What linux fits my old slow PC to play video?

Question

PII 300 + 128M RAM + 8M AGP

It's running Win ME and cannot fluently play most video, including online flv's. Harddisk space is big. But CPU and RAM cannot improve.

Can any linux make it work? No other applications needed, such as email or office.

Thank you.

Answer 1

I don't think so. a crappy computer is still crappy on Linux, but try something in ubuntu family. Xubuntu is designed for people with comps like yours.

btw upgrade man. $300 for a new system to blow that out of the water.

and don't listen to the next guy all video formats have codecs for Linux. people who blatantly spread misinformation shouldn't be allowed on this site.

Answer 2

You are very limited here. You could try Xubuntu 8.04.1 http://www.xubuntu.org/ . Performance will be slightly improved, so video playback would be an outside possibility using VLC Player.

LUg.  

Answer 3

i've got fedora core 1 on a box way older and slower than that, but i never tried video on it.  works good as a firewall, dns & nfs server though.

Answer 4

try puppy. its one of the lowest profile linux distros and will play videos out of the box. Its designed to run on low-end systems and all the apps are small so that its as speedy as possible on older machines.

Would be very interested to know how you get on...

http://www.puppylinux.org/

Answer 5

If it will not play movies well, you are unlikely to get any improvement. This is more a function of RAM and CPU than OS.

Answer 6

ME is one of the Micro Soft's failure.

Most videos are not comparable to play with Linux and even if some video is comparable it has to be low resolution and poor quality.

You need a faster PC with MS Windows XP or Vista.

You can get one for $300~$500.