VL on 366 Mhz w/64 megs

[Tracer Tong]

I'm trying to find a linux distro that has a GUI and can run on a Toshiba laptop with 64 megs of ram and a 366 Mhz processor.  I read that vector linux was a good bet, but might need some memory management optimizations.  Does anyone have any tips?

[easuter]

Well, you could try installing an older version of VectorLinux, like 4.x or 5.1 Standard.
But the latest release, 5.8 Standard should also work ok, provided you use a lightweght window manager for your graphical environment, such as IceWM or JWM for example.

[caitlyn]

I second eauster's suggestion that you run Vector Linux 5.8 Standard with a lightweight window manager.  jwm, pekwm, icewm, fluxbox, afterstep, and WindowMaker should all run acceptably on your machine.  It's just a matter of personal preference.  jwm and pekwm use the fewest resources and should be fastest.  Another suggestion is to avoid (and possibly uninstall) very resource intensive applications.  Use either Dillo or Opera for your browser.  Forefox will be very slow and Seamonkey will run slower than molasses going uphill in winter.  OpenOffice is not a consideration on your machine but AbiWord and Gnumeric should run well enough.  SIAG Office is even lighter and faster but doesn't have good support for MS Word and Excel documents.  Don't even think about the optional games pack, XaraLX, or most of the multimedia apps.

I've gotten good results running 5.8 on a Toshiba Libretto SS1000 (233MHz Pentium MMX, 64MB of RAM) so I see no reason why you shouldn't.

[Tracer Tong]

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to go ahead and install 5.8 standard.  It looks like x11 is the default window manager.  How do I go about installing jwm or pekwm, I've never used either,  In the install, under Bulks Selection, should I deselect optional/X11.tlz? 

[lagagnon]

....  It looks like x11 is the default window manager.

No, X11 is the entire GUI system, not the window manager/desktop environment. The desktop environment for 5.8 Standard is "xfce" (http://xfce.org).

  How do I go about installing jwm or pekwm

Once you have completed the install you go into Menu, System, GSLAPT, and choose jwm, install. But first of all you probably should read the VL Documentation (pre-loaded on your computer), especially the manual about our packaging system (it is also online here: http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/docs/vl58/manuals/vl5_slaptget_en.html )

... should I deselect optional/X11.tlz? 

Definetely not unless you want to run that machine in command line mode only (no GUI).

[Tracer Tong]

No, X11 is the entire GUI system, not the window manager/desktop environment. The desktop environment for 5.8 Standard is "xfce" (http://xfce.org).

Okay, I guess my understanding of GUIs is kinda off then.  So X11 is a lower level and something like Gnome, KDE or jwm runs on top of that?

[easuter]

So X11 is a lower level and something like Gnome, KDE or jwm runs on top of that?

Exactly