On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 09:30:29AM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > My question is what should be included on a computer that is > being donated to give a new user experience and use of an old 386 > or more? Dean >
Short answer: Debian GNU/Linux. I'm involved in a similar project (http://www.cat.org.au/pcan), in the same country, so this story has been of great interest to me. More coverage here: http://it.mycareer.com.au/news/2001/07/24/FFXJF9FPFPC.html?NWeeklyH The silver lining of course is that if we want to avoid prosecution we're going to have to install something other than windows on the PCs we re-use. My heart is broken about this, as you would expect. There are a number of interesting possibilities: - 386's would make good text-mode net-stations, using the stunningly excellent links for web browsing. Email is a problem, since mutt is not newbie-friendly, and pine is not free software. - There has been a lot going on with re-using 486's as X Servers. There's some instructions on how to do this at http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue68/swieskowski.html, and there's the GNU/Linux Terminal Server for Schools Project (http://termserv.berlios.de/), which is still at an early stage, but already has .debs available. - Pentiums are fine desktop machines, I've got one at home that I try to faze, and have no problem with it. You do need a lot of RAM; 32 meg at minimum, 48 really makes a difference. Mine (actually a Cyrix 6x86) doesn't have a problem with Mozilla, GNOME, or anything else I've thrown at it. You want a light window manager - Enlightentment with all the bells and whistles is asking a bit much, Sawfish or WMaker are fine. Really what's needed is a stripped-down Debian-based distro for hardware reuse projects, with virtual packages like 'task-textnet' or 'task-xterminalserver'. If anybody out there wants to co-operate on assembling this, I'm in. Matthew. ------------------------------------------------------ Industrial Workers of the World - http://www.iww.org -------------- Join the One Big Union! --------------- ------------------------------------------------------ Software should not have owners - http://www.gnu.org ---- Use Debian GNU/Linux - http://www.debian.org ---- ------------------------------------------------------ ----- Parramatta Computer Access Network (PCAN) ------ ------------- http://www.cat.org.au/pcan ------------- ------------------------------------------------------
