Beginner linux questions...

[palad]

I was recently given an old Pentium-133 system running Windows 98. Since I have a couple of other systems that I use for day-to-day stuff, I was thinking of using this one to learn Linux. Since I'm completely new to Linux, I need some suggestions on what to look at. Thanks.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Get Linux. Install Linux. Run Linux.

What were you looking for again?

 

[palad]

Distros, advice, anything I would need to know. Be gentle. It's my first time.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Any distro will do. I recommend staying away from gentoo because of the speed of your machine. Stay away from KDE/Gnome because of the speed of your machine. Check out the Linux FAQ thread.

 

[SolrFlare24]

You could run KDE but it would likely be very painful. For a first go at Linux and on a machine like that, I was thinking along the lines of Mandrake 9.1 but instad of using the default KDE or Gnome schemes, use one of the "light" windows managers included in there. Mandrake 9.1 is a pretty complete package and has a good install. There are other better distros for a machine that size, but I'd still lean towards Mandrake if this is your first go with linux just cause its a good way to ease into the linux OS.

 

[civad]

I think you should give vector linux a try. It is based on Slackware, and has support for ..um.. older machines. It does not use KDE/Gnome by default, instead has XFCE/Icewm as weindowmanagers. and it also has a good user support. Moreover, its a small download, abt 200 megs or so (I think)


Here's the link

 

[Provider]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Any distro will do. I recommend staying away from gentoo because of the speed of your machine.q]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?????
With Gentoo you can compile it for that pc..
In short MAKE IT RUN FASTER

 

[Bremen]

Originally posted by: Provider

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Any distro will do. I recommend staying away from gentoo because of the speed of your machine.q]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?????
With Gentoo you can compile it for that pc..
In short MAKE IT RUN FASTER

Dude, its a P133, do you want to compile everything using that?

 

[pac1085]

Originally posted by: Provider

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Any distro will do. I recommend staying away from gentoo because of the speed of your machine.q]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?????
With Gentoo you can compile it for that pc..
In short MAKE IT RUN FASTER

I'm a huge gentoo fan, but it sure as hell isnt worth running it on a P133. You wont notice any performance increase. I actually noticed that debian runs faster on my P133 than Gentoo does.

Plus, most modern distributions are already compiled for i586 or above

 

[drag]

Gentoo's performance gain is mostly just in your head. It's really not all that much faster and it depends on the apps your using too. maybe 2-7% increase in performance in some to 12-13% in others, if that.. A pentium 133 and gentoo... Na forget it... Especially as a NOOB! You spend 6 days waiting for it to install then you play around as root a couple hours and learn how NOT to do something then bingo and onother 3-6 days to reinstall it? forget it. Go with debian/slackware if your serious about learning linux.. At least with 2 computers you fry one and use the other to get on the internet to research how to fix it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Provider

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Any distro will do. I recommend staying away from gentoo because of the speed of your machine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?????
With Gentoo you can compile it for that pc..
In short MAKE IT RUN FASTER

How long will it take to install it? Is that wait good enough for a minimal, if any, increase in speed?

 

[Sunner]

I actually think someone posted in the Gentoo forums about installing it on a P100 or something along those lines.

IIRC he said doing "emerge kde gnome" from just the base install, and hence getting XFree and such along, took over 90 hours.
Not sure about the time, but it was a crapload anyway