Petite Linux system requirements?

[Ratchet_1]

I know that this may seem kind of lame, but here it goes...

What are the system requirements for Petite Linux? (I realize that
Petite Linux is a unofficial distro of openSUSE).

I could not find anything about Petite Linux on Distrowatch, (http://
distrowatch.com/), or Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Main_Page).

I have a couple of legacy boxes that I want to keep on the net.

For example, one CPU is currently running Xubuntu, (http://
xubuntu.org/). More specifically, Xubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, (Hardy Heron).
Xubuntu 8.04.4 LTS will be at End Of Life, (EOL), in a few weeks.

The above CPU specs, (try not to laugh please):

300 MHz P2
192 M RAM
6 or so G hard drive

I really don't want to upgrade the above CPU.

I was considering Zenwalk Linux, (http://www.zenwalk.org/). But the
minimum specs for Zenwalk are:

Pentium III class processor
256 Mb RAM
4Gb HDD


So is Petite Linux any good for legacy CPUs?

Thanks for any help!

[Ratchet_1]

I forgot to mention this: The only OS on the box I was talking about
in my first post is Xubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, (Hardy Heron).

[Ratchet_1]

I know I could go the usual route that most Linux users go with legacy
hardware:


1)
Ditch the DE, (in the case of the above CPU, Xfce).

2)
Ditch any File Manager, (in the case of the above CPU, Thunar), and
just use Bash.

3)
Use Fluxbox, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxbox), Openbox, (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox), or whatever.

4)
Ditch Firefox and use Lynx, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_
%28web_browser%29)


But I don't really want to do any of the above, if possible. Believe
it or not, Xubuntu 8.04.4 LTS does run on the above box. It boots up
slow, and sometimes runs slow. And yes, I do have to dump cache on
Firefox often. But it does work.

And in case anybody here can read between the lines, I don't have the
money to go out and buy a used P3 or P4 that has enough RAM to run a
current version of Linux that has a full DE, (Gnome, Xfce, whatever).

I have looked all over the net at derivatives of Ubuntu, openSUSE and
other Linux distros, trying to find a distro that would:


1)
Have some kind of a usable DE.

2)
Be able to run basic Gnome apps. (For example, Gedit is my favorite
text editor).

3)
Runs the current version of Linux Firefox.


Like I said at the beginning of this thread, I was wondering if my old
P2 could run Petite Linux. In a similar way, on occasion people throw
P2 CPUs at me with 64 to 128 M RAM. It would be nice if I could put
Linux on said CPUs and make them Internet ready. Then I could donate
said CPUs to a local charity for less fortunate folks, etc..


Thanks again!

[Marianna Apostolaki]

Good Morning.

Unfortunately I don't have such hardware to test petite.
The best I can offer you is the opensuse minimum requirements.

http://en.opensuse.org/Hardware_requirements

As far as I can see, it suggests PIII @ 500MHz

My guess is that it will work on your hardware, especially since
Enlightenment is rather light weight.
I have installed petite on 192MB ram virtualbox, using text mode
installer which I recommend for your case.

To perform the installation in text mode:
On the grub boot screen, when selecting Petite Linux, type "init 3"
which will then dump you to a console (no X windows)
Login as root (root / linux)
to initiate the live installer type:
yast2 live-installer
The text based installer is pretty straight forward, remember tab and
shift+tab to cycle the buttons. Also the alt key is your friend.
When installed, and assuming everything works starts, change the
default background to a static image. The default image is animated
and wastes cpu power.
Other than that, I recommend you download "flash blocker" for chrome
from the extensions library, which will certainly speed up browsing
and lessen the ram usage when there is flash on web pages.
Also, check the "howto" page to disable suseconfig on boot.

Good luck and let me know how it goes :)

[Marianna Apostolaki]

If petite does not work for you, you may want to try out puppy linux.
It is designed for old hardware as far as I can tell.