[NBLUG/talk] Request for hardware and distro recommendations

[E Frank Ball]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 12:33:32PM -0700, Roger House wrote:
} 
} 1.  Is it even reasonable to try using this machine for Linux?  Some
} facts:
}        x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 3
}        500 Mhz (?)
}        261,492 KB RAM
}        12 GB disk


No problem running "Linux", but some applications would be painfully
slow.  I have some machines slower than that still in use, and they are
fine for their intended purpose.  The KDE desktop and firefox are a
couple things that would be very slow.  I keep an old PC on the coffee
table in front of the TV (333MHz PII, 320MB RAM).  Firefox is a pig and
too slow on this machine.  Opera is OK (a little sluggish, but the best
compromise between speed and features).  Dillo is screaming fast, but
very feature limited.  I use fvwm for a window manager and I don't try
to run openoffice or gimp or similar things on it.


} 3.  What Linux distro is recommended?
} 
} My primary aim here is to learn Linux and associated software from the
} ground up from hands-on experience.  I should say that I'm a software
} developer who has been around since punch-card days (you know all those
} old greybeards who show up at NBLUG meetings?  I'm one of them) so I
} have some technical background.

I like Debian.  It can do a minimal install and run lean and mean, or
you can load up all the bloatware you want.  It's easy to maintain and
has a huge software collection available.  You could also look at SuSE,
Madriva, or Ubuntu.


-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at frankb.us