Free Software Operating Systems for Old Laptops?

X-Nc asks: "I have an old 486 Laptop that does not have a CD drive and , if I remember right, a very small hard disk (a few megs), and maybe 4 megs of RAM. I would like to let my 6 year old son use this for him to play and learn on. What I'd -really- like to do is install Linux or one of the BSD's on it with enough apps to run a simple editor and a few other things. I have other systems that are able to run learning software and games. This would be for him to learn computer fundimentals. I remember in the old days that you could run X11 on this kind of system (my first Linux box was a 386DX-30 with 2meg RAM and a 20 meg HD). I have been digging around in some of the lists of distros to try and find something to load on the system but I can't seem to find one that's right. So, does anyone know of a Free Software (or even commercial) OS that can be installed on such a system that can do more than be just a terminal?"

Comments

Windows 95

[perljon]

Step1) Format and load Windows 95.
Step2) Throw some Sid Meiers Colonization on that bad boy
Step3) ... Step4) Let him play on it for 3 months. Step5) Got to step 1.

Re:Windows 95

[wik]

You actually can do this with 4MB of RAM. I even played solitare on it, too. It was just annoying to watch the mouse driver swap back in when you moved the mouse. :-)

Minix?

[pbrammer]

A simple search on Google would result your answer, but in the spirit of helping, you could look at Minix.

Re:Why Linux?

[thumperward]

I got to thinking about this after I posted my other post ... but actually I think having his six year old start with Linux instead of Windows is a good idea - esp if he is forced to spend lots of time at the command prompt. He is going to learn first impression thought patterns and given the importance of the Un*x os, a good start. I would recommend teaching him the DOS command shell also, although it probably isn't as pervasive anymore.

Hahahaha... hahahaha. Just because children are capable of grasping the most stupidly complex things if they're interested doesn't mean it's a good idea. Nothing I learned poking around Commodore / Sinclair BASIC at age 7 has helped me in my later life. When some stupid problem with the primitive command-line driven piece of crap I like to call a "modern operating system" prevents me from getting any work done, I always have flashback to sitting in front of a (slightly more advanced) editor, cursor blinking at me while I trawl through maybe a thousand lines of code copied from a book to try and get some game to run.

The only thing that being mocked by a cursor as a child has taught me is that a piece of code, no matter how small or trivial, will always give you an error the first time you try and run it. To be honest, i could have done with waiting until university for that lesson.

- Chris