Howdy,

I have been researching different distributions. I think I may have chosen Debian. It seems to be the best for me. I need linux for a class, but might want to use it well into the future. I intend to put Debian on a computer, with 16mb ram, abd 1.59 gig. I am not particularly interested in GUI, but it might be nice. I am very impressed with the nice sounding package manager. Any input would be very nice.

Grae

What are you basing your choice on? Every distro has its strengths, and its weaknesses. How will you be using Linux? What sort of applications and functionality will you require?

It's true that Debian and its forks have a great deal of software available to them, and apt is a decent package manager. [devil's advocate mode on] But, consider, if you're not really interested in GUI, and many, if not most, of the apps available in Debian repositories are for GUIs, is that a solid reason to choose a distro? [d-a mode off]

I'm not saying you shouldn't go with Debian, but for more limited hardware such as you describe (you don't say whether it's x86-based, but let's assume it is for the sake of argument), I personally would be more inclined to go with Slackware, because of the immense control Slack gives you over your install & your configuration. Then again, Slack's install procedure can be a bit unforgiving if you make a small error of judgment early on in the setup; it helps if you know a lot about your hardware and are very patient, as you may need to re-install several times before you get the configuraton you want. YMMV.

Well, this started out to be a brief "what do you want to do with it?" post & turned into a bit of an oratory, but the point is to get you thinking about what you really need/want to do with your system, and to choose a distro accordingly. Also, don't be afraid to try several different flavours of Linux -- install them, play with them for a few hours/days/however long it takes you to explore the features you desire, and see which one(s) grab(s) you. Nothing's carved in stone until you decide it is.

Hope this helps....

peace

I started "playing' with Linux distros about 5 years ago. RH until RH9 then moved to Mandrake, but never felt like I really knew anything until I found Slackware. Slackware was incredibly straight forward for me, and based on my initial installation, I was forced to configure it myself. (with the help of linuxquestions.org) Talk about serendipity / a rude awakening. After some time well spent in Slackware nirvana, my Server needs have led me to what Debian has to offer. Both should work well for your intended installation I would think.

Howdy all you all,

First of all thank for your help.

Hippie asked some questions.

What are you basing your choice on? Every distro has its strengths, and its weaknesses. How will you be using Linux? What sort of applications and functionality will you require?

I will be using linux for my class, maybe longer. I feel the RPM, or apt manager is one the most important factors in my choice. My hard is minimal as you know, so if I up grade ram I might upgrade some programs. I looked ahead in my book, and I will want to run x-windows. (Even if it is the stone age version.) I need super trim linux, with the ablity to explan easlily. Other than that, I just need the basic text-line networking stuff.

If it is true the Debian mostly geared towards GUI it, might not be right for me.

I think maybe vectorLinux is better now.

I have heard breifly of, but not seen non-window like environments, such as, flow box, or goblinX. Just for fun I might try them some day, but they are unimportant to my linux networking class.

It occurs to me i really have no idea what software i will need. Networking, standard linux command, and x-windows are all I know I will need.


Thanks again for the help,
Grae

With your computer specs, i would upgrade the ram at least to 128mb to be able to perform the installation :-) and wouldn't install any GUI tools to use efficiently the 1.9GB.

Aha! You've just said the magic words: "Linux Networking."

Get yourself a lean distribution that supports a command line and networking. Forget GUIs. Forget large software repositories.

Pretty much any distro, in a minimal or server configuration, will meet your needs for the time being. You can always add Xwindows, window managers, and froo-froo apps later on.

Go ahead & go with Debian, if you're attracted to it. The apt-get package manager is certainly easy enough to use and will take you as far as you want to go.

Thank for the help,

I decided to go with amigo instead. Debian might be nice, but it sounds to GUI for my hardware.

Thanks Alot,
Grae

You didn't state if you are new to this or not, but I get the impression that you are new to Linux. What exactly are you using your computer for. I know you said for school, but is it for a Linux class, or are you using it to support you in school such as e-mail and word processors? That will make a big difference in whether this computer and Debian will work for you.

If you need it for support, and want it for e-mail, word processors and spreadsheets (Open Office), then you will have to use a GUI, and your computer might not support that. How big is your hard drive. You would definitely want to increase ram to at least 128 MB, and if you have a small hard drive, you might need to increase that as well.

If you let us know, we can give you a better idea on what might work for you.

Good Luck.

Just a 2 eurocents contribution. Debian + KDE will not install on a 2.6GB Hard disc. I tried it!

On the other hand the text based Debian wizards can be very helpful. I recently moved from Mandrake to Debian and I like it here, although I'm having to learn a lot of new ways to do things (see recent posts!)

