No subject

the system with one of the above systems.

Debian is not the easiest packaging systems to use if you are rather new
to Linux. Plenty of documentation exists to explain how to do all of this,
but RedHat has a pretty nice  packaging system.

If you want another suggestion, you might be able to pick up a low end
CD-ROM drive for at little as $4.00 or even less at a place like HSC, or a
"Computer Show and Sale" in Sonoma County.

Having an internal HD (even a slow one) will save you more headaches and
time than trying to do network installs IMHO.

Does your Motherboard support a second IDE interface? If it does, a second
cheap CD-ROM drive is a good solution.

I know the debian install allows 1 to 3 boot floppy disks and the CD-ROM
for the base system, and then addition CD-ROM(s) for more packages.

I suspect that RedHat offers a similar setup with boot floppies and their
CD-ROMs, if you have a CD-ROM.

The drivers for IDE based CD-ROMs within the Debian Linux boot floppies
deal with most CD-ROM drives II have ever met, but YMMV.

Another option:
If you can wait, take the whole box and all the hardware to the next
install-fest. Plenty of skilled and intelligent users have been available
in the past, and are expected to be there in the future for install fests.

-ME

P.S. Just comments and suggestions, but no cat calls.

On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, mitch utsey wrote:
> Subject: newbie stupid questions..
> 	I was just given a pentium 100 box with a 650mg hard drive, and no
> cdrom. Are there versions of linux around that I can use just through
> the floppy? Is it worth bothering with?
> 
> 	I ask because I am flat broke, and the muttonhead I got the box from
> did a format to the c drive (newbie I may be, but I will not be
> formatting my drives without a good reason...). Of course, this means
> that there is no os on the box, and I wanted to try linux out (if I
> could find a way to do it with floppies...)
> 
> 	Suggestions? Comments? Catcalls?