[KLUG Members] An older Linux/Unix distro...

[Robert G. Brown]

>... I want to migrate over to a Linux or Unix OS.  Now this laptop is
>quite old, assume the bare essentials (4-16MB RAM, 550MB Hard Drive...
I would pick up a copy of Red Hat, version 5.2 and perform a ruthlessly
minimal install, by accepting NONE of their default system definitions and
doing a package-by-package review of everything.

Now, the problem with this is that if you're not really familiar with Linux 
already, you will not know what packages to install and which one to avoid.
You want to seek the help of you local LUG in this effort (your signature
indicates you're in Boston), it would be a good idea. If you were in this
area, I would be happy to do it for you, at a KLUG meeting.

My initial system would have no graphical interface on it; I'd make sure the 
core system did everything else I wanted, then I'd install the GUI, speace
permitting. It's hard for me to see how X would do anything more than crawl
on a slow processor with so little memory.
 
>I'll only be using this unit for internet connectivity and word
>processing.  
Internet connectivity should not be a problem, EXCEPT that the system may not 
be too secure. a number of exploits have been developed since the 5.2 days,
and updating this system to close them could be a project.

Also, by "word processing", I hope you mean something like a plain text editor,
not a graphical word processor.

I used to run a 486/80 with a 450 MB HDD and 16 MB of memory in for plaintext 
editing and e-mail (but behind a firewall), and it worked just fine. Good
response time and so forth. I never made any heavy demands on it....

Bob Kanaley's suggestion is a good one; I'd select a distribution that did NOT 
require a graphical interface. I can see your machine CHOKING on something 
like "Demo Linux", buit there may be some others out there that may be useful.
I'd try the first approach, and use this as something of a fallback.

I hope this helps...

Bumping up to a modest Pentium machine and a 1 Gb drive would make this much 
less of a challenge, and they can be had for rather small piles of shekels 
these days... might be worth it!
                                                         Regards,
                                                         ---> RGB <---