Need a good distro for OLD PCs

I am looking for a lean distro to give me the following:

• A basic GUI Interface
• Internet (Browser, email, etc.)
• Decent Hardware Support (not perfect)
• Not a Hardware HOG

I want to be able to provide a Linux alternative to clients who have OLD PCs. I don't want to be limited to Win98 since it will get no more security patches soon.

For example, I took a P2, 133 Mhz with 128 Mb of RAM to see how I could do with the distros I had.

• Linspire (forget it)
• Xandros (Video Bombed)
• Ubuntu (Crawled)
• Debian from scratch (Desktop load) worked the best, but my soundcard and modem not working

I didn't try Knoppix, but I want a hd install.

Can anyone give me some advice?

Thanks In Advance

 

how about xubuntu
it's lightweight and should reconize your hardware

http://www.xubuntu.org/

 

graveman,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look...

 

More Alternatives

You may have a look at Vector Linux
From the VectorLinux website :

>>I didn't try Knoppix, but I want a hd install.

You can install knoppix in your harddisk..Check out here

Have a look at Damnsmall Linux..
Here's what they say..DamnSmall Linux can :

 

Thanks for the suggestions g33k, I'll check them out....

 

I don't think you'll have much fun running a desktop on that hardware... Anyway, you could try Xubuntu; it comes with the Xfce desktop which is rather lightweight.
And if FreeBSD is ok for you, you might also try PCBSD.

 

falko,

You are probably right, but I have run into a LOT of clients who are still using old PCs with win98 or winme. XP isn't an option due to bloat and Microsnot is killing updates for win98 and winme soon, so I wanted to find a linux alternative for those in that situation.

I am afraid my problems are going to be hardware support, especially for the "winmodems" or software modems that are so prevelant nowadays. Also sound cards seem to be a concern.

I personally like W2k, but I am afraid it will not meet my needs either.

What's a boy to do.....

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

donate those

maybe you can encourage some of your clients to donate the old things to the third world villages.

 

I installed on my mom's backup computer (P3 400Mhz, 128 MB Ram) Xubuntu and that run faster than WinXP on my 1.7 Ghz Athlon / 1Gb Ram

 

If Debian worked best, u should have tried to get that modem and soundcard working.
What i am seeing in your post is that u want a linux-out-of-the-box what works the immidiatly with no configuration at all?