Text 12875, 79 rader
Skriven 2009-07-01 13:47:36 av Maurice Kinal (1:261/38)
     Kommentar till en text av Wayne Chirnside
Ärende: splish splash
=====================
Hey Wayne!

> There was a "Basic Linux" site at one time that offered a bare
> bones Slack 8.1 install.

Seems to me that other distributions used to do simular but since the
popularity of the more Windows-like distributions hardcore minimalized Linux's
have fallen by the wayside as far as readily availability is concerned.

> I _may_ get to that point one day.

No rush ... is there?

> Pondering a newer used box at 3.2 GHz for$120 U.S.

P4?  Sounds like a good investment.  The local guru is refurbishing a mess of
those and is having great success selling them for under 200 Canadian.
Obviously a good idea in this current economy.

> MPlayer is unworkable for now.

It should work fine on there however if onboard graphics you might wish to
alter that to a suitable graphics card.  Chances are good it has an agp slot
but if not then pci ought to be doable and improve the capabilty of that system
with respect to video output.

> At 120 U.S. what's to complain about?

For sure.  That sounds great.  Also if you want to add sata and take advantage
of the bigger, cheaper, and more flexible HD's that interface has to offer than
there are some good pci cards that should work fine with that particular
system.  I found a couple very good candidates on a pci interface at very
attractive prices.  Hotswapping works excellent.  :-)

> Anyway, currently this machine really wouldn't support it.

Bonus!  CD/DVD's etc. are a complete waste of time and money methinks. There
are better ways of achieving the same results ESPECIALLY on older hardware but
argueably better for the more recent advancements in hardware.  Anything that
behaves more like a regular HD is always going to be superior to CD/DVD's etc.

> The initrd is the image file that sortsd out the hardware right?

Not really since that should be the kernel's job.  The initrd should only
provide the basic enviroment needed to exploit the hardware the booted kernel
can sort out.  In Slackware's case the initrd is used to run the install
scripts but can be used to repair an already installed system if and when
needed.  There is enough there to even do backups if needed. It can and does
work but in my particular case I usually have to supply my own kernel.  I don't
mind.

> My only other interest is burning a Knoppix ISO because it
> supposedly has all the diagnostics and drivers to run most
> all systems.

It never stood a chance here even when I did bother with a CD-ROM.  Their
kernel was too mainstream for anything I care to boot.  I obviously never have
belonged to their target audience.  Same with Ubuntu and the like.

> Says he makes much more servicing Windows boxes, because they foul
> up so much but would really prefer to only work on Linux.

I've been hearing that exact same statement for years now.  Speaking for
myself, I took the plunge over a decade ago now and have never had any worrys
wrt getting anything decent working, including 486's as recent as last year. 
I'm betting few others can say the same.

> I'll look for you at Minimal Linux

Excellent idea.  There is soon to be a change there although the philosophy
will stay the same, as well as still be a source for everything ttylinux.  By
the end of the summer I am hoping that the minimalinux part will be getting
better coverage.  I am optimistic that it will and others may find it useful.

Life is good,
Maurice

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