I have got a guy intersted in Mandrake

[bradcarter]

No what lol. He is very interested I talked to him about open source, and how great linux is and he wants me when I get back from holidays to pop linux (I recommended mandrake) onto his computer. But his parting words were that he has a P166, amount of ram unknown. Hasnt been upgraded since 1996 so I am guessing low ram. I am sure he is going to like somethink like kde, but I am thinking either fluxbox or blackbox.

 

what would you recomend? Someone new to linux in general what window manager? and any other set-ups?

 

I have been telling people for a long time to give linux a try and now when someone finally says ok I am like "errrrrr now what?" I may have doomed myself to never ending tech support when he said he didnt have a burner, I said I would drop by install mandrake then give him a quick lesson.

 

I get side tracked easily, so what do you recomend?

[Ixthusdan]

I Can you get a copy of Mandrake 8.2? I think it would be better on an older system. I've seen complaints about it, but I found it to be a stable good release.

Also, try gnome for the desktop. I like kde, but gnome is not as much as a monster as kde.

[bradcarter]

I have a copy of 8.2 on CD actually. Actually I have done a fair amount of distro hoping to find what I like so I have

 

Mandrake 7.2,8.0,8.1,8.2,9.0

Debian Potato

redhat 7.3, 8.0

Gentoo 1.4RC2

 

all of those on CD, so I could put 8.2 on his system. If I put gnome on would you recommend gnome2? or is that heavier then gnome 1? Thanks :)

[Ixthusdan]

Actually, Mandrake 7.2 with kde would run great on a p166, but the gui's aren't as nice as the 8 series.

Gnome2 is definitely gui quality. Out of the distros for Mandrake, 7.2, 8.2 and 9.0 are all stable. Don't use 8.1 or 8.0.

Gnome2 is heavier, but still not as bulky as kde.

[bvc]

Forget kde and gnome, period.

 

-ML 8.2 if gtk/gnome apps

-ML 9.0 if qt/kde apps

Not both! No need to start the libs of both DE's

 

-IceWm

-Rox, or Endeavour2 (have to set up Endeavor2 mimes)

-Evolution (hog, but unfortunately for a newbie, the best and most impressive and outlook like. Actually works, unlike...)

-Aterm, or xterm, or something other than konsole and gnome-terminal

-Galeon if gnome, Opera if qt...just not mozilla

 

 

If I put gnome on would you recommend gnome2? or is that heavier then gnome 1?

This is why I'd say ML.8.2. Gnome2 is a little heavier and not near as friendly...Control Center and changing preferences, ect... It will be nice when it's more polished, but for now, not for a newbie.

[theYinYeti]

Search the boards for words "laptop" "old"... You may find something.

[bradcarter]

Thanks for the advice. I will be giving things a go when I get back from holidays. I just finished my last exam and was bogged down before so couldnt come back here sooner.

 

Well see you all in about 2 weeks :)

[Guest jglen490]

Mandrake will be fine. IceWM, XFCE, the *box cousins will each work well, also, for the X window environment. Depending on the amount of disk your friend has, you may or may not want to load KDE, Gnome, and related apps. It won't be necessary to actually run KDE or Gnome, but the libraries can be very useful. I would strongly advise that some upgrades to this machine will be in order such as no less than 64MB RAM and at least 2 - 3GB of disk.

[ramfree17]

-Evolution (hog, but unfortunately for a newbie, the best and most impressive and outlook like. Actually works, unlike...)

 

how about sylpheed? its not outlookish but should be easy enough to figure out for a newbie. its light enough to go with the minimalist theme. :smile:

 

ciao!

[Pepse]

What about Knoppix or DemoLinux?? At least with them distros you just run them off your cdrom; altho Demolinux can be put on your harddrive if you want. IMO those would be great for people that want to get a good idea of Linux without having to install on your hdd and then to make sure your system will accept everthing on it. And with these distros you need at at least 16 megs of ram, a 2 meg video card and a 4X CDrom. Knoppix, IIRC, needs a pentium system as it uses the latest software from KDE, Gnome and Open Office. DemoLinux can use a 486 processor as it appears to have KDE 2.x.x and Gnome 1.x.x. In the case of both distros it is best to have alot of ram. Knoppix/KDE/Gnome needs at least 128 megs and DemoLinux needs at least 64 megs. DemoLinux mentions the faster the CDrom the better. I have viewed DemoLinux the most because I had no probs in getting it going whereas Knoppix is a bit fussier. Knoppix is available from http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/ . As for DemoLinux go to http://www.demolinux.org . I got my Knoppix thru Ebay and my DemoLinux thru Linux Format magazine, the Dec., 2002 issue. Anyway they are good starter distros and will give friends a good idea of what it's all about.

 

Later. Pepse.