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What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC?

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  What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> - 2025-06-19 21:37 +0200
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-06-19 22:47 +0200
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2025-06-19 21:14 +0000
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-06-20 03:28 +0000
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-20 01:06 -0400
        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood <phaywood@alphalink.com.au> - 2025-06-23 10:38 +1000
          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2025-06-23 14:35 +0000
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-23 12:02 -0400
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-06-23 16:43 +0000
              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2025-06-23 17:00 +0000
                Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-06-24 07:03 +0000
              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-23 18:56 +0100
              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-06-23 19:42 +0000
                Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-23 21:38 -0400
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-23 19:10 +0100
              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-06-24 09:18 +1000
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-06-24 09:13 +1000
          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-23 18:53 +0100
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-06-23 11:29 -0700
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> - 2025-06-20 16:25 +0200
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-06-19 21:18 +0000
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> - 2025-06-19 22:21 +0000
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-20 01:11 -0400
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> - 2025-06-20 16:26 +0200
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-06-20 08:47 +1000
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> - 2025-06-20 16:31 +0200
        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-06-21 21:56 +0000
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-20 10:04 +0100
      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? "Matthew Camilleri" <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> - 2025-06-20 16:30 +0200
        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-20 16:25 +0100
          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-06-21 09:54 +1000
          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-21 01:31 -0400
          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-06-21 21:55 +0000
            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-06-23 07:56 -0700
              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-23 18:58 +0100
                Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-06-24 09:03 +1000
                  Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-06-24 07:44 -0700
                    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-25 01:41 -0400
                      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-06-25 09:34 -0700
                        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-06-25 18:57 -0400
                      Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-07-05 09:26 +0000
                        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-05 18:29 +0000
                          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-07-06 07:20 +1000
                            Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-05 22:22 +0000
                              Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-07-05 15:31 -0700
                                Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-06 04:34 +0000
                                  Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-06 01:51 -0400
                          Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-06 09:07 +0100
                        Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-06 03:19 +0000
                Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-07-05 09:21 +0000
                  Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-05 18:23 +0000
                  Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-07 09:26 -0700
                    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Harold Stevens <wookie@aspen.localdomain> - 2025-07-07 12:37 -0500
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Borax Man <boraxman@geidiprime.nospam> - 2025-06-20 09:43 +0000
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> - 2025-06-23 16:39 +0200
    Re: What old Linux distro to run on a old Pentium III PC? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-07-05 16:12 -0700

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#69347

Le 25-06-2025, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> a écrit :
> On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
>> 
>> The original EeePC was a bit anemic, 
>
>    Not for THE TIMES.

Depends on what one hear by that. At the time, it was too slow to be
able to run the last version of Windows. So, it couldn't be called a
first class computer. On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on it,
so it was enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy
it Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an obsolete
version of Windows.

-- 
Si vous avez du temps à perdre :
https://scarpet42.gitlab.io

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#69374

On 05 Jul 2025 09:26:18 GMT, Stéphane CARPENTIER wrote:

> Le 25-06-2025, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> a écrit :
>> On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
>>> 
>>> The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
>>
>>    Not for THE TIMES.
> 
> Depends on what one hear by that. At the time, it was too slow to be
> able to run the last version of Windows. So, it couldn't be called a
> first class computer. On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on it,
> so it was enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy
> it Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an obsolete
> version of Windows.

The eee PC 701 originally ran Xandros. I doubt Ubuntu would have worked.  
I installed Q4OS. It took several attempts when I got too greedy with the 
applications to be installed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q4OS

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#69388

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
> On 05 Jul 2025 09:26:18 GMT, St?phane CARPENTIER wrote:
>> Le 25-06-2025, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> a ?crit :
>>> On 6/24/25 10:44 AM, John Ames wrote:
>>>> The original EeePC was a bit anemic,
>>>
>>>    Not for THE TIMES.
>> 
>> Depends on what one hear by that. At the time, it was too slow to be
>> able to run the last version of Windows. So, it couldn't be called a
>> first class computer. On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on it,
>> so it was enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy
>> it Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an obsolete
>> version of Windows.
> 
> The eee PC 701 originally ran Xandros.

