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Re: debian solution's for donated computer



On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 09:30:29AM -0500, destruss@iowatelecom.net wrote:
>  My question is what should be included on a computer that is 
> being donated to give a new user experience and use of an old 386 
> or more?  Dean
> 

Short answer: Debian GNU/Linux.

I'm involved in a similar project (http://www.cat.org.au/pcan), in the
same country, so this story has been of great interest to me.  More
coverage here:

http://it.mycareer.com.au/news/2001/07/24/FFXJF9FPFPC.html?NWeeklyH

The silver lining of course is that if we want to avoid prosecution
we're going to have to install something other than windows on the PCs
we re-use.  My heart is broken about this, as you would expect.

There are a number of interesting possibilities:

- 386's would make good text-mode net-stations, using the
stunningly excellent links for web browsing.  Email is a problem, since
mutt is not newbie-friendly, and pine is not free software.

- There has been a lot going on with re-using 486's as X Servers.
There's some instructions on how to do this at
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue68/swieskowski.html, and there's the
GNU/Linux Terminal Server for Schools Project
(http://termserv.berlios.de/), which is still at an early stage, but
already has .debs available.

- Pentiums are fine desktop machines, I've got one at home that I try to
faze, and have no problem with it.  You do need a lot of RAM; 32 meg at
minimum, 48 really makes a difference.  Mine (actually a Cyrix
6x86) doesn't have a problem with Mozilla, GNOME, or anything else I've
thrown at it.  You want a light window manager - Enlightentment with
all the bells and whistles is asking a bit much, Sawfish or WMaker are
fine.

Really what's needed is a stripped-down Debian-based distro for hardware
reuse projects, with virtual packages like 'task-textnet' or
'task-xterminalserver'.  If anybody out there wants to co-operate on
assembling this, I'm in.

Matthew.

------------------------------------------------------
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-------------- Join the One Big Union! ---------------  
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 Software should not have owners - http://www.gnu.org 
---- Use Debian GNU/Linux - http://www.debian.org ----
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------------- http://www.cat.org.au/pcan -------------
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