Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 26th May 2008 10:58 UTC, submitted by i386DX
Abandoned Zone reviewed several lightweight Linux distributions, and concluded: "First of all it has to be clear that there's a difference between 'lightweight' and 'lightweight'. Especially Damn Small Linux is very lightweight, but also it's not really usable on 'more recent' systems. It think DSL is perfect for 486 or Pentium 1-based systems but nothing more. At the other side there are Zenwalk and Xubuntu which are pretty heavy lightweight distributions. I think the use of Xfce has something to do with that. All the others are floating between those two extremes."
Permalink for comment 315655
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2006-03-13
Since the whole purpose of the discussion however is Linux and not BSD, I would second arch linux. After trying several different distros, this settled on my eeepc for good. Fast, efficient and 'simple', meaning you are always in control of what is in there.
It is fun watching the different distros adapting versions to the eeePC. Here the problem isn't so much RAM, the eeePC comes twice the RAM as the unit tested in the article, but disk space.
I've tried the Xandros that came with it, eeeXubuntu, Puppy, and Debian.
Of all the distro's that I tried, saying, "Debian" tells you the least about the resulting system. When I install, I put in the standard system with no X server. On reboot, I can install Xorg, something more minimalist, or stay with a CLI system. Along with the X server, you can install pretty much any window manager, or Desktop environment you want.
The current eeePC configuration is a basic KDE system with OpenOffice, plus a few other programs. The internal, 4 gig drive is 39% used. The home directory sits on an HDSD card.
For fun, I would like to see some of these distros tested with 128 meg of RAM. I've done it with virtual installations, and it is indeed possible to have a responsive system running Fluxbox (my favorite of the light weight window managers) and Firefox.
As for BSD, I woulld like to hear some input from people who tried installing it with limited machines. The BSD crowd almost by definition loves to tinker, and I would like to hear their results.