me, myself and I

Chances are the computer systems at home would be a lot more stable if I wasn't so ADHD about distros and choices of Linux operating systems

First off, for those of you who do not know, I recevied an old, low-spec laptop from a co-worker. It is a
Dell Inspiron CP

• 233 Mhz Penium I w/MMX Technology
• 128 MB Ram
• 20GB Hard drive
• No wireless
• PCMCIA NIC
• CD Rom
• no floppy
• Single USB 1.1 port
• 13.3" LCD screen

Obviously, with specs like that there are limits as to what I can run on it and I'm realistic about it. I'm not doing any major crunching such as compliling any Mono (open source .NET implementation), rendering any 3D, editing any digital video, manipulating any large images or opening any complex office documents.

So what do I (realistically) want to do with this? Plenty.

• Basic web surfing. AJAX sights, like Google, may pose some slow load times the first time being visited.
• The best Email reading would be taking advantage of Gmail's IMAP connection but because of either the system or the dial-up connection, this has not panned out as I would like. GMail's POP configurations (keeping a version on the server) is the next best thing.
• Don't underestimate a good Text Editor! Besides surfing, this is probably the most used application. Most of the time I use it for typing notes, blogs and presentation outlines.
• An HTML Editor is very similar to a text editor or could include some website management tools too (such as Bluefish). A WYSIWYG or heaftier web manager is likely too much for a low-spec machine. Damn Small Linux (DSL) had a light "Monkey" web server. This is a great way to test before uploading (which can be a nice other feature.. FTP Client
• Last, but not least, is the laptop's ability to be portable (duh!). This way I can carry it to computer club meetings and do demonstrations on it without having the lug the Desktop CPU, Keyboard and Mouse like I currently do.

So how do I accomplish this? I find a good, light Linux distro that does what I need. Chances are this is easy for somebody, if they aren't in the habit of hopping around from distro to distro as they catch their eye!

I have dried Damn Small Linux (DSL) and it works great on the system. I got comfortable with configuring it and have been able to figure out how to get around. Unfortunately it has had the habit of locking up on me completely if I go to a website with too much graphics it seems.

For a very short time I experiemented with Ubuntu Server (Alternative) installation using a Breezy Badger (4.10?) CD. While it didn't work out all that well initially, it did give me a chance to try and configure my network and install applications (which failed). Perhaps with a more up-to-date one I can slowly install what I need piece-by-piece.

What I currently have on the system is TinyMe from PCLinuxOS. It works pretty well once I figured what commands to pass to it to make sure it shows up properly on the screen. It is, though, a little slower but otherwise it seems to be pretty good. Other than not finding my USB pen drive it has worked for just about everything I've used it for.

So far I've only tried a couple ideas but later this week at the Comptuer club meeting I should be able to download a couple of distros and try them out. What I am thinking of downloading to trying are the following:

• Fluxbuntu (light Ubuntu using Fluxbox instead of Gnome) Website Download
• TinyFlux (like TinyMe except using Fluxbox instead of OpenBox) Website Download
• Ubuntu 7.10 Alternate installation (do command line, and build as needed) Website Download
• Debian (again, start small and build as can)Website Download
• Slax (Slackware based)but only have enough RAM for Fluxbox-based, not KDE Website Download
• Puppy (together with DSL, these 2 are the most popular low-spec distros) Website Download
• Slackware may provide, like Debian and Ubuntu alternative, a starting point and then I can add applications as I see fit. Website Download

If anybody has any experience with these, please let me know! I like the responsiveness of DSL but want something a little more robust and up-to-date. I'm not really afraid of command line, but I would like some sort of GUI and I am not very experienced with configuring hardware on my own much.