Many of us have an old computer, in fact, old computers are everywhere, instead of taking them to the garbage you can revive them with these 6 cool Linux distributions which is designed specially for old PCs and Laptops. A Micro Core Linux as it’s developers say, Tiny core ISO file size is only. Damn Small Linux is a distro that offers a GUI based OS for low resource systems and some applications for normal users task-alike. It’s designed with the intention t. Damn Small Linux A Lightweight Linux Distro For Old Computers. 5 Lightweight Linux For Old Computers. May 18, 2015 - Linux operating systems, hardware, laptops, ARM, tutorials, education. Tiny Linux, Tiny Linux is a small Linux distribution designed especially for old. These CDs/DVDs are usually offered for download as an ISO-file which. Feb 2, 2017 - Instead, install a new operating system and put it back into the rotation. Forget Windows, though: Linux is an open-source (and free) OS. Deploy it and your old desktop or laptop will feel very much like new. Ubuntu runs underneath, and, as with any version of Linux, things can get a little less familiar the.
I'm looking for a Linux or Unix based distro for this old laptop. It needs to be lightweight. I tried Puppy Linux, but odd things happen. It does run quite quickly, but there are lines all over the screen. I think it's a driver issue but I don't know how to solve it.
These are the specifications of the laptop:
500MHz Celeron
5.5GB hard drive
192MB RAM (It can't be expanded any further)
Either Trident CyberBlade or SMI Lynx graphics (I think it may be SMI, but I'm not 100% sure)
The specific model I find is: IBM ThinkPad i Series 1171. It is either a 1200 or a 1300 (I'm not sure what that means but it's mentioned on the Lenovo website)
What is the best Linux distribution for this laptop? It does have USB ports but I do not believe that it supports booting from USB.
A portable operating system is one which is compatible with multiple hardware platforms and also can be carried easily on a physical drive. Most of the portable OSs are lightweight and carry in a CD or USB drive. Running an OS from a CD/ USB drive is termed using live CD/USB. Even though the portable OS is lightweight, the performance is not to be underestimated and most of them are open source with strong community support. There is nothing wrong to keep one Portable OS as part of your System First Aid; they can boot from USB, retrieve your data and convert your dead PC to alive.
We listed the best portable Linux OS Distro that can carry in a USB drive and boot on any desktop or laptop.
Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux is an ultra-small Linux OS has a user-friendly UI. Despite being small it has readily available partitioning and file recovery tools packed with this portable Linux. This Linux Distro is suitable for basic computing and web browsing. Puppy Linux is highly customizable, different customized versions called “puplets” are available. Each puplets offers unique features or support. There are puplets such as non-English puplets, special function puplets, etc.
Puppy can save session data in separate files. This Linux distro includes its own package manager, which makes installing additional applications easy. The configuration tools allow the user to tweak system’s setting. After all the tweaking, customizing and installing additional applications a user can turn the by-product into their Linux distro using the remastering tool.
Key Features: Size – 100MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – JWM | Customizable | Download from Website
Related: 14 Best Lightweight OS for Old Laptop & Netbook
Slax
Slax is a user-friendly Linux distro. The standard version of Slax is small as 210MB, and fast Linux Distro. The size of this portable Linux is dependent on the user, and this distro is modular. The benefit of modular distro concept is the user can add or subtract modules before downloading the OS. If one does not require office software, they can delete it before downloading, or add the multimedia tool if they wish.
Linux Downloads For Laptops Free
This Linux distro is packed inside a single directory /Slax/. Slax Linux Distro is available in both 32bit and 64 bit. For old computers, the 32-bit version is advisable, whereas 64-bit version is best suited for modern models of computers. If one does not require office software, they can delete it before downloading, or add the multimedia tool if they wish. This Linux distro is packed inside a single directory /Slax/. Slax Linux Distro is available in both 32bit and 64 bit. For old computers, the 32-bit version is advisable, whereas 64-bit version is best suited for modern models of computers.
Key Features: Size – 210MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – KDE | Modular | Download from Website
Related: 10 Best Linux Server Distributions for your Business & Home
BackTrack (Kali Linux)
BackTrack is not light nor the heaviest OS. For a portable OS, it is a little bit heavy with the size of 2GB. But the 300+ apps readily available are enough to justify this extra size. This Linux distro is considered as Hacker favorite, meant for security testing. Kali OS can be used for wireless hacking, server exploiting, web-app assessing and so on. Although BackTrack Linux does contain a few graphical toolsIf, this Linux Distro is good for command line experts.
