hardware requiremnets for Pardus and other Linux OSs

[glas]

I run a computer repair shop in Wales and as part of our work we refurbish and sell lots of older computers donated by schools and such. We usually install Linux (for reasons of stability, cost, and freedom) on these computers. The type of Linux depends on the hardware.

As a rule of thumb, we wouldn't install Pardus on anything less than a 750 Mhz processor and 256 RAM. It does work on lesser hardware but performance suffers.

I sold a Pardus installed computer to a chap last month. He came back a couple of days later and I asked him how he was enjoying Pardus. He just said he installed Win XP over it without even giving it a try! Oh well - we're creatures of habit I guess.

The majority of computers we refurbish are Pentium 3 - 500Mhz (or Celeron - 400Mhz) with 128 - 190 RAM. We used to install Vector 5.8 Std. on these types but have recently switched to Puppy because of the excellent wizards that help people to configure their computer with relative ease.

Pardus is now my main OS at home and at work. Before that I was using LinuxMint - an Ubuntu-based operating system designed by a Frenchman living in Ireland. It's an excellent distro but Pardus edged it out due to its better file mounting facilities and easy to configure KDE desktop.

That's my story in a nutshell. I'd be interested to hear other experiences of 1. Pardus on various hardware setups and 2. other Linux distros on old hardware.

[Jan Gnodde]

The oldest computer I've installed Pardus on is a AMD K3 400MHz with 256MB Ram. And it runs ok when using that system for browsing internet or mailing. But using OpenOffice or The Gimp is not advisable, unless you have a lot of time and patience...
But it is possible to run Pardus with the XFCE Desktop and that is faster/lighter than KDE.
I too have used Vector Linux on older hardware and I liked it. Haven't tried Puppy (yet), but Damn Small Linux may be a good alternative.
Installing Pardus on a Compac Proliant DL360 server (2x P3, 2x SCSI HD in raid 1) didn't work out, because of the Compac Smart Raid controller: Pardus couldn't cope with that. But I was told that that was a bug, and 2007.2 should install without a problem (haven't tried it yet, I installed Debian on it).

Jan.

[Lloyd De Jongh]

Installing Pardus on a Compac Proliant DL360 server (2x P3, 2x SCSI HD in raid 1) didn't work out, because of the Compac Smart Raid controller: Pardus couldn't cope with that. But I was told that that was a bug, and 2007.2 should install without a problem (haven't tried it yet, I installed Debian on it).  Jan.

I have a server or two I can try Pardus out on, however I'm keener on using a server-oriented distribution (RHEL or CENTOS) in case I have to test apps  in a familiar environment.

Maybe I'll give it a bash, but I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions, much more than now using it just as a Linux desktop. I look forward to a genuine server edition of Pardus.  It's bad enough running unknown apps, adding an unknown OS with unknown features and changes could complicate things, though I'm certain a server variant would be easier to understand and mabage from a sysadmin point of view. And I've had Pardus less than a week.

[Willem]

Of course yo should ask there questions, the server edition of pardus is in production, but there is no release date yet. But the more you ask, the better an eventually Pardus server OS will get.
Pardus is still a very young project, and we need "dare-devils" like you, the community is still small, so it is easy to get things done.
Also dont hesitate to enter a bugreport or two at http://bugs.pardus.org.tr or get in direct contact with the developers via IRC (freenode, pardus-devel). You can also subscribe to the mailinglists (also in English)

[Lloyd De Jongh]

Sounds like a good plan. I'll put it on a server and see where I get stuck. I like the idea of being involved with a startup.

I need to become familiar with the init scripts Pardus uses, will play with those over the next few days. I want to try it on my PC here at home too, since I don't always bring my laptop home from work. I hate those things, unplugging cables at night, plugging everything in in the morning at work.

If bugginthe developers from an admin perspective willl help then that will be great, in that way I can contribute. It is important that mainstream packages work well on Pardus (installation, configuration, dependencies) so there are no server nightmares.

I read through the one user's VMware experience. As a desktop system Pardus definitely has merit.

I'll try it out and bleat like a sheep when there's a problem