I would seriously consider a non-gui Debian. The problem caal is going to face, no matter what he uses, is that his choice of "productivity tools" is going to be limited. However emacs is infinitely configurable. Look how Borland turned it into Sprint. (many years ago, in the 386 days, for the younger ones here)

I've had alot of success installing debian on very limited computers like pentium 133 with 32 mb ram and 1.5 gig hard drive. The trick is to be very carefull when choosing programs to install. Don't install big packages, like x-window-system, install x-window-system-core or smaller ones (thats just an example). I also have no problem having machines without gui (control via ssh), it's just fine. Altough it's always nice to have a small gui sometimes, when you absolutly need an application that only works in x-windows. Of course for things like that you can use fluxbox or other lightweight window managers that work great. Overall i think that the trick and customizability of a debian system is in apt-get. There are soo many ways to use it. If you aren't carefull you'll suck up all your hard drive space, but with a very carefull build you can easy install on a max of 200 mb or less (depending on your needs, but with Apache / PHP / MySQL i can do 100 mb easy). Just read the packages carefully. The thing i like most about debian is that since it is a binary distribution it gives you the choice of either using binaries or compiling them yourself. Of course using binaries is usually slower, but the difference is very minimal (unless you need special flags, or you really like to play around with compilation flags), but then of course you can compile the things you use most. Well, i just like debian .

>>What exactly are you using your computer for. I know you said for school, but is it for a Linux class, or are you using it to support you in school such as e-mail and word processors?<<

I am new to using linux. I only have to use it for a linux class. Although, I might choose to run it after that just for fun. I just got some more ram someone gave me, so my ram requirements aren't quite as small as I thought. Good news is that since I have a slow computer. I know have 128ram if is plugs in ok, and works.

I still have amazingly small harddrive space.

>>The trick is to be very carefull when choosing programs to install. Don't install big packages, like x-window-system, install x-window-system-core<<

For my class I am going to have to use x-windows. They actually give us fedora core, for this class. Is there an old version of x-windows, I could use?

I need a good package manager, no matter what! (That to me seem like the reason linux is a bit behind windows. If linux had an installshield like program, that worked across all platforms, and included all the necessary libraries and such, linux would finsh windows off in no time at all. installshield is about the only thing they have that we doesn't)

I need the package manager, because I am sure I will have to down load version of what we are doing in class. It is a networking class, so I guess I will need ssh, telnet, ping, network status things, all the basic stuff you wouyld need fopr a network class.

Thanks for the help,
Grae

ummmm....the only thing about debian's package manager, is that it won't let you download older versions of things(if fact, afaik, none of the package managers will let you do that on a current system). I've got debian running on a Cyrix 6x86, 166Mhz, 96MB of Ram, 1.6GB HD. Granted, I had to do some funky things to get it to install(it kept rebooting on the sarge install disk, I think it was the framebuffer), and I'm not running a GUI on it. My current debian install is 3.3GB(w/ KDE etc.) I think you might be able to get away w/ running a GUI like Icewm(or somthing similar). Otherwise look into DSL(damn small linux, a debian based distro w/ a 50MB install). Hope this was helpful!

If you want older versions you can either search online for archives (i remember packages.debian.org had some older ones if i'm not wrong). Otherwise just choose an older release, like woody for example, altough i find sarge, etch or even SID run pretty well on all my computers.
I find that XFree86 4.3 works fine on older computers, the real speed of X depens on what windows manager. If you choose gnome or kde or some other bloaty big ass windows manager (that usually comes with a thousand extra packages) you'll probably have alot of trouble on your system, but if you choose lightweight packages like fluxbox, blackbow, windowmaker... and x-window-system-core (only difference with x-window-system is that it comes with no window manager examples and less programs, altough it works just as well as x-server). Don't worry about the newness of the packages (i also have had no trouble running 2.6 kernels on old computers), just worry about the quantity and size. Look for example at the dependencies of each package, because it's not the same to install a window manager with 10 dependencies then one with 100+, even though they might have the same base packages, it's just that one is bigger. An example is this (if my memory doesnt fail me): the kde package gives you alot of things, like 300-400 megabytes of things, but the kde-core just gives you the basics. Big difference there, but if you look at it beforehand you won't have problems like that.

Based on your hardware specs and a desire to use a Debian based distro then I suggest you look at Damn Small Linux.

Thanks all,

I ended up installing vector linux on my computer, haven't really had time to play with it. Maybe I'll come back and tell you if it is slow or not. I am think about trying amigo, too, but I couldn't get it too work, and then an download was not working. So, Amigo shall, want thanks for the good advice though.

Good Luck all,
Grae