My old 486 box is crying out for linux

But it doesnt know where to start!

[TheDave]

I've got an old 486DX/100, 64mb ram, over a gig of storage (I think 2 but cant remember :P) and it's currently "running" on win2k after I started experimenting too see how far I could push it ;) Anyway, lately I have been wanting to try linux on this computer, having never used it before. But I want it for one fairly specific purpose - playing mp3's. I have a dream you see - this ultra quiet (no fans, quiet powersupply) PC will become my music player. I got to thinking that I could even have it networked, and possibly control the playlist and stuff through the network - then map a few buttons from the keyboard to actions like play pause next etc, so I can ditch the monitor. Whaddaya reckon am I pushin' it or is it possible? Where do I start? Or should I just '98 and use winamp, forget the whole thing?

[bcolflesh]

Install a small footprint *nix and MPG123:

www.mpg123.de/

[4eyes]

Excellent decision TD

I setup a friend with linux on a similar box

Even with the latest Madrake installation (not that lightweight) her box runs 'sweet as a a nut'.

This was 6 months ago. My friend was a linux newbie, in fact almost a windows newbie, but I have had ZERO calls for help and support.

She is 'well pleased' with the speed and stability compared to all the previous versions of Windows that have been installed on that box.

[TheDave]

Thanks, I'll look into those. I did look at some of the major linux distributions but they were all huge, can you recommend any small ones?

[bcolflesh]

Try Peanut:

www.ibiblio.org/peanut/

[NFFC]

>can you recommend any small ones?

[damnsmalllinux.org...]

[killroy]

Hey, I got an old box, running on an AMD chip that's been reclocked so often I don't remember it's original speed. It's also running an around 3 types of ram and 4 brands, I thiunk EDO, SD and fast page or something. It has a different amount of ram and speeed each time I reboot it. So I'd need a setup that I NEVER need to reeboot, and preferable can remote control through the network using VNC.

What the best way of getting aon OS on there with a VNC server, so I can reboot it without keyboard and monitor and then use winVNC from a XP box to set it up? Might use it for a DNS or mail server or router.

What are my options?

And more importantly, are there ready to boot linux installs where I can do ALL teh setup (including network) "offline" and then jsut stick the disk into the comp and boot it up?

Hey, it's reuse your old comp day.

SN