Mine has a classic "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it. It's
funny how the regular-sized sticker looks huge on the tiny laptop.

> I doubt Ubuntu would have worked. I installed Q4OS. It took
> several attempts when I got too greedy with the applications to
> be installed.

Tiny Core Linux on mine. Works great. I choose lightweight software
anyway so no need to find alternatives except where packages aren't
available. With the maximum 2GB RAM installed Firefox is just about
usable, which is the heaviest program I use regularly. I bought it
cheaply second-hand not that long ago.

I had trouble with SSD giving errors at first, so I eventually
reinstalled to a partition on just the upper half of the disk and
it's working much better. Their wear leveling musn't have been too
good (maybe cause to look into one of these flash-optimised
filesystems but I'm not sure I can be bothered).

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

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#69393

On 6 Jul 2025 07:20:25 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

> Mine has a classic "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it. It's funny
> how the regular-sized sticker looks huge on the tiny laptop.

Mine doesn't have any of the usual stickers other than a label identifying 
it as a 4G Surf on the back. It's been a long time but I think the Windows 
XP offering came after I bought it. 

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#69394

On 7/5/25 15:22, rbowman wrote:
> On 6 Jul 2025 07:20:25 +1000, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
> 
>> Mine has a classic "Designed for Windows XP" sticker on it. It's funny
>> how the regular-sized sticker looks huge on the tiny laptop.
> 
> Mine doesn't have any of the usual stickers other than a label identifying
> it as a 4G Surf on the back. It's been a long time but I think the Windows
> XP offering came after I bought it.

	I have  a friend who really wants her EEEPC to run but she had Ubuntu 
14.02 installed and is unwilling to turn her back on it and learn to use 
anoher distribution.


bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.07- Linux 6.12.35- Plasma 5.27.11

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#69411

On Sat, 5 Jul 2025 15:31:36 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:

> 	I have  a friend who really wants her EEEPC to run but she had 
Ubuntu
> 14.02 installed and is unwilling to turn her back on it and learn to use
> anoher distribution.

Understood. At this point I've been through so many distros and DEs in the 
last 30 or so years it's like driving a car. Adjust seat and mirrors, find 
lights, directionals, wipers, radio, drop it into gear and go. If it's a 
manual, find out where R is; some of them are weird.

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#69413

On 7/6/25 12:34 AM, rbowman wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Jul 2025 15:31:36 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
> 
>> 	I have  a friend who really wants her EEEPC to run but she had
> Ubuntu
>> 14.02 installed and is unwilling to turn her back on it and learn to use
>> anoher distribution.
> 
> Understood. At this point I've been through so many distros and DEs in the
> last 30 or so years it's like driving a car. Adjust seat and mirrors, find
> lights, directionals, wipers, radio, drop it into gear and go. If it's a
> manual, find out where R is; some of them are weird.

  MX-LXDE may be the solution - but there ARE other
  even more 'light' distros that are OK.

  The poster seems to want an OLD distro, but that's
  not necessary.

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#69419

On 05/07/2025 19:29, rbowman wrote:
> The eee PC 701 originally ran Xandros. I doubt Ubuntu would have worked.
Linux Mint worked.

-- 
“But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an 
hypothesis!”

Mary Wollstonecraft

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#69408

On 05 Jul 2025 09:26:18 GMT, Stéphane CARPENTIER wrote:

> On the same time, Ubuntu was running fine on [the Eee PC], so it was
> enough for a day to day usage. And as everyone started to buy it
> Microsoft started to be afraid and agreed to sell it with an
> obsolete version of Windows.

Vista was a real embarrassment to Microsoft, on that score as well as 
others.

Just to add to the fun, the Linux versions of all those fancy 3D effects 
worked fine on the Eee, too (I tried them on mine), while Vista was so bad 
in its hardware requirements for those effects that it led to a lawsuit.

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#69346

Le 23-06-2025, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> a écrit :
>
> To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It was 
> when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in a 
> fainting fit

For a web browser, it depends mostly on the website which can be poorly
designed. For the emails, I don't see why it should be slow.

