🚀 go-pugleaf

It's 26 Oct 97  21:58,
We'll return to ersoady@magna.com.au and All's
discussion of A Linux Newbie seeking sweet relief

 er> So here's the deal. I have a Wintel 486 DX 2-66 * 8MB Ram, 540MB HDD,
 er> a Creative 4X CD-ROM and an S3 Trio video card.
 er> Can I run Linux effectively on this, keeping in mind that I would like
 er> to use it as a single, non-networked machine for the moment, and do
 er> word processing and spreadsheets on it, as well as connecting to the
 er> net (which I already do with Win 95 on it.)????
 er> I am fed up with micro$oft and having read a recent article in APC and
 er> hearing nothing but good things, I am ready to be converted.

 er> If anyone can supply me with some useful information regarding this I
 er> would be most grateful.

No problems, Linux will run fine on this hardware.  One thing you'll
notice is that it's nowhere near as resource hungry as Windows (unless
you use X :) ).  As a couple of examples I'm aware of, here's some
hardwre configurations I've had success with Linux on.

386SX40, 8 MB RAM (was 4 MB).  Used as a router for a dialup link, also
runs Samba (for sharing files to Windows based machines), mail server
and a couple of other miscellaneous things.  Might throw a small web
server now that it's got 8MB.  Heaps of free RAM. :-)

486SX33, 16 MB RAM.  Web server, dialup server/router linking two
Windows NT networks, Samba, mail server.  IRC and news may be added
soon.  The entire system fits in 80 MB (I chose my packages carefully :)
).

486DX4-100, 32 MB RAM.  This is a full on Internet server (i.e. mail,
www, FTP, etc).  Supports up to 4 dialup users, and X is sometimes used
on this machine as well.  A 486 this fast is quite a treat for Linux.

I've never tried Linux on a Pentium class machine.  Never needed to. :-)

Your 486 will do well as a text only system, and you'll be surprised at
the speed.  If you wish to get GUI and run X, I'd spend some money on
RAM (take it to at least 16 meg, preferably 32).  The rest of the
hardware is more than adequate for your needs (though you may need to
choose your packages carefully if you decide to run a full blown X
system).

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