SimplyMEPIS; a perfect 20/20
LinuxChick
by Rick Lehrbaum (Oct. 4, 2006) Linux DesktopLike most companies, my employer has a stash of old, “obsolete” PCs and laptops that won’t run the latest versions of Windows worth a darn. Naturally, this represents a great source of systems for testing the latest Linux distributions.
I thought it would be interesting to find out which modern Linux distro made the best OS for a supposedly “obsolete” old laptop. With this in mind, I requisitioned an oldie but goodie: an IBM ThinkPad 2662-35U (pictured here), with a Pentium III 600MHz processor, 192MB of SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive.
Next, I set about collecting as many suitable 1-CD Linux distros as possible. These included copies of the latest Xandros and Linspire that had been provided to me for evaluation, plus free web-downloads of the latest Freespire, Kubuntu, Mandriva One, PCLinuxOS, and SimplyMEPIS distros.
After that, I compiled a list of basic requirements. My plan was to do a quick run-through of each distro — not spend a week of tweaking and fine-tuning each one — so I needed a check-list that would allow me to rapidly narrow my search down to the one or two that are most likely to work well over the long haul.
Here’s my check-list:
* Installs and runs usably on the old ThinkPad
* Provides KDE window manager
* Customizable to suit my tastes
* Plays audio CDs
* Streams Real media (tested using npr.org hourly news)
* Installs/runs my old LinkSys Wireless-B PCMCIA card
* GUI tool for easy software download/install/update
* Timely and long-term OS/apps update scenarioAs part of my tests of each distro, I planned to install the following apps (if they didn’t come preinstalled): Firefox 2, latest Thunderbird, RealPlayer 10, Acroread 7, K3b, Amarok, Xine, Kaffeine, KsCD, OO.o, Kate, Bluefish, Gimp, Opera, Konqueror, Gaim, Skype, Ksnapshot, and the Macromedia Flash Firefox plugin.
For my final step of preparation, I created a scorecard template that would help me quantify my findings:
Scorecard
Installation 0-5 points
Customizable 0-5 points
Hardware/multimedia support 0-5 points
Apps included/available 0-5 points
Total: 0-20 pointsAfter preparing the check-list and scorecard, I set about installing each of the collected distros, one after another, to see what worked and what didn’t in each case.
My observations on each distro appear below (alphabetically arranged), along with the scorecards and a few screenshots of each. Some overall conclusions from this project appear at the end. Bear in mind that this data represents the results of a couple of hours spent on each, not days and days of tweaking and fine tuning.
Click on the screenshots here to see how each distro fared
Then you can read the conclusion here
On a personal note; I’ve been running Mepis for a few months now on a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300, my old lappie has slightly higher specs than Ricks’s Thinkpad, but still “obsolete” by most standards. I was reluctant to install Mepis 6, since I’d tried a much older version months back and it was painfully slow, especially when using KDE. To my surprise SimplyMEPIS 6 ran better than I could have hoped and KDE is very useable! Way to go Warren! Keep up the great work. ~LC
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