I am running Suse 9 on a 350MHz PC with 192MB RAM, is there any version that will run on this older pc??

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I think, that the memory would not be a problem at all. SETI uses dynamicly about 32...80 MB, depending on the memory your system has installed.
But the overall computing time could be very long for a 350 MHz CPU. I have no system or expirance to compare this. If the system has a high uptime, it could be that your systems meet all deadlines. But think also at the power compsutation/throughtput of the system.

There are some other projects, which has shorter WUs. For example SIMAP, LHC, MalariaControll, Milkyway...

There are two list in the unoffical BOINC wiki, which list the projects hardware requirements :
http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Catalog_of_BOINC_Powered_Projects
http://www.boinc-wiki.info/The_Current_List_of_Alpha_Test/Beta_Test_Projects

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There seems to be a surprising number of these old systems attached, crunching away for various projects.

My Puppy Linux powered P200/64MB RAM can easily return work on time.
Another former SETI participant proved that a Win98 powered P60/48MB RAM can return work within schedule.

The real question for the project participant is "is the cost in power consumption worth the return", as system uptime has to be proportionally higher than a faster system would require.

There seems to be a surprising number of these old systems attached, crunching away for various projects.

My Puppy Linux powered P200/64MB RAM can easily return work on time.
Another former SETI participant proved that a Win98 powered P60/48MB RAM can return work within schedule.

The real question for the project participant is "is the cost in power consumption worth the return", as system uptime has to be proportionally higher than a faster system would require.

The system uptime is not a problem - both my pcs run 24/7. OK lets out it this way the latest version for Windows will run on a 233MHz (Per System Spcifications page), so why does the Linux version require the bigger pc>>

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Because most distros need more?

If you were to install the current version of SUSE, Novell say you would need more...

http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/techspecs.html

Linux Minimum System Requirements

* Personal computer with an Intel Pentium III 500 MHz or higher processor
* 256 MB physical RAM
* 800 MB available disk space
* 800x600 display resolution

Linux Recommended System Requirements

* 512 MB physical RAM
* 2.5 GB available disk space
* 1024x768 display resolution

Recommended Processors

* x86
* Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or higher
* AMD64
* Intel EM64T

If you installed Windows98, you would only need a personal computer with a 486DX 66 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor (Pentium central processing unit recommended), with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory (24MB recommended).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/182751

So the BOINC minimum hardware spec for Windows should be ok, if applied against Windows98.

If you installed Windows2000, you only need...

• 133 MHz or more Pentium microprocessor (or equivalent). Windows2000 Professional supports up to two processors on a single computer.
• 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum. 32 MB of RAM is the minimum supported. 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM is the maximum.
• A 2GB hard disk that has 650MB of free space.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304297

I've test-installed Win2000 on my P200/64MB and don't believe for one second that SETI will run properly on it. When idle, Win2000 used 47MB out of the available 64MB, leaving insufficient memory for the SETI app...

The mainstream distros will probably not be too far behind windows in terms of system requirements. But the beauty of linux is that it can be customized. There are minimal distros out there that will run on just about anything. I think xubuntu has a smaller footprint (since it doesn't run gnome) and can probably run fairly well on an older rig.

Of course it may not be worth the electricity cost to run such old rigs... but last time I ran Predictor@home they had relatively short work units that were well suited for my older machines. I think that has been over a year though so who knows what has changed.

EDIT: Doh! forgot. They are down until at least February.

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