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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?"
Have you looked at peanut linux or maybe slackware? They're usually really small distros. Another option is to search freshmeat. Just a quick search for linux floppy brought up several results for distros that run on one or two floppies. The only trick is the more current versions of X often require a fair amount of space. You might also have to use a really old kernel (i.e. 2.2 series).
How about using an old Linux distro, something from the Red Hat 5.x era? There are a ton of security holes, but given the environment in which this is going to be used (a single 6 year old user, no important data, no networking) who cares if wu-ftpd is vulnerable?
Run WindowMaker or AfterStep or even that fvwm95 monstrosity Red Hat used to ship and it will be fine.
I've never seen it, but QNX might be an alternative. Does BeOS support pre-Pentium systems?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Slackware http://www.slackware.com has a very small distro called zipslack. Should serve your purpose (I've used it myself on a very old 386 based laptop).
From the web site: "ZipSlack is a special edition of Slackware Linux that can be installed onto any FAT (or FAT32) filesystem with about 100 MB of free space. It uses the UMSDOS filesystem and contains most of the programs you will need. This means that you do not need to repartition your hard disk if you already have DOS or Windows installed. ZipSlack installs into a directory on your DOS filesystem. It can also be installed to and booted from a Zip disk.
This distribution is ideal for people who don't have a lot of hard disk space, do not have a fast Internet connection to download the entire distribution, or who want a Linux distribution they can carry around on a Zip disk."
Or install NetBSD. You can even use the current 1.6 release, as the basic NetBSD hasn't 'bloated out' as it's grown, like Linux distros, the 'packages' collection has just grown. The base install is under 100 megs and gives you X11 with the Tab Window Manager, the C compiler and libraries, all the core networking and Unix tools. Then you can selectively bring in other packages. I'd recommend, at most, adding in FVWM1 as a window manager for small machine like that.
It wasn't that long ago that the 'main' machines most of us were using were 486 machines. The richer of us had 16 megs with those expensive 4M 30 pin simms. The poorer had 8 MB in the smaller one meg simms. My Toshiba Laptop is a 486DX-2 50 MHz, though it has a 'bloated' maximum possible 28Meg of RAM in it. It runs NetBSD with FVWM and all the necessary goodies just fine.
You want to do things like tune your X by editing ~/.fvwm2rc. Create a virtual desktop that uses all your video memory (I like a 640x880, which uses up all 512K on my machine) so you can pan around your 640x480 'window' into your desktop easily. My Toshiba doesn't have a CD drive, but it's trivial to install NetBSD over NFS if you have a PCMCIA ethernet card and another box set up to serve out the distribution tgz files over NFS. The only 'installation media' you need is a pair of boot floppies from the images here, and the tarballs from here. The installation manual is here.
Everything you need to download to do a base NetBSD install totals to under 100 MB, so it's even a fairly casual download with a 56K modem.
Have a look at BasicLinux 1.8
http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux
There is a version for 4mb RAM.
It uses a 2.0 kernel and libc5.
5mb BasicLinux HD foundation
12mb X (with icewm)
1mb xfreecell
15mb C compiler
33mb TOTAL
I can confirm that -- bought a 486 w/8MB of RAM and a 120 MB hd a while back and successfully installed slackware 7.0 (30MB free, as I recall, and a 20MB swap partition). Slackware, for these purposes (and so many others), rox. Really, I think you'd have a hard time going wrong.
Carousel is a lie!
I know your original message said something about using an OS "other than a terminal", but you might consider bringing it up as an XTerm. From the wording of your question, I'm guessing that you've got a more modern Linux box somewhere that you yourself use, so why not install your kid's apps on that and let him run riot accessing it via an XTerm?
Advantages:
- given that you'll probably be installing Linux and X on the old laptop anyway, it should be easier to install just enough to have it run as an Xterm, rather than having to install several games, drawing programs, etc. into limited space
- you'll probably get more life out of it, given that there's very little that's going to have to change on it once it's up and going properly
- you can send him cute messages from your other PC (don't underestimate how exciting kids find this!)
- very little software on his PC means very little to go wrong
- if/when he breaks or outgrows it, you can quickly get another clunker PC and bring it up as another XTerm
Disadvantages:
- you'll need a network card, which you may or may not have in this laptop. It should be pretty cheap to track down an old Xircom or something similar
FWIW, my two boys (6 and 4) have been playing games and surfing Web sites on one of my Linux PCs for years - basically, they started "helping" me work before they could walk. There's lots of games and drawing programs out there if you look around. They're yet to show OTT geek tendencies, or any inability to use a MS OS, as far as I can detect - you should be safe!
Have him run OpenDOS or FreeDOS. There are a
TON of applications and games for DOS freely
available. In fact, I am posting this response
on the following: OpenDOS 7.1 and Arachne web
browser 1.7. I am connected using my DSL
connection (through an Etherlink III nic). The
packet drivers etc.. are provided with the
browser. This version of DOS has some
multitasking capabilities built in, along with a
cool game (Netwars). I also have an office
suite/operating environment called New Deal
(based on GEOS) that is fully GUI. I recently
downloaded and installed an SSH2 client for this
machine and can log in to my Linux box with no
problem. I have Microsoft's network client
installed, which allows me to browse shares on
my local workgroup. This box can play all
manner of audio and video (mp3, divx, mpeg,
etc...) using my 1MB video card and SB16.
Programming stuff: Turbo C, Turbo Pascal, QB4.5, Pacific C
Turbo C++, NASM, Euphoria, WABA (small DOS
Java), DJGPP (gcc for DOS).
Applications: CAD (2D), NeoPaint, WordStar 5, Pedit (great
DOS editor) Flow Chart (Visio for DOS), and more.
The games. Oh, the games. Doom, DoomII, Quake,
Descent, SimCity, One Must Fall, Red Baron, Duke
Nukem, Wolf3D, Stunts, and on and on.
Im running a P133 with 64meg of RAM, which is
HUGE overkill for this system. Ive had this
all running happily on a 386 with 4 meg of RAM.
The 486 system should be fine. Oh, the things
mentioned above should fit in about 100 Meg of
space. I have a ton of other stuff on this
machine, and it takes up about 300meg.
Finally, all things mentioned above are FREE and
available for download. www.simtel.net is a
great resource, otherwise just type "DOS
Software" into google and the other major
download sites will come up.
My first PC was one running Win3.1 with a 486/DX 33MHz, 4M EDO, and I think a 150MB disk. (My first computer was a Commodore 64 though).
If you can up it to 8M of RAM, you are golden. SimTower, SimCity 2000, SimFarm all ran fine, as Doom.
Don't throw a 6 year old at a Linux command line. Get him used to something like Win 3.1 and simply get him comfortable using a computer, period. Especially being able to type reasonably well and without having to hunt and peck.
AFTER that -- he understands directories, files, executables, and can type well, then move him to something else, whatever it may be.
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I wrote my 1st game at the age of 7 on a ZX Spectrum (Timex 2000 to you amaricans out there) ... I think teh best thing you could do is either get an old 8 bit machine or set up a linux box so it boots straight into a simple BASIC interpreter and give him a few pieces of code to type in himself (anyone remeber the days of magazines with source for you type in yourself? good learning stuff), print out a few tutorials (in a big enough point size) and print out a complete reference - From around 8 to 10 years old i think my most-thumbed book was the BBC BASIC Users Guide!!!
but if he shows no interest in the comp, at least get him some mindstorms lego!
P.S. there was definitly nothing scary about a command prompt to me when i was 7!!