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

Why Linux?

[BortQ]

Why bother putting Linux on it at all? It seems to me that any OS is good enough for a six year old to play around with.

There's got to be something installed on the laptop already, so why not just let him use it as is? It will still help him learn about computers.

Your six year old is not a kernel hacker, and need not be treated as such.

Instead

[Strange Ranger]

Do not stick him at a command prompt. Let him discover that like the secret underground passage that it is.

From lots of personal experience, I suggest instead of asking 'What OS', ask "How can I introduce computers to my 6 year old in a fun way?" And go from there. In other words your solution should be application specific, not OS specific. Games are good. Making his name flash on the screen is good. If you really want him to learn fast lock him out of folders named "Christmas List", "Secrets", etc.

Reading, computing, microscopes, and ant farms. These things all need to FUN for kids otherwise it's work and kids learn to hate it quickly.

Do him a favor....

[Anonymous Coward]

Spend $30 and buy him a baseball mitt and ball. Go out and play catch with him. Kids spend way too much time in front of the TV, Video Games, Computer, etc.

He will thank you in 20 years when he's not a big, fat, Socially inept geek.

Small Linux? Freedos?

[Drasil]

I have a bunch of old laptops so I have had the same problem as you. There is Small Linux but that didn't really suit me at the time. You can forget installing any other Linux distro on anything with less than 4Mb of RAM, although I would say Slackware is the best of the bunch when it comes to hardware requirements.

In the end I opted for Freedos for a 386 with 2Mb that my 5 year old son plays with. It's not UNIX, but it's much more UNIX-like than any other DOS I have used. There are also many educational programs and games that are available for free download.

Hope this helps.

FreeDOS, not Linux

[iankerickson]

He doesn't need Linux at his age. Kids can barely concentrate on one thing at time, unless they themselves want to. IOW, he's not going to multitask (not yet).

Consider FreeDOS. It may or may not work on your old laptop. But if it does, all you need is to
- Add a menuing system
- Set up a nice autoexec.bat to handle all the sound, mouse, and screen setting, and to drop the PC into the menu
- Collect some abandonware or free DOS games or educational software

I used to have an old Thinkpad. With DOS, it ran great. With Linux, it also ran great... until you loaded the X window system.

I second the ideas here to either upgrade the hard disk with a newer laptop IDE drive, or to use CompactFlash.