The bells and whistles come at the price of processing power. Lighter-weight options do
exist if you have limited resources.
You can use streamlined graphical Linux installations that will fit on small hard disks
(as small as 100MB) and run fairly well on slow processors. Also, there are small live CD
Linux distributions, such as Damn Small Linux (DSL), that can be copied to hard disk
and run from there. The 50MB DSL desktop system will run fine on old Pentium machines
with little RAM. But if you want to add some of the more demanding applications to DSL,
such as OpenOffice.org office applications, you will find you need more than minimal
computer hardware.
If you are starting with a Pentium II, 400 MHz, your desktop will run slowly in default KDE or
GNOME configurations with less than 128MB of RAM. A simpler desktop system, with just X and
a window manager, will work, but won??™t give you the full flavor of a Linux desktop. (See Chapter 3
for information about different desktop choices and features.)
The good news is that cheap computers that you can buy from Wal-Mart or other retailers start at
less than $300. Those systems will perform better than most PCs you have laying around that are
more than a few years old and will come with Linux (usually Linspire) pre-installed.
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