BackTrack is serious about anonymity. Users do not have to register any names, bank accounts or user accounts as part of obtaining ISO image. There is no reporting back to any vendor by any spyware. Ncrack is a tool in this particular distro which assists the user in identifying user accounts with weak passwords with no need for logging into each host. It must be noted that all the facility offered by Kali Linux distro is to be used legally only. It must be noted that BackTrack project is continued as Kali Linux.
Key Features: Size – 2GB | RAM – 512MB | Window Manager – GNOME, KDE | Security testing | Download from Website
Damn Small Linux
As the name implies, Damn Small Linux is very small. It is of only 50MB. The small size does not mean it is underpowered; it runs surprisingly fast even on low-powered hardware. Damn Small Linux packs many applications such as Firefox, VNC viewer, file manager, instant messenger, and even a web server. Thus DSL is capable of performing browsing web, write documents, manage files, play music, manipulate images and all other things a basic computer does.
This Portable Linux Distro can function as a server (SSH/FTP/HTTPD) right off on a live CD/ USB drive. DSL is based on yet another Linux distro called Knoppix. Hence applications from that distro can also be run in DSL.
Key Features: Size – 50MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – Fluxbox, JWM | Download from Website
Porteus Linux
This particular Linux distro is of less than 300MB. Porteus is available in both 32 bit and 64 bit. Similar to Slax, Porteus is also modular. Precompiled modules can be activated or deactivated before downloading this Linux distro. The user can select default software and select applications such as browser, office, etc. Even Skype can be set as a default application. The user has the provision to select the drivers they wish. Finally, the user can customize the system password and boot behavior of the OS.
Key Features: Size – 300MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – KDE | Modular | Download from Website
Tiny Core Linux
Being 10MB this Linux distro is the smallest of the portable OS. This is also the lowest RAM demanding OS. One of the downsides of being so small is that it packs no applications, no file manager or so. These can be later installed by users though. Since it does not have anything unwanted out of the box, Tiny Core Linux is fast and responsive. Tiny Core is not void though; it has a window manager, custom tools, and a terminal.
Key Features: Size – 106MB (tiny Core Plus) | RAM – 48MB | Window Manager – KDE | Download from Website
FatDog64
FatDog64 is a 64 bit multiuser Linux distro and a derivative of Puppy Linux. Many applications are included out of the box. Since it packs more application than Puppy Linux, it is heavier than the same but is not the heaviest of all.
FatDog packs applications like Libre Office and GIMP. There are also other lightweight applications for image editing, note taking, and other various tasks. There is room for some entertainment in FatDog64 since it packs some games. It has a save file persistent feature which ask the user to save any changes. This feature makes sure that the system changes made by the user stay unchanged while future uses.
Key Features: Size – 350MB | RAM – 256MB | Window Manager – JWM | Download from Website
Knoppix
Knoppix is a well established and stable Linux distro. This Knoppix portable OS was one of the first live CD distros to get popularity. It packs more than 1000 software packages. The browsers such as Chromium, Firefox/Ice weasel are available. For office package Libre office is available. Tools for data rescue and system repair are parts of this distro. There are many distros derived from Knoppix. Adriane Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, and Kali Linux are some of them.
Key Features: Size – 700MB | RAM – 128MB | Window Manager – KDE | Download from Website
Best Portable Linux Distro
The portable OS can perform basic computing and more with extraordinary power. Portable Linux Distributions are used for system recovery, hardware compatibility testing and so on. Hence community support and long-term support is at hand, and portable OSs are independent of the hard disk of the system. They run on the RAM and hence are faster than the most mainstream OS. The only speed limiting factor of these Live OSs are the speed of your USB drive/CD.
Damn Small Linux Download Iso
Related: Top 7 Free Operating Systems For Laptop or Netbook.
Linux Iso Images Downloads
The Portable Linux distros are no less than any commercial operating systems in terms of features and driver support. The above-mentioned distros seem to outperform conventional operating systems in many scenarios. They can perform a specific task such as system recovery, penetration testing and so on, which most of the other OS fail to perform. Linux distro does all these and still manage to be light enough to be carried on a USB flash drive.