virtualbox.org

Computer: Asus 1000HE, Intel Atom , 1.66 GHz, PAE, 32 bit, 2 cores, 1 GB memory, 60 GB hard disks (2), no other storage
Host: Windows XP Home SP3
Guest: pclinuxos-mate-2014.12.iso
VirtualBox Settings: Other Linux (32 bit), Base Memory: 128 MB, Execution cap: 71%, Boot to CD
Behavior: Successful startup and display of ISO splash screen, after default live start, various crashes in guest VM, depending on VB settings. I tried 128, 256, and 512 MB memory. With 512 MB, log file shows "Host memory low". With 128 MB, log file shows "OHCI: Software reset". Screen sometimes shows "general protection fault: 0000 [#1] SMP" followed by a crash dump.
Also tried installing Linux from the ISO file. Similar crashes occur.

I seriously doubt you can get a contemporary version of PCLOS running as a guest on a computer with only 1GB of RAM. First of all you should only assign approx. 50% of the hosts available RAM to a guest which in your case would be approx. 256MBs.

fwiw, the template should be Mandriva 32bit, not that it matters. I think the minimum recommended RAM for the Mate version is 1GB

Thank you for stating "a contemporary version of PCLOS". Linux distros like PCLinuxOS don't state this limitation.

Can anyone recommend a suitable free version of Linux with a Windows-like desktop that I can run on this 1 GB memory computer, please?

I thought that VirtualBox would run just about any OS under just about any other OS, but I guess that was my misunderstanding. I don't see this limitation explained on this website.

Thanks,
David

VirtualBox can run just about any OS under Windows, Linux or OSX. That's not the problem. You just have so little memory to run anything on.

Here's a few ideas: http://www.tecmint.com/linux-distributi ... computers/

loukingjr, Perfect! Thanks.

no problem. you might be able to run Lubuntu in 384MB + 20MBs of VRAM but I've never tried it.

Oh, not so perfect. It's an old article and these OSes are either obsolete or require too much memory. Why can't Linux use virtual memory, so it can fit into 100-200 MB of physical memory under VirtualBox?

Get damn small linux. It works in that amount of memory.

I didn't mention DSL because I don't think it's very "Window's like". But, if the OP is comfortasble with Fluxbox or JWM it may be a good option.