Tony Dietrich td@transoft.demon.co.uk wrote I *may* have a few old 15" monitors available in a few weeks. I'll mail the list if they come up, but someone needs to be prepared to pop down to Felixstowe *quick* and collect them, I have absolutely NO storage space here...
Having volunteered, I'll be happy to do this, if it happens. Realistically, I think I could cope with a maximum of 3 computers systems by car to a local meeting. Three monitors on the back seat, computers in the boot, K/bs in a box.
I have one computer, but no monitors, so I could collect three monitors if they are going spare.
No one has commented on the spec of these machines. I read Linux is happy to operate on old computers but is this really so? Given the tasks Ive suggested, what is the minimum spec that is worthwhile for this idea?
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On Sun, Jul 13, 2003 at 09:48:29AM +0000, Colin Hards wrote:
No one has commented on the spec of these machines. I read Linux is happy to operate on old computers but is this really so? Given the tasks I?ve suggested, what is the minimum spec that is worthwhile for this idea?
pentium and above is acceptable, if you are doing gui things then pentium 133 upwards probably a minimum of 64MB ram. If you are just playing around with networking and other low intensity things then 486 is fine but probably a minimum of 16Mb is the real final limit. Anyhow any computer is better than no computer imho, the old clunky ones can be superseded by newer ones as and when (now i think of it i may have an amd k6-2 266+motherboard somewhere and i have just realised that of course i now have a spare case! (no ram or disk or CD etc.)
Anyhow if we do end up with more kit than we can use can we find a group who can do something useful with it (send them off for either spares or one of those schemes that send the old kit off to africa?)
Adam
No one has commented on the spec of these machines. I read Linux is happy to operate on old computers but is this really so? Given the tasks Ive suggested, what is the minimum spec that is worthwhile for this idea?
It all depends what you want to do with it.
*Linux* as such doesn't need much. For example I have used Freesco providing a router, firewall, dns and timeserver (and a print server as well if required) running very happily on a 486 with no hard drive. Hence people will say quite accurately that linux runs well on old hardware. But it is text-based only - fine for a server, not so useful for an office desktop machine.
Unlike windows, where everything is bolted together into one, a linux-based computer runs a desktop as a separate program, in effect.
So the point is - and apologies if this seems like splitting hairs but it is really a fundamental distinction - if we want to show an alternative to a desktop PC rather than a server, what spec is required to run an app such as KDE or Gnome?
I have run KDE 3.1on a 233Mhz PII laptop but it is a bit slow and in my experience less than a 450 PII with 128Meg ram is not very satisfying for running KDE 3.x Of course other people may have other opinions and smaller desktop apps can be used. But it is something like KDE that the average new user is likely to want to use IMHO.
Syd
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abower＠thebowery.co.uk -
Colin Hards -
Syd Hancock