On Mon, 2002-05-13 at 01:27, Miroslav Mazurek wrote: > 12 May 2002 23:55:36 -0500 "Ron Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > On Sun, 2002-05-12 at 19:42, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote: > > > > > > > > Isn't this all rather academic, since Miroslav has a _386_ with > > > > only SIXTEEN MB RAM? Running X would be folly!! Not only is the > > > > CPU old and slow, but so is the RAM, HDD, video card, etc. And > > > > the HDD will tiny!!! > > > > > > > > > > sufficient X to have multiple term windows open at once. He won't be > > > running > > > KDE or what not, but that is not a requirement. Web browsing, simple file > > > editing, etc can be done there. My first Debian machine was a 486 dx2 66 > > > with > > > 16 megs of ram and a 800mb (top of the line for the time) hard drive. > > > > Your CPU was _much_ faster, you had 2x as much RAM, and I bet your > > HDD was faster than Miroslavs. And, as I question in another post, > > you were probably running the 2.0 (or lower?) kernel, and libc5, > > both of which are much smaller than kernel 2.2 with libc6 2.2.x. > > Don't forget the really old versions of XFree86 and gcc. > > > > In other words, RedHat 5.2 or what ever Debian was out then. He'd > > have to find binaries from back then, since newer s/w assumes libc6 > > > > What would you _do_ with it, nowadays? > > > > The 2.2 kernel and apps like elvis and links or lynx in virtual > > terminals would be great (well, adequate) though. [snip] > > First of all, disk is IBM SCSI 2GB that seems pretty fast to me > and provides enough space. > The idea is to find how useful is such old box. If it can do some > web browsing, mail and some simple word processing I'd be satisfied. > No KDE or Gnome. Think of putting few such boxes in some public area > and enable people (students) check their mail and surf. I don't want > to pay M$ licenses. I thought, if it runs almost smoothly win95 (or > 3.11) why not Linux.
It's the 8MB RAM that concerns me. Can you upgrade the box to 24MB? Remember, Win95, Win3.11 & older versions of the linux kernel and libraries were a _lot_ smaller than they are now. > Secondly, I'm terrified when I see that people are using PIII/Athlon > with 128MB and Win XXX for such simple tasks as POS. I don't think > that you need GUI to run such SW and I hope that Linux is not going in > that direction, too. I totally agree with you! > Thirdly, is there a way to use that box as X terminal? Sure... The 8MB of RAM will still _severely_ limit you. With 24MB or 32MB RAM, you could easily run kernel 2.2, libc6, and dillo, a lightweight GTK-based web browser. (If all that is allowed is web browsing, then no need for a window manager. Check a long thread in the regarding this subject in the debian-user archives from approx. 2 months ago.) -- +------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ron Johnson, Jr. Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Jefferson, LA USA http://ronandheather.dhs.org:81 | | | | "I have created a government of whirled peas..." | | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 12-May-2002, CNN, Larry King Live | +------------------------------------------------------------+ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
