Puppy Linux has already been mentioned more times than I can think of online. If you Google the best Linux for old computers, you will probably find Puppy Linux to be mentioned in someone's review or brought up in discussion at least once.





After trying out more Linux distro's then I can count twice over again on both hands -- and distro's that were geared more toward my old computers specs, I have to say that 99% of the Linux distro's I tried in my experiment didn't perform as well or offer as much for the user as Puppy Linux. Obviously other (more heavyweight) distro's would have competed better against Puppy Linux if I had been using computers equipped with more RAM and larger processors. But testing these distro's on higher spec computers would of defeated the purpose of this article. At the time of writing this, I was only interested in distro's that I could get to run on my really old computers with limited RAM.





Most of the other Linux distro's I tried were still in need of some bug fixes, and just wouldn't run very stable or perform very well at all with the low computer specs and hardware I was using.





In terms of the more complete linux distro's that I tested, I feel that Puppy Linux was the best. And after using Gparted to partition my hard drive, I was able to easily install Puppy Linux without headaches, by using the easy to follow install wizard it comes equipped with.





Puppy Linux has a lot of good things going for it that make it very beneficial to new comers to linux. One, being a easy to use, somewhat-like windows interface. Two, being a install wizard that holds your hand through the installation process (perfect for noobs wishing to install Puppy on their hard drive). And three, being that a person could find plenty of info online about Puppy Linux in case they were to come across any unforeseen problems.





How well did Puppy Linux hold up on my really old computer with only 64mb of RAM?

Amazingly, Puppy booted up and ran OK for the hardware it had to work with. It exceeded my expectations with such low system specs. But it wasn't perfect. I wouldn't recommend using it on computer with only 64mb of RAM - Update the RAM then give it a try to get better performance.





Obviously, with such limited RAM to spare, I noticed some hang ups and freezes while trying to use simple everyday task and functions. None the less, I'm a bit amazed that Puppy could run on this dinosaur aged computer at all since it had such low system specs.





How well did puppy Linux hold on my next old computer with only 128mb of RAM?

Surprising, Puppy did pretty well on 128mb of RAM. The 128mb computer I tested it on ran Puppy pretty well. I didn't think a small 64mb increase in RAM would affect the performance too much, however it noticeably did. Although Puppy didn't run perfect, it still ran better then just about every Linux distro I tried on a computer with only 128mb of RAM.





How well did Puppy Linux run on an old computer with only 256mb of RAM?

With only 256mb of RAM Puppy Linux ran extraordinary well, and I couldn't say the same for a lot of the other Linux distro's I tried. There were a few hang ups, but this is only expected on a machine as old as this. I made the decision to put Puppy on this machine as the primary operating system because it ran so well.





If Puppy Linux isn't one of the best Linux for old computers (and beginners), then honestly I don't know what is.





There is a Slacko version of Puppy Linux and Precise Puppy Linux and a Lucid Puppy Linux. So far out of three, I personally feel Lucid Puppy is the best and recommending giving it a try.





RAM Recommendation: Preferably 256mb of RAM or higher. 128mb is fine, but you'll eventually want to upgrade your RAM to take full advantage of Puppy's speed and usability.