Re: XFCE, ROX+xfwm, FC2, Xandros, etc...

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Tue, 2004-08-10 at 00:57, dannychina2008 wrote:
> You could install any LInux distro you wanted on that system. I would
> only steer clear of Gentoo due to your lack of experience, and low
> system RAM. I would also use a lightweight window manager such as
> fluxbox or xfce, since you have a 650MHz processor. That being said,
> now you have to choose amongst 99.9% of all the thousands of Linux
> distros that fit the requirements you have stated. (As you can see,
> Linux is more forgiving on older hardware.) 

XFCE is pretty good.  Alan Cox himself runs Fedora Core 2 (FC2) with the
standard XFCE option (new in FC2, in addition to KDE and GNOME) on a IDT
WinChip2 225MHz and 48MB RAM.

Fedora purposely overstates the RAM requirements for the installer (64MB
for text, 192MB for graphical), but you can install in 32MB with swap
already enabled (and possibly even only 48MB without).

Otherwise there is always Fedora-based, XFCE-default Cobind:  
  http://www.cobind.com/  

Or the "now moving to a Fedora base" RULE Project:  
  http://www.rule-project.org/  

Other people seem to like the combination of ROX Filer (X11 Session +
File Manager) and XFCE's xfwm (X11 Window Manager) for a more OS/2
Workplace Shell-like experience.  ROX has some very innovative
capabilities.

Red Hat's UP2DATE supports both APT and YUM repositories for automatic
package downloading and dependency resolution.  It ships with a separate
YUM binary, but I typically download the APT binaries from Fedora Extras
(Fedora.US) as I trust APT more (those Debian guys did good!).

> What are you trying to do with your system? Workstation? Server?
> School work? Home business? General web surfing? 

Yeah, that's the big consideration.  It all depends on what you use.

> For newbies, I generally recommend a distro that runs off CD so that
> you can "try before you buy". Mepis and KNoppix are two common ones.
> If you do not have broadband Internet, or if you do not have a CD
> burning program like Nero, you could buy Suse from Best Buy or your
> favorite computer store, or you could buy a "Fedora Linux" book that
> has CD's inside.

I've been recommending the "Fedora Core 2 for Dummies" book.  Heck, I
even bought a copy (and I'm a LPIC-2/RHCE ;-).  For $29 you get
everything you need -- 1 CD (FC2 CD#1), 1 DVD (all FC2 binary/source).

For more of a Debian-base, I recommend Xandros Desktop OS 2
(Sarge-based).  Unfortunately, it's KDE usage is probably more than your
system can handle.  But I'll recommend it regardless if you have a more
powerful system.  The $89 "Deluxe Edition" has a lot of Windows
integration/emulation included.  The "Open Circulation Edition" (OCE) is
either $10 to download or you can find it on the Torrent.

LinspireOS fka LindowsOS is actually just Xandros with more marketing. 
;-ppp


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Bryan J. Smith                                   b.j.smith@ieee.org