got an old P3 with 256mb ram,1.2ghz celeron processor,10gb hd and want to install some distro... post U recommendation asap(this box is 4 sale) ... someone can call me anytime... tia!
The biggest problem of all that distros is the package management! can't imagine someone 'newbie' on Penguin updatin packages...nada like DEB Package Management(buntus,etc), a plus...
if i were you? i will first debootstrap and install debian or some other minimalistic linux/*nix and then use this machine as my DNS/DNSSEC/DHCP/VPN-GW/Firewall/NIDS/NIPS/HIPS/HIDS purpose only. GUI is a *BIG NO NO* no gui and heavy desktop interface, just plain old simple command line via SSH to do everything. may be not even ssh, i will use the rs232 i.e. control via serial port. so there is no distro which is tailored till date to fullfil all your requirement. it depends on your command line skills. p.s. in 2006-2007 IIRC i even compiled glibc and gcc 4.0 and kernel on a machine with similar hardware. but this entire adventure took 28 hours for glibc and 36 hours for gcc 4.0 and kernel 2.x 14 hours. lol thanks! -paul