Best Linux for the job?

[Shairel]

Have a whole bunch of systems that were donated to a local charity
Pentium 100s /w 32 MB of ram, 1.6 GB hard drives, serial mice
I know that 95 will be sluggish on these dealies, and would cost too much to deploy on 22 systems that are for budget families who can't get computers otherwise
Was actually looking to see if anybody knew the best dist. of linux to make the computers into basic word processors, internet boxes..and the like
I tried the free red hat 7.1, and on basic installation it takes nearly 1:30 between the time I click on something and the time it comes up.
'm a linux newbie, but i'm not new to computers, so if I know what I have to start out with i'll end up making it work

[Chris_MacMahon]

try an earlier verson (not 7.2, but like 7.0 or less) i have had great success with mandrake and it's a little easyier (more like windows) then red hat...

[Ahcoraj]

Mandrake 7, I have it runnng on an old p5-133 w 32 mb. Won't win any preformance titles but is a great basic machine. Kword and Star office are both good word procesors, and you can load netscape or use Konqueror. Your biggest issue may be support. If youre infamiliar with linux, it may be difficult to explain some of the nuances.

[DVader]

I'll add my vote for Mandrake 7.0 and higher. Red Hat would be second.

You can get it at a good price here if you cannot download it.

<a href="http://www.cheapbytes.com" target="_blank">www.cheapbytes.com</a>

I have ordered Linux versions from them twice. Very good, prompt service.

[Danrak]

I would think a ealier version of Mandrake would be best. Not sure how 7.x will run on it performance wise. RedHat would come in second. Maybe 5.2 or 6.

[Shairel]

'm having good visions when i see that the mandrake 7.0 linux's iso actually states that it's for use on 486's :Grin:
tell you how it turns out in a few days

[gtiseb]

Long time user of Mandrake here, and the earlier versions will run fine on old pentium systems, provided you don't push it too far (800x600, basic web, email and Word Processing).

[EvilCabbage]

Check out <a href="http://www.redmondlinux.org" target="_blank">Redmond Linux</a>. Should do the trick nicely.

[savagegerbil]

I dunno which linux distro would be best but I wanted to add that since linux is sooooo confusing to the first time user, I would recommend making a ghost image and create a restore cd (counted these systems are alike) that way these families could restore the system instead of installing it. Just my two cents

[Daemon]

make a tight slackware box, freebsd box, netbsd box, redhat box, and mandrake box


BSD is better, Id suggest OpenBSD but its very hard to install.

[Daemon]

redhat 6.2, slackware 4.x and below netbsd current and below, freebsd current and below I know will install on a 400-500 mb hard drive.

I have a old 90mhz intel (only intel) I installed a 8gb drive has 16 mb ram and installed redhat 7.0 on it, I also tryed slackware 8 on it, and it now runs freebsd 4

[EvilCabbage]

while the *BSD crowd may be nice operating systems, if these things are going to charity, they need to be easy to operate.

Honestly, Redmond is going to be the closest distro, to a point and click system. Comes loaded with everything they could need, and is very Windoze-ish in appearance. I would wager that a lot of people wouldnt know, if they werent technically adept.