Re: Advice to newbie, please
Rudi Borth wrote:
>
> I am considering switching the operating system of my personal
> computer to GNU/Linux, and I would appreciate some guidance regarding two
> elementary questions:
>
> Q1: Would this make sense for a single user who is not a programmer?
>
> My system has been made Y2K compliant with HOLMFIX, shows the date
> correctly, and includes: CPU 80486, 25 MHz, RAM 8 MB, SuperVGA
> colour monitor, MS-DOS v6.2, MS-WINDOWS v3.1 with WIN32S
> v1.30.172, HD 164 MB, disk drives 3.5"/1.44 MB and 5.25"/1.2 MB,
> modem Creatix 14.4, CD-ROM drive. - WINDOWS and mouse disliked,
> but used when found useful.
using command line, that should be OK, for X windows 8MB is tight, it
will be fairly slow (lots of swapping), 16 MB should work...
the disk space is more of a problem though, you will have to do some
serious customization no matter which distro you choose. And not much
space will be left for your own work, I guess about 100MB is minimum for
reasonalbe working installation of linux (there are special distros that
fit on floppy though). Plus you need some space for swap (20 to 30 MB).
> Friends call my system obsolete, but so far it has satisfied my
> interests, which include Internet as a text and debating machine,
> writing occasional small programs in C or BASIC or FORTH for my
> personal use, and which don't include top speed of the year or
> graphics although some web sites of interest cannot be usefully
> accessed without them.
I am not sure about quality of basic (there is some) and forth (I
guess there is a forth interpret for linux), the C/C++ tools are good,
in fact the linux is probably best used as development machine... (IMO)
> Q2: Would the switch to GNU/Linux require replacing applications
> now running under DOS or WINDOWS? If yes, what might be recommended
> replacements? For, for example:
>
> CD-Rom readers
? you can read cd-roms as well as many other disk formats
> XTreeGold v3.0
lot of file managers out there, I like midnight commander (norton look
alike)
> Word processor SemWare Editor Junior
there is a huge number of text processing utlities/programs...
probably not the same one but I guess you will find one you will like
(either simple text editor or more fancy wysiwyg word processor). the
more fancier the slower they run, of course...
> Basic, C, C++, Forth
see above
> Chess, FreeCell
gnu chess, I think it has various interfaces, some X based some text
based
there are various card games (and other time eaters:-)
> Internet software: Trumpet WinSock v3.0 Rev C, Opera v3.62,
> Eudora Light v1.5.4, WinTel v4.3.5, Telix for DOS v3.22,
> AtomClock, Integrity Master v4.21a
internet software: built-in
opera: yes, but you might want to consider lynx (text mode browser)
eudora: not AFAIK, but lot of other mail programs, mutt seems to be
popular
wintel: ?
telix: there's minix and othere terminal emulators/modem communication
programs
atomClock: ?
integrity master: ?
> HTMLed, RoPS, Acroread, MSWordViewer, WinJPG29
html editors: there are few, not sure how usable, one comes with
netscape
rops: ?
acroread: yes, plus xpdf, ghostview
mswordviewer: yes, some office suites can read/write ms word docs (but
those might be too much for your machine)
winJpg29: ? there's lot of image viewers, gimp for editing (if that's
what you're looking for)
> Any help (or reference where to get it) would be much appreciated. My two
> questions don't seem to be answered in the FAQ texts.
you can check freshmeat to see what application are available, also
www.debian.org and view lists of packages...
some of the programs you asked about I've never heard before, you
might want to write short description of what you're looking for
(functionality)...
but generally, as far as communication and development go, you get the
world class environment for that in linux...
erik
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