Lightweight Desktop Help.

[Robert E. Raymond]

Ben Duncan wrote:

> Ok, tried to load SuSe 8.2 on a P 150MHZ with 80MB ram and
> a 4GB hard disk ... needless to say, WAY OVERKILL for the poor old 
> machine.
>
> Need some sort of distro that can:
>
> A: Includes the Gcc compiler/Python/Perl/etc ...
> B: Will work on such a weak machine (hmmm a few years ago
> we thought that kinda power was studly ...)
>
> This machine, is more or less, going to be a "Terminal" on steriods.
> Needs to have a desktop, and I need to have Open Office on it.
>
I'd say go for Slackware.  It doesn't include OpenOffice, but it runs it 
just fine.... plus it's relatively optimized.  If not Slackware, Debian 
(unless you're willing to waste your time compiling Gentoo ;))

Slackware does contain most of the WMs you might want to try out, plus I 
love the speed of the installer (yeah I know the others have text-mode 
installers, I just haven't used them because I've only installed stuff 
on fast machines.  But really, a complete install of Redhat took 4 hrs. 
on one machine, whereas a complete install of Slackware on the same 
machine took 1 hr. plus configuration).

Bob Raymond