"Light" Distro?

[kona0197]

So here's what I need:

* Lightweight distro
* MP3, MPEG, all of the other "dirty" codec installed out of the box or easy to install
* Wireless support
* Ability to read/write NTFS/FAT hard drives

To be installed on:

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB memory
Onboard Intel graphics
DVD-ROM

So what distro should I look into?

[RHamel]

I have Ubuntu 12.04 running on an old A31 Thinkpad that has 512 MB, and a Pentium 1.6 GHz CPU, but the graphics are an ATI 7500. I'm just barely able to watch DVD's.

It use to run Fedora right up to F14.

[xjonquilx]

Try out Lubuntu. It's designed to run on as little as 128 MB of RAM. It's Ubuntu based so you know it's easy to install all the "dirty" stuff. Ubuntu derivatives have great wireless support and they can read/write NTFS as well.

http://lubuntu.net

[Finalzone]

Bodhi Linux or Puppy Linux. Choose your poison. Best way is to setup a live media to try out a distro that suits your need.

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by kona0197

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB memory
Onboard Intel graphics
DVD-ROM

So what distro should I look into?

Your choices (and responsiveness) in a Linux distro will greatly increase if you can upgrade to one gig of ram

And I would offer Linux Mint 13 (MATE) as a good distro.

[John the train]

I'd second Finalzone's suggestions, I've got Macpup ( Lucid Puppy + E17 ) on my laptop ( 300Mhz P2, 192Mb RAM ) and while not exactly a speed-burner it's plent fast enough. If you do go the Puppy route i'd recommend adding Frisbee to manage the wifi. I've also had a look at Bodhi, I liked the fact that it's a ' bare-bones ' install from the CD, so you have full control over the apps you install. It comes with Midori browser to get you started, but the usual suspects are available in the repos.

[hadrons123]

scientific linux?

[jsn255]

CrunchBang. Not sure if all the features works you are asking. I'm using it myself on old laptop as server. Atleast touchpad and wireless did work out of the box.

[pinkfloyd]

Arch linux with XFCE

[hadrons123]

Originally Posted by kona0197

So here's what I need:

* Lightweight distro
* MP3, MPEG, all of the other "dirty" codec installed out of the box or easy to install
* Wireless support
* Ability to read/write NTFS/FAT hard drives

To be installed on:

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB memory
Onboard Intel graphics
DVD-ROM

So what distro should I look into?

@
pinkfloyd
Nothing works out of the box in arch linux and setting everything up is big task among all the linux distros except gentoo.

[sea]

I've almost done a script to make one's current system as a live system.
Hard to tell if its working properly, as i currently have many issues of which i think F17 is the cause.

However, with recent distros i tried, Linux Mind Maya (Cinnamon) is something i'd consider very user friendly for such formerly used to windows. IMHO even more simpler to get it working than Ubuntu with all its preisntalled stuff..

[mmix]

slitaz:
http://www.slitaz.org/en/

tinycore:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/welcome.html

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by sea

Linux Mind Maya (Cinnamon)

Maya - Cinnamon requires 3D video acceleration. Maya - Mate does not need 3D acceleration. And Mate is smooth and stable. Enjoying Maya - Mate myself

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by kona0197

Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU
512 MB memory
Onboard Intel graphics
DVD-ROM

How about Fedora 17? The other day I installed it on an old Sony Vaio PCG-992L laptop with even lower specs than yours:

• Pentium III 1.0GHz CPU
• 256 MB memory (I used the 'nomemcheck' kernel option to disable the memory requirement)
• Onboard Intel i815 graphics (see my post here about that)
• DVD-ROM

I run a lightweight window manager on it (Window Maker) and it actually runs pretty well. It would run even better on your machine. You could select XFCE or LXDE as alternatives, so that you don't have to run GNOME 3. During the install you can enable the RPMFusion repos so that all the codecs you need can be selected at install time.

[hadrons123]

you can enable the RPMFusion repos so that all the codecs you need can be selected at install time.

how do you enable RPMfusion while you install fedora?