Utility Linux Distribution

[DeltaDon]

I'm doing more and more research into Linux distro's myself. So far I'm mostly installing on P4 laptops that had XP on them, but I do have PII and PIII laptops that are running Win98 or other old Windows installs. For my 32 bit machines I've been mostly using Zorin 15.3 (32 bit) to allow them to search on the internet and remain useful. Most might be able to run 32 bit Win 7 if you could find device drivers, but sometimes that's a long process. I have a small collection of older Linux disro's that are at least 14 - 15 years old including Free Spire, Suse 10.1. Belenix 0.4, Kubuntu 6.06 and maybe some others that I might try on the PIII's. The Zorin 15.3 runs fairly well if you have 2GB of ram. FOSS has a write up on 32 bit disro's with memory requirements etc: https://itsfoss.com/32-bit-linux-distributions/

 

[ajacocks]

@legodude T2 SDE is a modern Linux distro that is focused on an extreme variety of supported platforms:

T2 SDE - The Open System Development Environment

t2sde.org

There has been an interest in making sure that vintage hardware is well supported.

- Alex

 

[seaken]

Can anyone recommend a good modern(ish) linux distribution for Pentium II class machines?

By utility I mean wide hardware support and being able to image ancient scsi disks, mount a variety of filesystems, check out various PCI and ISA cards, etc.

By modern I mean features like python more recent than 1.x, etc.

My pentium III 450mhz/256mb ram is my fastest system that still has a full compliment of legacy ports and I find these type of activities much easier in linux than in WIndows 2000 or XP. I tried a version of Puppy Linux based on Xenial and encountered a panic on boot because it does not understand my Adaptec 2940...

thanks
mike

I have found the best modern distro for old Pentium II and III class system to be antiX 32-bit. It is based on Debian and is fully supported by a small staff of developers and users. There is a connection with MX Linux which is more targeted to modern machines. I recommend antiX. I use it on equipment with as little as 192MB RAM and with a GUI (IceWM) although they support non-GUI setups as well, or full Desktop Environments like XFCE.

I have used the latest Debian versions and kernels but you can use earlier versions and change the kernel to suit your hardware. You can "spin" your own setup and easily save it using their snapshot and Live systems. Very comprehensive. But I usually just load the standard FULL 32-bit distro and it works. I've had a couple of issues with video drivers but they have been solved with kernel mods.

For old computers antiX and Debian are the way to go. You can try Debian directly but unless you are fairly geeky with Linux you will find antiX easier to setup and manage. The forum is very helpful and I am active there. (as Seaken64).

Seaken

 

[Chuck(G)]

I used to use (<5 years ago) Ubuntu, but it got too bleeding edge and frou-frou for me. Been using Debian ever since with XFCE4. Can't complain.