On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:41:05 -0500
ethan zimmerman <lists@ethanzimmerman.com> wrote:
> Okay I wish to breathe new life into old hardware by turning an old pc
> into an email-checking-web-browsing-solitaire-playing machine.
>
> First the bad news (the hardware)...
> - 486DX 50Mhz
> - the bios can't see partitions bigger than 512MB
> - and it's running windows 95 (hehe)
Put about 64 MB of RAM in that machine. You can get it for next-to-
nothing on ebay. It will make a large difference for running X.
> What I want...
> - a GUI with Mozilla (hopefully epiphany), Games, Gaim and XMMS
Eh... sure. Mozilla will take no less than 30 seconds to load on that
machine. Have fun. I would use dillo for graphical browsing (very small
and nice, but it does not have Java/Javascript). And if I needed Javascript,
I would use Lynx (text browser).
But, epiphany looks like the next best thing for speed. It isn't as bloated
as mozilla.
For email, I would do text email with "mutt". If you really want graphical
email, the best choice is sylpheed. You'll have to load gnome libs, so,
it might take a few seconds to load, but not as long as mozilla, and it runs
much faster than evolution or kmail, which in my opinion is out of the question
on that machine.
If you play mp3 on that machine, you probably won't be able to do any other tasks.
But xmms will work of course.
You can compile gaim as the old interface without gnome2-style anti-aliased fonts
(which will slow down the computer); that will not last for long, however.
There are console chat clients, but, that chat one thing for which I would prefer X.
> I would like to use GNOME, but then again I would also like to be
Yeah. Not going to happen if you plan on using that computer without going insane.
Might be faster to run to your local library and check your email their computer.
You could donate your 486 as a bookend.
> I know linux will work just fine but what about X? Will X even run? If
> so will XFCE run? (seeing as how gnome probably won't)
X will be alright as long as you keep it slim.
> Oh and if that's not hard enough the bios can't see partitions bigger
> than 512 MB. I've got a 3 gig and a 1 gig hard drive that I'm going to
> cut into 500 MB pieces and install. So how do I install linux on a
> system with 7 500MB partitions?
Eh... do the partitions have needed data? If not, just wipe them out, make
a single boot partition under 512 MB, and leave the rest to linux. Once the boot
loader takes over, the OS gives the BIOS the middle-finger salute.
Linux ignores the BIOS, unlike Win/DOS (Windows 95-98) which trusted the BIOS
for certain decisions, because Win/DOS is not a real operating system.
> Also I'm thinking of using debian because it seems to be a pretty
> minimal distro (I haven't played with it much except with knoppix
> remastering)
You can set "minimal" installation on Red Hat, and probably most distros.
XFCE is not a minimalist WM (window manager); it is more like a desktop
environment, which is a bad idea for this machine. Use a bare window manager;
I recommend fluxbox, or IceWM.
The only thing a desktop environment gives you is desktop icons and some useless
bloated crap that.... er, I mean, "to each his own."
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