I have an old 266 with a 4 gig hard drive and 128 meg of ram collecting dust. I think I will install some form of Linux on it. What should I do, use the Linux box as a firewall, server or just let it be a stand alone system?

Install Gentoo on it to get the most out of the hardware and then do what you like with it. If it was me, I'd probably put my mta on it, use it as a remote syslog destination and run setiathome on it. Maybe do cross-compiling on it for software for my main machine too. Since I have to use a USB modem to connect to the internet and my main box is my only USB capable box, I'd also set up an NFS server on the 266 and use a 1-2G partition on it as a nfsroot filesystem for the main box in case something nasty happens to the big HD on my main box (not forgetting to make a nfs kernel for the main box and stick it on a floppy too). Firewalling is also a good option but there are so many possible setups you'll have to decide for yourself what's best for you.

Hi, This is a good question......If you getting any older version of Redhat or any other flavors of Linux go for it and install.After install configure this machine as a backup storage machine of all the machines which you are using in the netwotk or Home.Configure the Samba serverin that and try to connect it....

Have you considered BeOS? Would be the best OS for that computer, IMO. The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is a media computer. Run a stripped-out Windows98 with WinAMP. Send the video out to your television, and the sound out to your stereo. Play mp3 files from the hard drive with the visualizations on the t.v. Sounds cool, at least to me. Some smaller versions of Linux might be right for that computer - Peanut Linux and Damn Small Linux come to mind. Best Luck, Bob

I'm running windowmaker as my default wm on this p200mmx.128 megs of ram and 4 gig hdd. Using RH8(runs sweet as a nut). Read up on "hdparm" and all will be well with the world:).