Thinkpad A20m bought year 2000
Celeron 500 MHz
256 MB RAM (not IBM unfortunately, takes much longer to POST than the IBM memory did)
12 GB HDD
CD-ROM drive
WiFi via Edimax PCMCIA card of RT61 persuasion
Dual-boot with Win98

The Wifi did not work on first boot, but I am very proud that despite being a n00b, I managed to obtain driver source, did MAKE, MAKE INSTALL, MODPROBE and it just worked.

I have tried lots of other distros on this machine (Damn Small Linux, DSL-N, Xubuntu 7.04, Feather, Puppy), and for me Zenwalk seems the right balance of lightness and speed with good functionality and ease-of-use.

I could cheerfully use Zenwalk on this machine for real paid work.
[Learn Linux, and dodge the Vista bullet]

Im not sure but mine is a bit dated as well, I'm running Zenwalk on an IBM Thinkpad 600 It was the only distro I could find that would even install.

Maybe for now but I am about to install Zenwalk on my very old IBM 600E

Letcha all know how it goes.

Mine is also a 2000 A20M.
I haven the 700Mhz version though.

I've had trouble with the PCMCIA wireless slot as well. I never tried to fix it though. When I'd plug the card in, it wouldn't even light up, so I assumed it was broken and I went with a USB adapter, which worked out of the box. I'd like to use the PCMCIA slot though, so maybe I'll hunt for drivers and try it out.

Welcome to the old-school. Zenwalk screams on this ancient machine and makes it fun to use again!

Chevee

With PCMCIA on an old machine like that, I would wonder if it is cardbus capable. I've not found any real PCMCIA wireless adpaters - the only ones I have found have all be cardbus (32-bit), which may not be compatible with the A20M.

paul.

I've got a 1998 Thinkpad model 390X with Pentium III and 450mhz CPU. It was just lying around and couldn't browse at all - I even tried loading Windows 98 back on it.

With Zenwalk it's got a new life. Like a 90 year old guy rejuvenated with a miracle drug (Rx of your choice).

I like these stories I started using zenwalk about a year ago when my computer was having issues, and loved it. Someone told me on one of the forums I should go with Ubuntu when I asked a stupid question though, and I regret ever listening to them

Anyways, it's very cool to see that zenwalk is still ressurecting dinosaurs!

I thought this topic would be archived or gone by now, but I'm installing the latest Zenwalk on the same IBM Thinkpad, I'll post back here with results. I must have the lowest spec laptop in Zenwalk/Minislack history here now, has anybody tried this already?

No joy, boots to a black screen, oh well this old thing had to die sometime.

I've a IBM ThinkPad 380XD with 300 MHz of CPU and 64 mb of RAM...
It originally run Win 95...I've installed a Linux distro on It...but i'm not able to run Zenwalk on it...