Learning in the age of the Pentium I(Topic Killed)

[disco_lad]

Once upon at time long ago I played with mandrake on my computer and had fun learning. Today I am lost since I have been out of the computer loop! I have an old Pentium 1 proc with 64MB of ram and about 2.5GB of hard drive space. I am I lost to the Mandrake world, or can I find a way to install Mandrake once again on the same computer? I tried SuSE 9.0, Pocket Linux, and some other linux version. I found I would like to use a GUI interface to learn some web programing. I hope to learn non web programming after. Does Mandrake have server abilities and SQL built in or do I have to go third party software?

Edited October 3, 2005 by disco_lad

[ianw1974]

Welcome to the board

 

Mandrake does have lots of server stuff that you can install, such as MySQL, Apache, etc, etc. I'm not sure how some of the versions would run on your machine.

 

10.1 Official is still good, and I still use it as well, so maybe give this a go on your machine. LE2005 might work OK and might be worth a shot if you find 10.1 Official doesn't run too good. The main issue will be if you use KDE or Gnome, since they do use a lot of memory and will slow it down. Other Window Managers will run that don't consume a lot of resources, but whenever I've tried, I've never been able to get to grips with them. I prefer KDE or Gnome, since these are true desktops, rather than just Windows managers. IceWM is one, along with Blackbox, Fluxbox and others.

 

Otherwise, you might have to download Mandrake 9.x if none of the above run well enough.

 

Good luck!

[Crashdamage]

A 10x version of Mandrake/Mandriva with a 2.6 kernel would be better than a 9x version with a 2.4 kernel. The 2.6 kernel makes a nice speed improvement, even on old hardware. If you want to use 10.1 with only 64MB of memory, certainly you can but don't expect to be able to use KDE or Gnome in a worthwhile way, if at all. Stay with a lightweight window manager like Fluxbox or IceWM. There's plenty of other window managers to choose from if those don't suit you. You should be able to skip installing KDE, (I don't have KDE installed on 10.1) maybe even Gnome too, depending on what apps you want to run. That will save lotsa precious space on that 2.5G drive.

 

If 10x just won't work or you really want KDE/Gnome, you could try an older version like Mandrake 8.2, which has older and much lighter versions of KDE and Gnome. Or try one of the distros intended for old hardware with limited memory like Vector Linux or Peanut Linux. There's a Linux distro for every need.

[theYinYeti]

Basically, it all comes down to wether your hardware supports a 2.6 kernel.

 

I have a PentiumMMX 166 MHz Toshiba laptop, with 32MB RAM, and 2 GB hard drive. With a 2.6 kernel, the CDROM drive is not seen so I cannot install. However, I installed Debian 3.1 (latest available), and I can now run my website on it, ie:

- X + IceWM,

- Apache2 + PHP,

- Firefox.

 

Not bad for so old and feable a laptop! So in my opinion, as long as no problem arises from using a 2.6 kernel, you can perfectly use latest Mandriva. Just be sure to:

- not use Gnome nor KDE -use IceWM, Fluxbox, Xfce, or Matchbox instead-,

- have alternatives to the BigThings available for when the alternative is enough:

Dillo or links-graphics as an alternative to Firefox,

Rox, Gmc, or another fast file manager as an alternative to Nautilus,

Beaver, Nedit... as an alternative to Gedit, Kate...

 

Yves.

[disco_lad]

What is so special about KDE and Gnome? They seem to mimic Windows and Apple OS. Or that's how it was years ago. And This info is great Thanks

[disco_lad]

should I try debian or for a newbie would it be too hard? I understand debian is more stable but more dificult to install for a newbie, is it true?

[phunni]

It is more difficult but not necessarily more stable imho...

 

Stick with Mandriva to get you started.

[Crashdamage]

What is so special about KDE and Gnome?

Nothing really. As far as I can tell, they're intended to ease the Win-Linux transition for Windoze converts. I appreciate that, and all the work the developers have put into to them to help converts make the change. KDE certainly helped me make the changeover initially. But unless you want a clone of Windoze-like desktop functionality there's no particular reason to use them. The way I look at it, if I wanted something that looks or works like Windows, I'd just use Windows. M$ sucks but if you can overlook that registry, Win2k Pro acutally resembles a decent OS, albeit one with a lousy user interface. I mean, with some tweaking Win2k really is pretty stable, fairly fast, reasonably easy to install and everything works with it (almost). Originally, I went to Linux because XP is a bad joke, just Win2k all f'd up, I can't stand M$'s monopolistic business practices and I knew I couldn't run Win2k forever. When XP was about to be released I could see it was clearly time to make a move out from under Billy Bob Gate's thumb. Besides, I wanted something different, something more customizable, simpler, faster, better. And something with no friggin' desktop icons. So I went to Linux, then soon started checking out window managers.

 

As for me, I never use either KDE or Gnome anymore, haven't since about a month after I first loaded Linux. I don't have KDE installed at all, and Gnome is only still there because some apps I use require it. You may need one or both installed for dependency reasons, depending on what apps you use. I've haven't logged in with Gnome since Mandrake 8.0, couldn't even tell you what it looks like now.

 

should I try debian or for a newbie would it be too hard? I understand debian is more stable but more dificult to install for a newbie, is it true?

Try it if you want. I've found Mandriva to be absolutely rock-stable, so Debian couldn't do any better for me in that regard. The stability thing is more reputation than fact. Debian is a little harder to install. You might want to try Unbutu (Debian-based w/Gnome) or Kunbutu (Debian-based w/KDE) as they're easier for n00bs. I found no particular advantage to Debian and for a few reasons have stayed with Mandriva and will for the forseable future. But to each his own...

[theYinYeti]

Hi,

 

I received your message OK :)

I would also advise to stick with Mandriva until you really feel more comfortable with Linux. If there's something wrong with Mandriva, and it isn't the 2.6 kernel (I keep in mind that you have old hardware), then switching distro won't help, because they are all based on the "real" linux, that is: the kernel made by Linus.

So if somehow a different distribution makes a better job of handling your hardware, it is not a compatibility problem but rather a configuration problem. As you say you want to learn, believe me, there's no better way to learn than to solve problems :lol:

 

Yves.

[disco_lad]

I am guessing that SuSE 9.0 has the old kernal like 2.4 then because I tried to install that version and it was frozen after the user prompt popped up.