The message 20041009220731.GR7254@earth.li from Jonathan McDowell noodles@earth.li contains these words:
<disconnecting the box from ADSL>
Oh, sure, lots of people do (we have a customer who seems to connect up on their ADSL to pick up email and then disconnect within less than 5 minutes and do this regularly throughout the day),
As would I - though if I did have ADSL I might spend longer periods connected!
With the number of port scans you get while online I'd be loath to leave a box sitting there as a target for the newest cleverest device to ooze in. On Friday I began loading Win 2000 (sorry!) on a pre-loved HDD at around midday.
At 02.00-ish on Saturday, the installation hung at the last lap while removing temp files. This on my fastest machine - a 450 MHz monster. I would not want to have regularly - or even again - to do that (even successfully) because I was one of the first to be hacked by some useless w***** with a twisted aim in life.
Right. A bit of mental therapy now. Debian only took an afternoon to load on the same machine, and that was with a lot of waiting for someone to come and <metaphor> hold my hand </metaphor> when it was standing by for further instructions.
For those who justifiably may be puzzled, I beta test my ISP's internet software, and it's written to run in Windows. I have a caddy in the machine and four trays for it.
<serious question> I have debian in one tray, will have Win 98SE in another, and Win 2000 in the third. Knoppix will run from CD.
(Bearing in mind that I have no intention of *EVER* loading XP), available to load I have CP/M, DOS 6.22, Win 3.11 and OS2. I have very old Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Mini-Linux distros, and I have a hankering to try PetrOS. I can't bear to have a fiver's worth of tray in the 'Come In Handy Even If I Never Use It' box.
Is there any point in having a different Linux distro, when one has Debian (and Knoppix) available? Any other (constructive) suggestions?