[SATLUG] What's good for someone with older hardware that needs

[Borries Demeler]

Any Linux system with a stripped down kernel (perhaps custom built) and a
light-weight X-window manager should work just fine on this hardware. The
distro may not matter so much as long as you make the necessary mods.
Most modern distros are by default geared towards more modern machines
(please correct me if you know of some exceptions) and offer more
eyecandy, but you don't need all of this and you can still run a great,
modern Linux box that is immune to all the problems your friend has come
across. Also, several winmodems are supported under Linux with he right
setup. Your friend may just have the right one. I recommend doing some
research on that. Here is a place to start:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linmodem-HOWTO.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/modems.html

-borries


> 
> Damn Small Linux uses little memory and cpu, so it makes old computers seem faster and respond quicker. 50 megabytes can fit on a 6 gigabyte hard drive with plenty of room to spare. When I used DSL from a live CD, it was only using between 30 and 45 megabytes of memory and with it installed to the hard drive, it should be even less.
>    
>   Jim Wells <jfw5cpa at gmail.com> wrote:
>   I have a friend who is interested in using Linux. He has an HP with a
> 266MHz Intel Celeron, 112 megs of RAM, a 6 Gig hard drive & a 24X
> CD-ROM. I know the computer has a winmodem so I know he will have to
> replace that with a hardware modem. He is fairly computer literate as
> far as Windows 98 & XP are concerned but isn't sure how well he can
> handle Linux. In light of the limitations of his hardware, what would
> be a good distribution that would be easy for him to use and keep
> running properly? It would need to be one that worked quite easily with
> dialup since he does not have broadband.
> 
> Does anyone have any specific ideas for a distro my friend could use?
> He lives out by Sea World so it needs to be something that I won't have
> to run over there every few days because he has managed to get something
> goofed up.
> 
> The main reason he wants to switch is the security. Some of his friends
> come over every once in a while and somebody manages to either hose the
> Win98 system or they add a ton of crap that I get un-installed and then
> seems to just pop back up. I don't want these people to keep screwing
> up the system so I don't have to keep going back and restoring it.
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions,
> Jim Wells
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