vector is easy to use, but it doesn't do too many things automatically, unlike mandrake, but with good documentation and graphical admin tools, you can figure out how to configure your system quickly.

i586 & x86_64 refer to processor architecture. i586 is basically the pentium architecture, your pentium 3 is i686, but it is fully compatible with software built for an i586. x86_64 refers to the new 32/63 bit AMD & Intel processers out there.

Finally, I hear the official pronounciation is Leee-nux, but call it what you like

If you completely new to Linux, I would suggest you go for something like Mandrake or SuSE. Also, for a system like yours I would recommend a slightly older version of the OS so that your system isnt over-burdened. Mandrake 9 series would be good for you. SuSE is a bit heavy on GUI.

AFAIK, Linux is a proper noun derived from its creator 'Linus' Torvalds. So, its upto you how you would like to pronounce it (it should be Li-nux I guess, but what the heck, even I pronounce it as Lin-ux! ).

THankx ujjwal for ur reply

i was talking about Mandrake 8.2 that came with digit June 2002

I am using win XP on 64 MB RAM and dont think Linux by mandrake, fedora, suse, ubuntu ... will be slower than windows XP.

I wanna go with main stream distributors so what do u suggest.

Will wait for a few more replies before takin the descion as i would have to leave the comp on download for atleast 24 hrs is suppose

Lin-ucks ==> Lin-ux is correct
Li-nucks ==> Li-nux is wrong , ofcourse

Stupid ppl call it Li-nux , so decide for urself

Mandriva is I good choice I would reckon, very well known for its ease of use, and it has a slightly better optimised for performance than fedora.

Mandriva is a 6 CD download.

Anyway do u know how to get it for free on CD.

I have a bootable Mandrake 10.1 DVD. I also have iso images of the same version given on Digit DVD.

I can guarantee that bootable DVD works because I have installed from it. I don't know about iso images. But if you trust Digit, you can go for it.

Contact me if you need it. I am in Mumbai too

Hi babumuchhala,
You will not be able to run any of the current generation distributions on a machine with 64MB RAM. You must increase your RAM if you want to run GNOME 2.x upwards or KDE 3.x series.

Debian/Gentoo/Vector might run faster than others, but still KDE and GNOME require high amount of RAM. If you are willing to run AfterStep/IceWM then you might get my help in that.

Just tell me your address, i may visit your place. My Fees?? Just a lunch at Navratna or Center One

banned2wise said:

Lin-ucks ==> Lin-ux is correct
Li-nucks ==> Li-nux is wrong , ofcourse

Stupid ppl call it Li-nux , so decide for urself

Click to expand...

I guess I'm stupid then because i pronounce it Li-nux (lie nux) because the name came from Linus (lie nus). I refuse to pronounce it lin-ux or lin-us because i don't believe in this creative license that people take in pronouncing their name differently.... the name Linus (lie-nus) is a lot older than Linus Torvalds!

Robert is pronounced raw-bert, and i don't care if other Robert's want it pronounced differently, it's how it should always be pronounced!

Raaabo said:

banned2wise said:

Lin-ucks ==> Lin-ux is correct
Li-nucks ==> Li-nux is wrong , ofcourse

Stupid ppl call it Li-nux , so decide for urself

Click to expand...

I guess I'm stupid then because i pronounce it Li-nux (lie nux) because the name came from Linus (lie nus). I refuse to pronounce it lin-ux or lin-us because i don't believe in this creative license that people take in pronouncing their name differently.... the name Linus (lie-nus) is a lot older than Linus Torvalds!

Robert is pronounced raw-bert, and i don't care if other Robert's want it pronounced differently, it's how it should always be pronounced!

Click to expand...

I agree with Raaabo as i said earlier (though i pronounce it the wrong way).

Raw-bert

Yes i have been told by almost everybody to increase my RAM. but SD RAM today costs toooooo much.

My cousin's giving me his 256 MB RAM but thats expected by around September. So till that time i will have to do with 64 MB RAM

Yup nobody says that you need more RAM, 64 MB is good enough, but be prepared to do a little bit of tweaking and changing to get these popular distributions to run fast

See if i can run win XP comfortably(with tweaking) then i suppose 64 MB would be enough to run Linux with tweaks.

Yeah but then you will have to use it with all the eye-candy effects disabled.
By the way Win XP with 64 MB Ram ?
How did you do it man.I guess it must be taking ages for it to boot up.And you would be experiencing a lot of lag while using it.

I am using XP for last one and half years.

All eye candies turned off. Most services turned off.

If i put ZA firewall and Antivirus it takes an exact 8 Minutes (perfectly timed on a stopwatch) and without these its just about 1 & 1/2 minutes

Well thankx to GNUrag i got my Ubuntu 5.04 cd today.

Installed it and Ubuntu is running fine.

I initially planned to post this from ubuntu itself but its painstakingly slow. looking at my RAM and an upgrade of RAM not possible until spt/oct any special tweaks for me.

Any special software recomendation.

All sugesstions welcome.

Thank you all for helping.

A special thanx to GNUrag

for any newcommer i would suggest Redhat simply cause of the vast community and help/books available.. i learnt on that..

+ digit gives it for free and i did my RHCE on it.. ( well, need to give exam )

khandu said:

for any newcommer i would suggest Redhat simply cause of the vast community and help/books available.. i learnt on that..

+ digit gives it for free and i did my RHCE on it.. ( well, need to give exam )

Click to expand...

Ya, that is okay. But the bottelneck here is the low amount of RAM available. RedHat will be painstakingly slower than ubuntu on his machine.

A good fast & easy to use desktop environment is XFCE, get it from your synaptic repositories (or get the binary from www.xfce.org)

Check this for an install guide.

If you want something even faster, try IceWM, or Fluxbox.

Enlightenment is good too! Light and easy on the eye! Hope you guys recognise it!

Damn Small Linux(DSL) is a good option;but it may need atleast 128MB RAM

from their site....

# Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)

Click to expand...

Another one is wait for Xubuntu(thats right)

The aim of the Xubuntu community project is to provide a nice Ubuntu desktop experience (even on older hardware) by using Xfce4 as the desktop environment and GTK+ 2 applications wherever possible.

Click to expand...

EDIT>>your own Ubuntu canbe transformed to Xubuntu by apt-get XFCE4 :wink

*wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu :

Xubuntu is the next one in the family of Ubuntu distros it was supposed to be released with Breezy but now postponed for release with Drapper Drake.