Seven Linux distros fight over one old ThinkPad
Like most companies, my employer has a stash of old, "obsolete" PCs and laptops that won't run the latest versions of Windows worth a darn. Naturally, this represents a great source of systems for testing the latest Linux distributions.
I thought it would be interesting to find out which modern Linux distro made the best OS for a supposedly "obsolete" old laptop. With this in mind, I requisitioned an oldie but goodie: an IBM ThinkPad 2662-35U (pictured here), with a Pentium III 600MHz processor, 192MB of SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive.
Next, I set about collecting as many suitable 1-CD Linux distros as possible. These included copies of the latest Xandros and Linspire that had been provided to me for evaluation, plus free web-downloads of the latest Freespire, Kubuntu, Mandriva One, PCLinuxOS, and SimplyMEPIS distros.
After that, I compiled a list of basic requirements. My plan was to do a quick run-through of each distro -- not spend a week of tweaking and fine-tuning each one -- so I needed a check-list that would allow me to rapidly narrow my search down to the one or two that are most likely to work well over the long haul.
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