Hello all,
It’s a nice feeling entering Linux OS community for the first time, especially because I am on a serious task to switch all computers from my office from commercial OS like Windows XP SP2 to some good Linux distro.
I hope and I am sure I’ll have good and useful time in here.
Now, I would like to mention what exactly I need help with.
I am managing an NGO office with less then 10 quite old machines. And the average computer power is: AMD Athlon 600MHz with 256-512 RAM.
Unfortunately there is no plan to upgrade hardware in the near future, and yet I have to do the switch to Linux for licensing reasons.
Could you Linux gurus advice me what is the best and most user-friendly Linux distro for an Athlon 600MHz machine?
I would like to mention that it would be nice from all those many Linux distros available out there to install a distro that is really compatible with most device drivers and has lots of software available for it, so I will not have to spend the first half of the day installing a printer driver, and the second half trying to find a Linux compatible software for doing some simple tasks.
Thanks you very much in advance and best regards.
Cheers everyone!

The beat never fades!

DSL LINUX

PUPPY LINUX

As to included drivers that is rather a hit or miss affair. Just live with it!!

The two distributions that come to mind first for vintage hardware are DSL (Damn Small Linux) and Puppy Linux. I have no personal experience with DSL, but I have used Puppy Linux on a machine with an AMD K6-2 350 Mhz CPU and 256 MB RAM.

Puppy Linux comes as a Live CD image (iso image file) which you burn to a CD then boot the computer from the CD. When booted, you are running a full Puppy Linux session from which you have the opportunity to install to the Hard Drive.

I like Puppy Linux, but I have used Mandriva Linux for nearly a decade, so I installed it to the machine in question. Mandriva runs a bit slowly on this old box, but it works OK for my current needs (even when using the KDE desktop environment) and is stable for me here. Mandriva can be downloaded as a Live CD or as a three CD
installation / one DVD installation set. You can use the Mandriva One Live CD to install to the hard drive. The difference between the Live CD and the installation set is that you can boot the Live CD (insuring proper hardware support) while the installation sets include a greater
selection of software packages on disk. In either case after installation, you can set up the Mandriva Software Package Management System to use Software Media Sources (repositories) located on various ftp servers across the Internet.

Linux differs from Windows in more ways than you may expect. Most if not all the software you should need is packaged for your distribution by the distributor (so no WEB searching for that
application) which in my case is Mandriva. You will return the best results if you use the software package manager provided by your distribution to install, remove, and update (manage) such software. Please note that this is a best practices recommendation, not a written in stone rule. There may be situations that require software not included with the distribution you have chosen (or with any distribution), but if what is required is general office software, most Linux distributions should more than meet your need.

Please note that as a long time Mandriva user I am biased by familiarity and your experience with the distribution may differ from mine. I hope these three distributions give you a good start.

Learn more about Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, and Mandriva Linux at their respective WEB sites.

HTH,

Ernie Registered Linux User 247790
ICQ 41060744

"best and most user-friendly Linux"

What are you going to do with the systems? Not all people can replace xp. Do you have linux applications or do you use special xp only apps?

Linux isn't that fast to begin with. The way the desktop used is how it gets really slow. Big desktop such as gnome and KDE are hogs on older machines.

Do you have a very fast server that could be used as a terminal server and let the old machines work as a terminal client?

Start with live cd/dvd's. See if they fit your needs, they will be very slow as they run from a cd/dvd drive.

See also Xubuntu.

From distrowatch.com
"1. Absolute Linux
Absolute Linux is a light-weight modification of Slackware Linux. It includes several utilities that make configuration and maintenance easier and it has many common desktop and Internet applications installed and configured with tight integration of menus, applications and MIME types. Absolute Linux uses IceWM and ROX for its window and file managers.

2. AUSTRUMI
AUSTRUMI is a business card size (50MB) bootable live CD Linux distribution. It is based on Slackware Linux with initialisation scripts borrowed from the Blin project.

3. Core GNU/Linux
Core is designed and constructed around one simple philosophy: to be the absolute minimum of what is required for a Linux operating system. Core is designed to be the basis for a larger, more complete operating system constructed by the end user. It contains only what is necessary to boot into Linux and download, compile and install other software packages.

4. Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux is a business card size (50MB) live CD Linux distribution. Despite its minuscule size it strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop. Damn Small Linux has a nearly complete desktop, including XMMS (MP3, and MPEG), FTP client, links-hacked web browser, spreadsheet, email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor, three editors (Nedit, nVi, Zile [emacs clone]), Xpdf, Worker (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE, a web server, calculator, Fluxbox window manager, system monitoring apps, USB support, and soon it will have PCMCIA support as well. If you like Damn Small Linux you can install it on your hard drive. Because all the applications are small and light it makes a very good choice for older hardware.

5. DeLi Linux
DeLi Linux is a Linux distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, a graphical Web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, etc. A full install, including XFree86 and development tools, needs no more than 300 MB of harddisk space.

6. Fluxbuntu Linux
Fluxbuntu is a light-weight, standards-compliant, Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring the Fluxbox window manager. The project's primary goal is to develop an operating system that would run on a wide range of mobile devices and computers, both low-end and high-end.

7. LinuxConsole
LinuxConsole is an independently developed Linux live CD with different editions designed for desktops, servers, gaming consoles, and old computers. Its primary characteristics are easy installation, extensive choice of software in the form of modules, and excellent hardware detection.

8. MEPIS Linux
MEPIS Linux is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed for both personal and business purposes. It includes cutting-edge features such as a live, installation and recovery CD, automatic hardware configuration, NTFS partition resizing, ACPI power management, WiFi support, anti-aliased TrueType fonts, a personal firewall, KDE, and much more.

9. PapugLinux
PapugLinux is a minimal GNU/Linux live CD based on the Gentoo Linux distribution for x86 computers. The goal of PapugLinux is to provide a minimal but functional free operating system which can be run on most computers, from old systems with as little as 64 MB of memory to the latest powerful configurations.

10. Puppy Linux
Yes, Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full featured. Puppy boots into a 64MB ramdisk, and that's it, the whole caboodle runs in RAM. Unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, Puppy in its entirety loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-R/DVD-R to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all!

11. SaxenOS
SaxenOS is a lightweight Slackware and Zenwalk-based distribution with the Xfce desktop. It is designed for older, low-specification computers.

12. TA-Linux
TA-Linux is a free Linux distribution that targets Linux power users. Its main goal is to have a small base installation that the end-users can expand to include the software they need. The secondary goal is to support as many different architectures as possible, at this time x86 is fully supported with Alpha, Sparc, PPC and PA-RISC around the corner. Extra software not included in the base is handled using a system resembling the *BSD ports system, called Collection, which handles installation, upgrading and dependencies. The primary way of installing new software is to download the source, compile and install it (totaly automatic). The user can also choose to install already built binary packages, also automaticaly using the Collection system.

13. TinyMe
TinyMe is a PCLinuxOS-based mini-distribution. It exists to ease installation of PCLinuxOS on older computers, to provide a minimal installation for developers, and to deliver a fast Linux installation for where only the bare essentials are needed.

14. VectorLinux
Vector Linux is a small, fast, Intel based Linux operating system for PC style computers. The creators of Vector Linux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightening fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server. The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally as pleased because the small size and memory requirements of the operating system can be deployed on older machines maybe long forgotten.
"

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Thanks much for nice info.

The beat never fades!

I've experimented with Vector Linux & have been awaiting the latest release, however their site has been plagued by hackers recently. They just rebuilt the site but it's been hacked again. I wonder who they pissed off?

http://www.vectorlinux.com/

Have used Absolute Linux and would say that this is a good general purpose distribution for the machine specs you gave. Absolute comes with everything that you probably need, although you would have to install the second CD to get stuff like Scribus, Adobe, OpenOffice, etc. Multimedia support comes with Absolute, but you have to build it as root (very simple). Absolute is rock solid stable and fast, it is my choice it on several low spec machines. Absolute uses IceWM as the window manager.

Xubuntu is very good as well using the XFCE window manager, I would not run Gnome or KDE on your machine/RAM, although Absolute would run about twice as fast as Xubuntu, but Xubuntu gives you the Ubuntu repository which might be something you want (1000's of programs available). Of course you can have any of these programs on Absolute as well, but you have to compile them (a little more time consuming), wher with Xubuntu you can just type as root, 'apt-get install programname'

Puppy is very good as well, but I would not recommend for a business environment, not that it is not stable, but it is much different than other distributions, and support in that environment would then be your responsibility.

For your environment I would rule out (not to say these don't have their place in the Linux world) DSL, AUSTRUMI, DeLi, Fluxbuntu, and anything with just FluxBox (not that FluxBox is not good, just not for your environment).