[wplug] debian install: a glimmer of hope, and a new Q

[John Harrold]

Sometime in August Elwin Green assaulted the keyboard and produced:
| 
| This does raise a question which I haven't seen
| addressed, namely, how might one determine which
| software versions are appropriate for particular
| generations of older hardware? Not just with XFree86,
| but with software in general, including the OS itself?
| One of the oft-quoted advantages of Linux is that it
| works on anything from a 386 up, but for three+ years
| now, all current versions that I've known of have
| required at least a pentium processor and 1G hard
| drive space for a full install. Is there a website
| somewhere that says, in effect, "For a machine circa
| 1999, you should look for a distro version that uses
| kernel number so-and-so, XFree86 version so-and-so,
| etc."?

this means that the kernel will compile and run on 386's and up. when you
say "all current versions" i believe you are talking about distributions.
distributions are kernels and programs which have been prepackaged for
easier consumption. when you select _full install_ on a distro which has
the latest kde/gnome, openoffice, mozilla, etc, the distro maker probably
wasn't thinking you would want to run this stuff on a 386. now if you want
to set up a small webserver or something similar, then many distros will
let you select custom or minimal installs which will _probably ;)_ work on
a 386. 

if you are looking to run old hardware, 486's and early pentiums, as
workstations for resource intensive programs like open office, then you
might want to check out the linux terminal server project.

http://www.ltsp.org/

| If not, does anyone think that such a database would
| be a useful addition to wplugs website?

when i've delt with older video cards in the past, i've found out which
version of xfree86 worked by checking out xfree's website. it's been a
while, and i don't remember where i found it.
  

-- 
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                                               | /"\
 john harrold                                  | \ / ASCII ribbon campaign
      jmh at member.fsf.org                    |  X  against HTML mail
           the most useful idiot               | / \
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