Kenneth Wolcott wrote:
Hi;
I'm new to the CentOS list and I only have experience with CentOS 4.3/4.4 on desktops. I just installed CentOS 4.4 on a very old Dell Inspiron 3500 laptop. I choose the desktop option and then deleted the kde and gnome packages because I have only 192mb RAM and 4gb disk (total). I'd like suggestions on how to maximize the effective usage of the laptop with CentOS 4.4...as a minimum I want to do secure wireless web browsing. If KDE or GNOME needs more disk/RAM than I have available is XCFE the only alternative to the bleak Motif experience? I don't have any money to get a better laptop or to upgrade the RAM and/or disk at this time.
There are reasons RH doesn't support less than 256 Mbtes of RAM with RHEL 4.
Earlier releases of CentOS (earlier==better) should perform much better, and you could also browse www.distrowatch.com for lighter distros.
One that comes to mind is Damn Small Linux.
OpenSUSE with fvwm _might_ do it; I used to run RHL 6.2 quite happily in 64 Mbytes (5.x in less), and the main differences these days is KDE+Gnome+their libraries, along with Mozilla (and its kin) and OpenOffice.org.
Prior to RHL 7.x, the main desktop environment was FVWM, that's why I think OpenSUSE might work for you.