-- 
Si vous avez du temps à perdre :
https://scarpet42.gitlab.io

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#69372

On 05 Jul 2025 09:21:37 GMT, Stéphane CARPENTIER wrote:

> Le 23-06-2025, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> a écrit :
>>
>> To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It was
>> when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in a
>> fainting fit
> 
> For a web browser, it depends mostly on the website which can be poorly
> designed. For the emails, I don't see why it should be slow.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Eee-PC-701-4G.6745.0.html

512 MB of RAM doesn't give you much to play with and a 4 GB SSD doesn't 
allow for much swap. The integrated graphics used some of the RAM so there 
wasn't even 512 MB free.

Despite the obvious limitations it was useful. With the SSD I could throw 
it in the motorcycle bag and expect it to live, and if it didn't I wasn't 
out much. In 2007 laptops were still relatively expensive and fragile.

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#69457

On 05 Jul 2025 09:21:37 GMT
Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> wrote:

> > To compare apples and apples the EEEPC was fine as just a GUI. It
> > was when you wanted to use a web browser and email it collapsed in
> > a fainting fit  
> 
> For a web browser, it depends mostly on the website which can be
> poorly designed. For the emails, I don't see why it should be slow.

Yeah, that was the era where Javascript-centric web design was just
starting to become really epidemic and before browser developers had
really focused in on tuning for maximum JS performance - open a nice
simple static HTML page and things would be A-okay, but navigate over
to one of the new abominations and the poor thing would grind to a halt.

(Whichever web developer came up with the first page that needed
scripts enabled to display static page content should've been shot then
and there, as a warning to the rest.)

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#69461

In <20250707092632.0000201d@gmail.com> John Ames:

[Snip...]

> (Whichever web developer came up with the first page that needed
> scripts enabled to display static page content should've been shot then
> and there, as a warning to the rest.)

I agree in principle.  :)

What I suspect actually "motivated" designers was less a concern with the
efficieny of code, and more about the Pointy Hair Boss Mob demanding that
every ADVERSISEMENT possible be jammed into space available using JS.

Why JS? It was the New And Shiny Agentic AI of that era.

"...plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
--Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

-- 
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at att, dotted with net. * DO NOT SPAM IT. *
I toss (404) GoogleGroup (404 http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/).

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#68929

On 2025-06-19, Matthew Camilleri <bunkertoshimatty@gmail.com> wrote:
> I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
> what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
> so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
>
> What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?
>
>

I've been able to get Q4OS linux on my AMD Duron 700MHz.  similar specs
to yours, a bit more ram (768MB).

Puppy Linux is also another option, though RAM may be tight for that.

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#69035

On 19.06.2025 21:37 Matthew Camilleri wrote:

> I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally
> for what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium
> III, 385 or so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).

Slackware will most likely run on it, but don't use a desktop
environment, but fvwm, mwm etc.
384 MB is not much and the Pentium 3 will be slow too.

Debian should work too, but choose the netboot installer.

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#69398

On 6/19/25 12:37, Matthew Camilleri wrote:
> I posted a simmilar question on comp.os.misc, but that was generally for
> what operating systems to install on this old thing (a Pentium III, 385 or
> so megabytes of ram, 80 gb harddrive).
> 
> What old Linux distro would be cool to run on this thing?

	i dunno from cool but Knoppix will boot in 32 bit kernel if
that is one of the problems you are facing.  What media can you use
to install the Linux distibution?

	Knoppix has CDs and DVD and usually these can be written to
USB flash drives.  Bur read up on it before you start as things seem to
have changed.  Knoppix was one of the first distributions I tried out when
I was getting into Linux.
Get the knoppix-cheatcodes.txt.
	And if you are in the USA then use <http://mirrors.sonic.net/knoppix/>
There are directories for DVD and CD.
        Don't forget to download a checksum though Knoppix has an on iso 
file
check run when booting up.
	Good luck.

bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.07- Linux 6.12.35- Plasma 5.27.11

	

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