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VectorLinux 4.3 - Rocket Fueled Slackware
SilentBob4 writes "Mad Penguin has the first review of the latest VectorLinux release. Vector is based on Slackware Linux, but is built on a newer 2.6.7 kernel (Slackware 10 was still built on a 2.4 kernel with the option of using 2.6) and is optimized to run well on older hardware. Even old Pentium PCs run well on this distro. Complete review with screenshots."
I've been using VectorLinux(3.2) on my 760 series thinkpad for about a 8 months or so. Installing it was made easier by first installing Smart Boot Manager, which allows booting from a cd when the BIOS is too old to know how. Then, just to be a wiseass, I setup ICEwm to look exactly like windows XP(wall paper and all). Nothing like running xp on a 166. ;-)
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
Does VectorLinux still follow the right-hand-rule?
I've used Vector Linux 4.0 (SOHO version) for a while, and I have to say a couple of things.
1. Judging it by the same apps (firefox, for instance), it was STUNNINGLY fast compared to XP Pro and all other Linux distros I've tried (Fedora, Mandrake, Arch, even Gentoo).
2. It sorely lacks a good dependency-handling package manager. Two exist that I'm aware of (Swaret and Slapt-get), and unfortunately they both just aren't that good. If this was remedied, well... just... wow.
Presumably some sort of ancient bacteria. With this in mind, they'll probably find primitive 386s on Mars in 20 years...
no dependency control, no thanks.
Apparently he was running his mysql server on dinosaur hardware!
StickMan
www.rageagainst.net
I've had the chance to use vector before, and I have to say it's the cleanest distro I've ever come across. No bloat, no extra features, no bizillion things starting at system boot.
Too much repetition my too much repetition!
I believe that linux distributions like this that cater to older hardware encourage responsible environmental behavior among computer users. Honestly, for many purposes a 6 year old machine is just fine. I find it really convenient to have access to an always on, personally reconfigurable server that I can use for everything from a database to a small dynamic website. Most things that we do with computers nowadays don't really push our CPUs.
I also think it's fantastic that they are using new the new kernel - cutting edge software is a great way to reinvigorate older hardware. I really hope that this leads to more computer reuse by geeks and maybe eventually nongeeks.
A lesson people seem to have forgotten since the great depression survivors have moved on is "waste not want not". I for one think this world would be a better place with a little more of that attitude.
Besides, it's fun to think that our "favorite" OS could be helping keep the world a safe, clean place for our children.
Cheers,
Justin
I have not tested Vector yet, but my experiences with KDE 3.3 on Gentoo and SuSE on my Homebox (a PIII-866 with 384MB) haven't been too well.
It looks nice, offers plenty of features. But EVEN if you turn off all eyecandy, care for running kde services (plug-ins, snap-ins whatever) 3.3 still feels sluggish.
I just don't want to test that on a P1-166 with 128MB RAM, should feel like running OSX on PearPC on a Centris.
I think this may be what gets me into Linux, I have an old 266MHz computer that isn't doing anything.
Occasionally, when I build something from source, it complains something is missing, I download it, build it as well, then continue. This takes almost no time (sometimes the build takes time, but that is unavoidable if there are not binaries, regardless of the system).
And then you end up with a system fully loaded with files you don't know the source, what are they needed for, if they are still needed, if they have any kind of security hole etc.
That the real problem, it's not getting stuff to work, is getting rid of it when it's not needed anymore.
AMD runs linux just fine.
Gentoo is what you want. You can optimize the kernel as well as tweak your /etc/make.conf so gcc can use special optimizations.
But all this isn't going to work straight out of the box. You'll have to compile the software yourself which will take hours to days, depending on speed and the amount of software you want to get a full system/window manager/browser/word processor going.
It's good to see a modern-day Linux distro that can run properly (and quickly) on older machines... Some of the newer distros seem suited for today's PC market rather than yesterday's PC market. ;)
FINALLY, I can stop using my old P75 as a very efficient doorstop, install this distro and crunch one SETI packet every 2 years!
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
If you sunk $150 into the old hardware and upgraded it to new, you'd have a quicker machine and wouldn't have to sacrifice functionality and features just to get that old dinosaur PIII to crawl from its own ashes again.
Assuming you have the cash, skill, time, and a desktop then yes. $150 could easily get you into an amd 1700+ cpu, motherboard, and 256megs of memory.
But then you have this old dinosaur PIII motherboard laying about. What happens to it esp after you decide to upgrade the hard drive and video?
A more Eco-friendly solution would be to slap your spare parts in a case and sell / donate / give it to someone else, and now we are back to square one, still having an old clunker in need of an operating system.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
The server appears to be up and down so heres a complete mirror I grabbed a few minutes ago:
As time pushes onward, the computer word grows exponentially in size, accomplishments, features, advances, and of course... system requirements. The latter is more a burden than a benefit if you ask most people who have the pleasure of working with computers day in and day out, but the Linux community has a decided advantage over most: They have the ability to control their destiny and the hardware it will run on.
Sure, some of you will immediately say "X or Y distro is bloated to the point that is comparable with Microsoft Windows at this point" and you aren't wrong for saying so. Linux has grown to a size where it can easily put Windows to shame in terms of sheer girth. Linux in the year 2004 has more bells and whistles than Windows could ever dream of, and that's not a bad thing... unless you are the proud owner of hardware that Thomas Edison would be able to easily identify in a line up.
So what do you do with that old Pentium II 266MHz laptop or PC that's been stashed in your closet for the past three years? Is it possible to actually use it again as a worthwhile companion for performing everyday tasks that your new 3GHz computer handles so easily? Well, the full answer could be very complicated if we were to cover ever last little detail, but the short answer is simple: YES.
