>From my experience, the minimum system you need to run the X window
system (Linux's usual GUI) is a 133Mhz machine with 32-64 Meg of RAM and
then only use a light weight window manager (desktop environment) such
as FVWM 95, etc. This kind of setup is not the default on most modern
distributions and would take some expertise to set up, tweak, and make
work with a degree of usefulness. The usual desktop environments that
run on top of X (KDE and GNOME) are too resource hungry for older
hardware but they have the easy-to-use programs that make getting your
dialout working easy.
Having said that, I DID get KDE-1 to work well once on a 486-100 with 64
Meg of RAM. RAM is key to good X performance and make sure you allocate
a partition for swap space -- at least 64Meg and perferably 128M. I
used an elderly SuSE 5.3 distro. Try one of the newer SuSEs and choose
the 2.2 kernel not the 2.4. The KPPP utility that comes with KDE makes
setting up a modem ppp connection easy.
Ed.
dopler2@juno.com wrote:
>
> I'm a 'po boy with a 486 I want to put LINUX on. I have a 1 gig hard
> drive, with a 300 meg partition dedicated to Caldera Dos 7.03 and Windows
> 3.1. The other 700 I've partitioned for LINUX. The monitor is a VGA, but
> not SVGA I don't think.
> I've tried various flavors of LINUX over the past couple of years.
> What with holding down a day job and having to deal with the trials and
> tribs of life on a "mostly harmless" planet, I've maybe put in two weeks
> of man hours. I tried Caldera 2.3, but couldn't navigate around the
> installation menu.
> Red Hat 6.2 I had to use text mode in the installation program, but
> when I finally got to the last screen and tried to kick off installation,
> it said it couldn't recognize my Linux partition. I had Debian on before
> that and Caldera, but couldn't figure out how to download enough to do
> anything with.
> I got Caldera 1.3 loaded, and LISA set up so I could boot either my
> DOS/WIN 3 or Linux partitons. Couldn't get the dialer to log onto my ISP
> so I could run NETSCAPE.
> A fellow who's a friend of a used PC shop worker suggested
> Slackware, and said the latest version should do all right. I'm still
> trying to install it, and pick and choose packages to install so I can
> get enough, but not too much.
> All I wanna do with LINUX is run NETSCAPE (I have a 56K modem on COM
> 2, FYI), and use a word processor. I'd like one with a dictionary you can
> add to, with the capability to import ASCII text files of unlimited size.
> It would have to let me use various sized text fonts, and it would be
> great if I could edit PDF files. I hear tell that LINUX beats the pants
> offa windows. A friend of mine has a PC with windows 98, and you have to
> lean on the NORTON system protector to recover from software crashes at
> least every other week, maybe more.
>
> Thanx in advance,
> Frank Starr
> Tampa, Florida
>
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