[Rule] Summary/random thoughts on RULE

[rkwesk at hellug.gr]

Quoting Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>:

snip

> I'd still like to see a distro for a Win98-level PC: 64-128MB RAM,
> end-of-line Pentium 1 (200-233MHz) or low-end P2 (266 or so), 6GB or
> so of hard disk. But I am not convinced that there is much real need
> for it. It would be nice, but really, only a keen enthusiast wants to
> keep such a PC running now. Better machines are widely and readily
> available for free.
>
> I have been trying to think of a reason to justify such a distro or
> package, and the best I could come up with was, if it runs on really
> low-spec machines, it will be a really high-performance distro for
> something newer and more powerful.

Well, Liam, my extra light (less than 1.5 kgs!) laptop is a P1 at 266  
and I now run bang up to date Debian Etch on it. The extra hiccup has  
been the necessity of compiling a Debian (from Debian sources) Sid  
kernel (2.6.22) in order not to have a running of repeated error  
messages that fill up logs and scroll the console screen.

A minimal xorg with icewm runs fairly reasonably as well. It may well  
be better to "adopt" another distro but I am pleased with Debian.

Richard

> I wrote an article on this theme recently. Perhaps RULE readers might
> find it interesting?
>
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40532
>
> What do people think? Is there really a need for a distro for mid-'90s
> or older PCs any more?
>
> --
> Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
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