VectorLinux can (and always has been able to) take an old dinosaur of a computer and render it just as useful as the day that it was new. Seriously. Built on Slackware Linux, one of the most stable and best performing distributions available today, VectorLinux has been optimized to the point that it outperforms every other distro I've tested on older equipment... without fail. So, if you've got an older computer that you were getting ready to throw out the door, dust it off, purchase a copy of VectorLinux, and bring it back to life.
Features:
* Linux kernel 2.6.7
* Glibc-2.3.2
* Gcc 3.2.3
* XFree 4.3
* KDE 3.2.3, XFCE 4, Fluxbox, and ICEwm
* Mozilla 1.7
* VASM
Installation
If you've ever installed VectorLinux before, you know the installer. It hasn't really changed much over the past couple of years that we've been monitoring it. It's simple, GUI-less, to the point, and lacks advanced options. Is this a bad thing? In some cases with certain distros, yes, but in the case of VectorLinux it's not even a concern. The reason being is that this distro is so stripped down as it is, fine tuning packages and settings after the installation takes just as much time as it would during the install, and there really isn't much to it anyway.
For those of you who are reading this and have never installed VectorLinux, don't be intimidated by the lack of a pretty graphical installer. The Vector installation is completely simple, even without the GUI, and any user with a basic understanding of Linux will have no problem installing it. The only 'gotcha' I noticed (and I've complained about this in past reviews... nothing has changed) is that after partitioning the drive(s) you come to a prompt that is a bit confusing to the newcomer... it's a multiple choice screen which has the following options:
RETURN Return to the partition program. I want to try again
REBOOT Reboot the system to add the new partitions
RESTART Don't know how I got here but I want out
To most people (including myself), restart means reboot... but obviously there is already an option for rebooting, so what exactly does it do? Restart the installer? Well, sort of. What it means in VectorLand is continue on with the next step of the installation. I stumbled on it the first time I saw it, but can now easily navigate through it since I've reviewed this distro so many times. I guess the developers have seen this so many times as well that they don't even realize it's there. Other than that single issue, the installer is flawless. On the few machines
There is also the RULE project: Run Up-to-date Linux Everywhere.
http://www.rule-project.org/
But this seems to mostly be a labor of love for a small group of developers... in other words, it's not progressing quickly.
At the moment you can make a RULE install of Red Hat Linux 8 or 9. What's cool is that they made an installer that can run in 12 MB of RAM!
They said they are working on Fedora Core 2, but I don't know when they will be done.
I am a Debian fan so I found the Red Hat-ness of RULE a bit uncomfortable. But if you like Red Hat then by all means check this out.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
There's nothing Gentoo offers regarding configuration and optimization that I can't do in Slackware.
Except, that is, lose 36 hours waiting for my machine to be usable again.
What's the value of waiting hours for the Gentoo build to optimize some app I will never use? I can do a complete Slackware install, download, config and compile kernel source in just about an hour. That makes a difference. Waiting for Gentoo to "optimize", say. 14 different text editors is a waste of my time.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
It's always fit into a char[8] for me. I've been able to take advantage of the computer word for a long, long time.
First, get a Debian installer. Install a Debian base system.
When the installer offers you the chance to install additional software, say no.
When the install is finished, you will have a minimal system, with a kernel and the most needed utilities. Most importantly, you will have Debian's APT tools (apt-get, etc.) with which to get more software.
Login as root, and run this command:
apt-get install aptitude
This will install a tool called aptitude, which is a friendly character-based (ncurses) package manager. You can search through packages, drill down through the hierarchy, see what depends on what, etc. aptitude is way, way better than dselect!
With Debian, you can install just enough stuff to run. For example, using apt-get or aptitude, you can ask for Gnumeric (the GNU spreadsheet for GNOME) and the system will install just enough of GNOME for Gnumeric to run. (Libraries and such.) If you manually install something like Xfce or IceWM, you can then run GNOME applications without a full-blown GNOME environment. The same goes for KDE.
With Debian, it is possible to recompile all your packages for your computer, but the tools to do it aren't as convenient as the tools in Gentoo. But it is convenient to compile your own kernel, and that's most of the battle right there.
If you want to set up a server, and know exactly what is installed and running on the server, Debian is ideal.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Here is what I think I know about this. A while ago I tried several systems on a Pentium 233 with 64MB of RAM.
GNOME -- if you can install enough memory (I recommend at least 256 MB) then this is actually a reasonable way to go, even on an older computer. But if you have a computer with limited RAM and no convenient way to upgrade it, stay away. (Maybe if you like GNOME 1.x, and can find it somewhere... no, I don't think so.)
Xfce -- getting better. Smaller, faster than GNOME. But when I tried it, it was still slower than I wanted.
IceWM -- actually, pretty nice! But IceWM itself is a window manager, and you need more than just that. So I suggest combining IceWM with ROX.
I used ROX filer a few years ago, and I loved the speed. The whole ROX system looks pretty slick, and it's fast!
ROX is complicated enough to install (only old packages for Debian; they want to you use a new system called ZeroInstall now) that I didn't do a full-on install test of it. But if I had an actual need to run a desktop system on old hardware, I'd definitely use ROX plus IceWM.
But if you know something even better, please add a comment about it!
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
My 'dinosaur machines' are a 133 laptop, a P2/400 IPCop firewall, and a P2/400 practice/test box.
Not everyone upgrades to the latest and greatest every month.