I loaded Damn Small Linux 2.4.31 onto an old Compaq Armada M700 laptop that was choking on Windows XP. Adding more ram made the laptop blaze. The applications that are bundled with DSL are cute but not what I prefer using. After attending several local Linux meetings, I am no closer to realizing my objective of successfully running OpenOffice on DSL. In fact, no one can even find it to unpack it.

What do I need to do?

No offense to anyone but, I prefer advice from someone who is actually running OpenOffice on DSL.

Thanks!

please help us.. I am also at this point . or should i try another small linux

found out disc was corrupted . did not work on my rh 9.0.. going to re-download new version.. if it does not work going to try puppy Linux ( it looks a bit bigger ) I will be on p2 350 and above.. (what speed is your machine?)
gotta get it to work soon . I see corruption s starting on this xp crap ( should-a stuck to my 98se on this machine.) . when i find a Linux that runs on the slower machines I will move it across all my stuff..
opps edit puppy wants 5oo + mhz processor

No offense, but did you try googling for OpenOffice? I found it here:

http://www.openoffice.org

Why not try Tiny-me From PCLINUXOS its a stripped down version of PCLINUXOS 2007. I have it running on an AMD 300mhz desktop PC with no problem, it uses openbox for the windows manager. Once you have it installed you can install any program that is available for PCLinuxOS.

i had not heard of tiny me.. thanks, i'll download it tonight

No offense, but did you try googling for OpenOffice? I found it here:


Thanks. I know where to find OpenOffice. The problem is HOW to install it on a machine that has DSL for the OS.

OK, so you've downloaded OpenOffice from the official website and you've unpacked it into a temporary directory on your DSL machine. You've done ./configure. What error messages do you get? If you list them here we can work through them one by one.

I'm not sure you realize it, but you have enough computer with a 700 mhz Pent III to run straight Ubuntu or Kubuntu. These will have the Apps you want pre-installed and will save you time and effort over inflating DSL or Puppy. Plus you have a much bigger repertoire of subsequent program choices.

I'm not knocking Puppy or DSL -- I actually use them for special purposes -- I think they are great. I just mean, why try to make them what they were intended specifically NOT to be?

I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy on a Pentium II 400 Mhz IBM Thinkpad 600E with 480 Megs.

The only performance issues I had were that Firefox seemed sluggish, and encrypted DVD's were jumpy.

However, there are web pages devoted to Firefox speedups, and following these and disabling IPV6 address resolution, made the laptop run great.
And at 700 mhz and a Pent 3, you should be able to play DVDs! Mine are a little jumpy, but do play on a 400 mhz machine. Other than that everything runs faster than Windows 98 did! In fact I can dual boot to Win98, and definitely demonstrate the difference.

It should be a clear improvement over XP for you.

Please also note that since both Puppy and DSL get a lot of their speed from loading the whole OS and apps into RAM, as soon as you add big apps like Open Office, you have reduced your available RAM. With a big document or two, you may be running on Swap, and losing the speed advantage of a RAM based system.

These OS's are all optimized for the apps they ship with. If you want the apps in a disk based Linux, then it makes sense to use a Linux optimized for those apps. There are almost always forum discussions for speedups within those systems, if you like to tinker.

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The bizarre thing about this thread is that OpenOffice seems to be in the DSL repository list, which means that installing it on DSL is as easy as clicking 'My DSL' and then clicking 'OpenOffice'.

I refrained from posting that, because when I checked, the version of OOo that was in the repository was one point something.

Oh well.. that explains it.

OO 2.0.4 is available for DSL in the UCI section of the repository. there is a 'Spanish' version 2.3 in the testing area!

I use the UCI version of OpenOffice 2.0.4 on an old Pentium II running DSL with few problems. Since OO is a bit of a memory hog on such an old machine, I keep it in the "Optional" folder in MyDSL and only install it when it's needed.

I only have two problems with it:

1) It doesn't seem to recognize the Java Runtime Environment that is installed via the MyDSL extension system.

2) There doesn't appear to be a way to install individual OpenOffice apps so you don't have to load the entire OpenOffice suite when you only need Writer, or Calc, or Base, or Impress. If somebody took the time to create MyDSL extensions for the individual OpenOffice apps, they would doing be a GREAT service to the DSL user community.

After more tinkering than I hankered for, I agree with guilf. DSL is best suited to run as is. I decided to go with Ark Linux which already has OpenOffice along with other goodies. I really like how it's set up. My machine runs slowly when running an OO app but, oh well.

The main problem now is getting it to recognize my Linksys wireless card. The card has a Broadcom chipset and I have been told, and read, that wireless connectivity is, for the most part, THE biggest problem for a Linux laptop due to the hardware/software compatibility issues.

Yes, I have both ndiswrapper and ndisinstaller along with visiting the site that addresses Broadcom chipsets. I've been trying to make stuff work. I'll be frank, it's a pain in the a...


Editorial:
I admire how Linux wants to be a FREE and reliable alternative to Windows and Mac in a predominately Windows world, however, its level of necessary involvement is daunting even to experienced Windows users. The different flavors of Linux alone is intimidating unless you know exactly what you're looking to do.

Many Windows users would be happy with a desktop unit running a larger distro such as Ubuntu or Ark Linux, among others, as thay have a familiar look and feel.

I will tell you that a tinkerer's spouse will have NO patience with switching to Linux unless it is ALL up and looks and feels similar to Windows.

I have to admit I'm spoiled when I can click on an .exe file in Windows and it knows where to go and what to do. From what I have seen of Linux, it feels like a cross between MSDOS and GUI meaning that there is often a need to go to a command line to make something work in the GUI environment. I can't remember the last time I had to go to a command line in Windows.

I think many newbies in the Linux community can relate. This is not to persuade or dissuade either way, just my observations.