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Yes, Knoppix is in fact the best place to start as it runs off the CD and
you don't even have to install it. I'm able to log onto the web via DHCP
with Knoppix. So it is really cool. It gives you a good idea of the Linux
OS without the need to install it.<br>
<br>
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid1049686584.12321.214.camel@thor.comcast.com">
<pre wrap="">Hi Ed,
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">My name is Ed and I'm just getting into Linux a bit. I have 2 questions
that I would appreciate any help with:
1)I read somewhere that Linux will work on older equipment, and I was hoping
someone could tell me if my old machine would be adequate or not. It's an
old Gateway with a 1Gb hard drive, Pentium 100 with either 128 or 256
memory.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Adequate is a relative term... Linux should install just fine. The
question is: What would you like to do with this machine? If it's just
using Linux as a internal Web server or gateway, or if it's just to get
to know Linux a bit, it will be fine.
If you want to use it as a desktop machine for Web browsing and using
OpenOffice...then it's going to be a bit laggy.
The other question is the video card -- how much video ram do you have?
You'll want at least 2 or 4 MB for a desktop machine, 8 MB or more is
optimal.
I'd recommend Debian or Slackware for that machine. You can do a very
minimal install and add packages as needed.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">2)My current machine is an HP, 100 gb hard drive, Athlon 1.4 ghz and 256k
memory. If I were to put Linux on here and keep windows, would I have to
partition my hard drive and all that, or would Mandrake/Red Hat help me out
with that upon installation?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Yes and yes... Red Hat or Mandrake will help, but you'll need to guide
them a bit. I wouldn't recommend letting them decide what size your
partitions should be.
Mandrake 9.1, AFAIK, is the only one that will resize NTFS partions
right now, though -- so if you're using Windows XP + NTFS, you'll want
to try that.
If you want to find out if the rest of the hardware is supported without
actually installing Linux, you could download Knoppix & run that first
-- I've found it to be really good for testing hardware.
Good luck with it.
Zonker
</pre>
</blockquote>
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