[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: 233 MHz CPU system - Debian and SO 5.2 question



On Sun, Feb 24, 2002 at 12:22:01AM +0100, Andreas von Heydwolff wrote:
| Am fed up with Windows on a single workstation in a small non-profit 
| organization, used mainly for word processing and mailing. This weekend 
| I have to reinstall the OS, data are on a second HDD since the last 
| major crash so it won't be too much trouble. I intend to make it dual 
| boot with Debian as fallback or even soon primary OS.
| 
| Would it make a difference in performance on the 233MHz MMX CPU and 48Mb 
| RAM system whether I choose potato or Woody?

Go for woody.  It's newer.  I don't think you'll see any significant
performance difference.  (FWIW I just upgraded a 486sx 25MHz 8MB RAM
from potato and kernel 2.2.19 to woody and kernel 2.4.17.  Both thrash
just as hard while installing packages :-).  It is only going to be a
router anyways, and maybe a secondary MX.)

| Is the Star Office 5.2 address book reliable enough for mail merges, or 
| has any other word processor (Applixware?) an address book that can be 
| used for mail merges?

StarOffice is big and, IMO, ugly.  I'd go for something lighter
weight, more up-to-date (SO 5.2 was "latest" in '98 or so), and more
open (I don't think the SO 5.2 source is available).  

What type of user is going to use the system?  My preferences are
    mail  :  mutt
    word processing  :  gvim (for LaTeX)

For a less geeky user, though, I think that the following are good
choices :

    mail :
        balsa  (nice and light and intuitive, fully functional and
                integrates "gnome-card" as the address book manager)
        sylpheed (haven't used it but hear good things)
        mozilla

    word processing :
        abiword
        kword

-D

-- 

Windows, hmmm, does it come with a GUI interface that works or just
pretty blue screens?



Reply to: