I used to work all day on a 486/66 with 48mB running RH 6.2 (and previous). I used a stripped-down X, afterstep I think. It was OK, but I wouldn't expect the typical home user to be comfortable with that environment. It was definitely for hackers only.
My home system at that time was the P166 with 64mB. I was quite comfortable with gnome, but found the system a bit slow. Adding a couple of 16mB SIMMs (total 96mB) made a big difference, since then, the system is quite comfortable, even with lots of browser windows, a bunch of gvim edits and The Gimp all going at the same time.
I'm still using the same system at home. Adding the last 32mB (maxing it out at 128mB) made a difference, but not a big one. I find it, most of time, jast as fast as my 550mHz/512mB system at the office.
The key to running a good graphical interface is having enough RAM and a fast graphics card. My office machine at 550mHz/512mB was agonizingly slow using the AGP video on the MB, but it rocks now that a fast PCI graphics card was added.
You might make the slackware/abiword work in 32mB by stripping the kernel bare and choosing a lightweight X manager, but I don't think typical users would be happy in even afterstep.
I recommend scrounging more RAM. |
