BasicLinux is a good distribution for an old 486. It is much leaner than RedHat and performs better on old hardware. Although BasicLinux initially runs on a ramdisk, it can be installed to its own HD partition, where additional packages can be added (including X and GCC).
| The current version of BasicLinux is 2.1 It comes as a 2mb zip file. |
DOWNLOAD |
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*** NEW in version 2.1 *** big improvement to floppy version works with Windows XP additional network modules |
| Minimum requirements | |
| Pentium or 486DX | If you have a 486SX or 386 computer, |
| 8mb RAM | use BasicLinux 1.8. It also has a |
| DOS or Windows | version for 4mb RAM. |
Booting BasicLinux from Windows NT/2000/XP
It is not possible to boot Linux directly from inside Windows NT/2000/XP. Those systems should use the floppy-disk version of BasicLinux.
Making a floppy-disk version of BasicLinux
In the BasicLinux zip file, you will find MAKE_FD.ZIP, which can be used to create a self-contained BasicLinux. You will need two empty 1.44mb floppy disks. Simply unzip MAKE_FD.ZIP and execute MAKE_FD. You must type this from the command-line (the C: prompt). Clicking MAKE_FD.BAT with the mouse does not work.
Additional components for BasicLinux
BasicLinux has an IDE kernel and a small set of common modules. If you need a SCSI kernel or additional modules, you can get them from Slackware 7.1. You will find the kernels in the /kernels directory and the modules in the /modules directory.
Further information and support