Is Linux good for older computer?

well even with linux, there are multiple variations of the system. for a computer with minimal resources, you should use Xubuntu. it requires very little system resources and is perfect for older machines. it is also very user friendly since it is very similar to Windows XP. i use this for my laptop that is almost 7-8 years old and cannot run Windows XP without becoming slow as a snail. ever since i started using Xubuntu on my laptop, i havent seen anything comparable here is the link if you need it http://www.xubuntu.org

Depending on your exact specs of the computer, I would be tempted to go for Puppy Linux. This distribution is ideal for older computers, I ran it a while ago on a P233 and it ran like a dream, surfed the internet with Firefox lovely and smoothly. Ran a bit slow with You Tube though although this is really down to the hardware and not the operating system. Others you could try, which are ideal for older computers are Damn Small Linux, Slackware, Vector and Arch Linux. I suggest you go to Distrowatch.com and they list them all there, download a few live cd's and see what runds the best although I would be tempted to use either XFCE or Fluxbox as your Desktop enviroment, as KDE and Gnome could be too bloated for your system. Hope this helps you a bit

Yes, low memory requirement.

If your computer is very old then most of the newer distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu might now work well with it as these distribution are memory hungry and require good amount of space on your hard drive to be installed. Before installing any distribution which check their website for the hardware compatibility list of that distribution. For older hardware you might want to try a Linux distribution called Puppy Linux. It has very small footprint as the entire cd ISO image itself is around 50 MB. The send cool this about this distribution is it can be run as a LIve CD mode so you do not have to install it on your hard drive. Do have a look at their website:: http://www.puppylinux.org/ Take care.

both puppy linux and dam small linux runs fine on old pc's but i have run pclinux os ,xandros,fedoracore on my PII ~400 MHZ 192 MB CPU and it ran fine. linux will run on old systems even with 128 MB ram but some linux like ubuntu are not compatible with old hardware so you might face problem like serial mouse wont be detected or sound card wont be detected..

Its a good idea to install a linux on an old PC. i would recommend ubuntu/linux mint.As the requirements of these is quite low. if you have 512mb ram then open suse 10.3 is best to install. thanx.

Yup Ubuntu linux..infact almost any linux is pretty good for old systems..

You could try installing ubuntu linux. I have tried it and it has a pretty good desktop on it which is easy to use. Cheers!!

yes linux is better for old computers .You have to load old version of linux for better performance because old systems have veryless mb hdd.If you want to load new vwersions you hhave to install with 3 or 4 cds.

Here i like to add if you have less memory (hard disk space) you can go for DSL (damn small linux).Even you can use it without installation as a live CD . Visit www.distrowatch.com and choose your Linux Distro as per your choice. Thanks.

Red Hat Linux is a good distribution of Linux. Go to linux.org and fsf.org. These are good site for those of us who are pro open source. The fsf or the free software foundation gives a list of open source programs. Most of them are available with no cost to the user.