Old Linix Distributions

[Doug G]

I have a couple boxed retail linux distros, I have Redhat 6.1 and 7 with the original books and CD's, and SuSE 9. I think I bought them all at Best Buy.

 

[Pepinno]

Finally got around to getting P1 166 with 128megs of ram, 8 gig hdd. Installed Turbo Linux Server 6.0

What chipset is your P1 machine using? Does it cache the whole 128 MB of RAM, or only the first 64 MB?

 

[Caluser2000]

What chipset is your P1 machine using? Does it cache the whole 128 MB of RAM, or only the first 64 MB?

It's a i430TX chipset, so limited to 64 megs for caching by all accounts. It is very snappy running the software I've got on it.

 

[Megatron-uk]

If you want an interesting challenge, see what distros will install on a 486 or 386. That was my huge hurdle when I had first started tinkering with linux. Most of the prettied up GUI type of install distros (I'm the opposite but I'm also a geek so I did like turbolinux and hated Caldera). Anyway long story short I had some knowledgeable folks let me know that few distros used the original kernel code and they had removed support for pre-pentium processors. Was a shocker since in the late 90's it was still one of those claims to fame that linux enthusiasts loved to brag about (linux could fit on a floppy, could run on minimal system specs, etc).

Technically Linux will still run on 386/486 cpu machines without a problem, however, most distributions of Linux come with the kernel configured for Pentium architecture and without floating point emulation - you'd just need a kernel compiled for a 386/486 if you wanted to use such a system.

Of course, all of the userland applications and libraries have grown dramatically since early versions of Linux, so such a system would probably struggle

 

[Caluser2000]

Ain't that the truth. A bit of fun/learning can be had though mucking around the old stuff. My 4yo grandson even had a shot at a few games on the P1 this evening and was intrigued with xeyes.

 

[natcha]

Technically Linux will still run on 386/486 cpu machines without a problem, however, most distributions of Linux come with the kernel configured for Pentium architecture and without floating point emulation - you'd just need a kernel compiled for a 386/486 if you wanted to use such a system.

Of course, all of the userland applications and libraries have grown dramatically since early versions of Linux, so such a system would probably struggle

The best Linux distribution for 386/486 that I have had success with is Slackware Linux 7.1. I have the 4CD set from July 2000. I have it running on an Omnibook 430 that only has 8 mb of memory. Plenty of software on the distribution along with plenty of compilers. Not exactly fast on the OB430, and not enough memory for X-Windows, but pretty nice otherwise. I have installed it both as native partion and as UMSDOS partition. For fast setup, just use the ZIPSLACK or BIGSLACK to a MSDOS file system, boot and off you go.

On the OB430, the power management doesn't work, so have to do a hard reset to restart system. On an OB600C, the power management does work. And the OB's floppy drives and PCMCIA don't work in linux. But still a lot of fun for a handheld computer.

The Slackware Distribuitions are all available for download from the Slackware web site. The oldest is Slackware 3.0. But I recommend 7.1 for a usable system on a 386/486.


Bill

 

[Caluser2000]

It's been a few years. Boy time flies. Never did get around to posting screen shots either.

My boxed Linux related collection is gradually growing. Picked up RH 6.2, Xandros 2.0 Deluxe/Busines Editions and Linux Utilities for RH 5.0. Turbo Linux Workstation 6.0 is on its way.

 

[billdeg]

I have the SCO Linux for 386 set

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Heh. The one old Linux CD I've refused to throw away over the years is a Caldara (SCO) Linux "Technology Preview" CD I picked up at trade show in 2000 that proudly proclaims that it features the "Linux 2.4 Kernel!" (not officially "final" when the CD was stamped). Anyone keeping score knows why it's an absolute treasure.

 

[Caluser2000]

I remember reading all the Groklaw stuff. Interesting reading at the time.

I've got Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 that comes with the 2000 McGraw-Hill "LINUX Desktop Starter Kit" Apparently the installation routine runs from within win9x.

 

[lowen]

Blast from the past....

I wish I had kept the SLS I had years ago on QIC-40 floppy tape.......

But, for your amusement, the following:

Red Hat Linux 5.2, CD sleeve open (and, yes, the third CD does indeed contain WordPerfect 7 for Linux......):


Ubuntu 5.04 for PowerPC (ye olde Mac G4!):


Red Hat Linux Power Tools 4.2 (Includes Red Hat Linux 4.2 for Intel, Alpha, and SPARC and two CD's on archives from sunsite.unc.edu)


I was a Red Hat Beta Tester for a few years (and the NDA expired several years ago), and as a perk for beta testing I received full boxed sets of Red Hat 6.2 through Red Hat 9, the last Red Hat Linux (a different beast from Red Hat Enterprise Linux). The Red Hat Linux 7.2 Professional set included the daddy of OpenOffice.org, StarOffice 5.2. I also have Linux Mandrake 5.3 (Red Hat 5.2 plus KDE) that I purchased from CheapBytes, and that system is still running (on an AMD K6/2-500).

If you want a real laugh, pick up a Red Hat Linux install CD from the 5.x timeframe and install using the 'Redneck' language. (see: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=293714 ) and if you would like I guess I could screenshot the whole rigamarole.....( The wayback machine has a good copy of it: https://web.archive.org/web/20130406181710/http://www.ninesys.com/fun/ )

For a while, there were a few Ethernet card vendors who bundled Caldera or TurboLinux with their NIC's; I don't recall right off-hand which NIC vendors those were.

 

[Caluser2000]

Word Perfect shipped with a number of commercial distro bundles Coral Linux 1.x had WP 8.0 Being a bit late it was first distro I had a shot at. Borked it quite a few times. They actually didn't do too bad a job looking back.

I've still got RH 7.3 on my P200mmx system. Got it to a point I was comfortable with it eventually. Took a while but got there and considered it a worthwhile learning exercise. Trimmed down got rid of all the heavy Gnome 1.4 cruft- Nautilus et el