Never Connected to Internet Laptop

[optimator]

I'm trying to create a "never connected to the internet" laptop.

I have an old dell inspiron 8600 with a non-pae kernel. This seems to be a problem with Ubuntu.

I'm looking at some other distros but their iso's are too large to burn to a standard CD-R.

Any recommendations for a Linux flavor for this old laptop?

[myrkul]

Would Puppy or DSL be an option?

[myrkul]

Aha! install Lubuntu or Xubuntu. They don't expect a PAE-capable CPU.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/117744/how-can-i-install-on-a-non-pae-cpu-error-kernel-requires-features-not-present

[MysteryMiner]

Debian for Linux. WindowsXP for normal people. As this computer is going never to be connected to network the theoretical security increase of Linux is irrelevant as Windows have advantage of being easier to manage and troubleshoot.

[optimator]

Well after burning (or not burning) around 7 discs I finally got it right on the 8th try.

I went with XUbuntu 12.04.

The only change worth mentioning is that I booted into setup and disabled the onboard wireless connection - just to make sure it wouldn't try to automatically connect to some default access point.

I then proceeded to install in the normal fashion.

Cheers!

[MysteryMiner]

If the WiFi card is removable then removing it would be the ultimate act of paranoia.

I'm paranoid but why such? Having laptop for cold storage of bitcoins does not require such extremely paranoid measures. There are more dangerous and secret data than private key to 10 000 bitcoins.

[optimator]

If the WiFi card is removable then removing it would be the ultimate act of paranoia.

I'm paranoid but why such? Having laptop for cold storage of bitcoins does not require such extremely paranoid measures. There are more dangerous and secret data than private key to 10 000 bitcoins.

The wifi was built into the laptop and there was a bios option to turn it off. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean.....

The thinking is that some wifi OS software automatically connects to networks with names like "default" or "linksys" or maybe any open unsecured network. to eliminate that possibility I simply turned it off.