Is it worth it?

[Duncan Williamson]

Dear All,

Over the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD in my
attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:

P2 MMX 200Mhz 82 Mb memory

AMD Duron 1000Mhz 256 Mb memory

P4 Laptop 2000Mhz 512 Mb memory

No success at all worth noting.

The PII has most problems, as one might expect.

SUSE and SUSE Live DVD have failed yet I thought SUSE Live DVD would be the
answer: booting from the DVD and running without installation. The AMD
computer ran the DVD but had a Kernel failure problem as it told me it had
run out of memory (it's got 256Mb installed). The Live DVD will not even
kick in on the laptop, 512Mb memory installed; and I didn't even bother with
the P2 as far as the Live DVD is concerned.

Having failed with both P2 and AMD machines, I then got Fedora running on
the Laptop up to the point where we needed to discuss a disc partition but
then either it or I couldn't fathom the next step: I wanted it to do the
partitioning for me.

I don't know why I'm having so many problems and would welcome any tips
anyone might have. I am attracted to Linux following the successes that many
of you are enjoying. I have worked through tutorials and demonstrations of
Gnome and am aware of OpenOffice, Gimp and goodness knows what else.

So, in the end I'm left with a 2003 version of Mandrake Linux to dump onto
CD from ISO images but is it worth? Can I ever get Linux installed anywhere?

My real ambition is to get Linux working on the P2 since the other two
computers are too important to experiment on until I am happy with what I am
doing.

TIA if you can.

Duncan Williamson

[Bryan Hepworth]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Duncan Williamson
To: [e-mail]
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 8:11 AM
Subject: Is it worth it?
> My real ambition is to get Linux working on the P2 >since the other two 
> computers are too important to >experiment on until I am happy with what I 
> am doing.

What does Fedora say when you try and install it on this machine? I've had 
everything up to fedora run on a P100.

If you're wanting a dual boot laptop you'll have to make room on it for 
linux to fit into using fips or partition magic. I'd google to see other 
peoples successes before trying it though 'linux on a laptop' then find your 
model.

Bryan

[Paul Bryce]

Duncan Williamson wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Over the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD 
> in my attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:
>
> P2 MMX 200Mhz 82 Mb memory
>
> AMD Duron 1000Mhz 256 Mb memory
>
> P4 Laptop 2000Mhz 512 Mb memory
>
> No success at all worth noting.
>
> The PII has most problems, as one might expect.
>
> SUSE and SUSE Live DVD have failed yet I thought SUSE Live DVD would 
> be the answer: booting from the DVD and running without installation. 
> The AMD computer ran the DVD but had a Kernel failure problem as it 
> told me it had run out of memory (it’s got 256Mb installed). The Live 
> DVD will not even kick in on the laptop, 512Mb memory installed; and I 
> didn’t even bother with the P2 as far as the Live DVD is concerned.
>
> Having failed with both P2 and AMD machines, I then got Fedora running 
> on the Laptop up to the point where we needed to discuss a disc 
> partition but then either it or I couldn’t fathom the next step: I 
> wanted it to do the partitioning for me.
>
> I don’t know why I’m having so many problems and would welcome any 
> tips anyone might have. I am attracted to Linux following the 
> successes that many of you are enjoying. I have worked through 
> tutorials and demonstrations of Gnome and am aware of OpenOffice, Gimp 
> and goodness knows what else.
>
> So, in the end I’m left with a 2003 version of Mandrake Linux to dump 
> onto CD from ISO images but is it worth? Can I ever get Linux 
> installed anywhere?
>
> My real ambition is to get Linux working on the P2 since the other two 
> computers are too important to experiment on until I am happy with 
> what I am doing.
>
> TIA if you can.
>
> Duncan Williamson

Duncan,

I am running FC2 on an AMD Duron 1000GHz (256Mb RAM) without any 
problems. The install went smoothly and has been running for about 3 
months now. As for the P2 - I couldn't get FC2 to run on my aging P2Pro 
(96Mb RAM), so installed RH9 instead. A smooth (albeit slow) install has 
resulted in a very reliable server that has been running for about 6 
months without any problems.

If you are keen on running FC2, you cloud try dual booting (probably 
easiest with the AMD). Otherwise, you might look out for a cheap RAM 
upgrade for your P2MMX and attempt an FC2 install, or go with RH9 to try 
Linux out.

I'm sure that once you try Linux, you will stick with it and look to 
find ways of giving ms-win-blows the flick.

Good luck...

Paul Bryce

[Paul Bryce]

Duncan Williamson wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Over the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD 
> in my attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:
>
> P2 MMX 200Mhz 82 Mb memory
>
> AMD Duron 1000Mhz 256 Mb memory
>
> P4 Laptop 2000Mhz 512 Mb memory
>
> No success at all worth noting.
>
> The PII has most problems, as one might expect.
>
> SUSE and SUSE Live DVD have failed yet I thought SUSE Live DVD would 
> be the answer: booting from the DVD and running without installation. 
> The AMD computer ran the DVD but had a Kernel failure problem as it 
> told me it had run out of memory (it’s got 256Mb installed). The Live 
> DVD will not even kick in on the laptop, 512Mb memory installed; and I 
> didn’t even bother with the P2 as far as the Live DVD is concerned.
>
> Having failed with both P2 and AMD machines, I then got Fedora running 
> on the Laptop up to the point where we needed to discuss a disc 
> partition but then either it or I couldn’t fathom the next step: I 
> wanted it to do the partitioning for me.
>
> I don’t know why I’m having so many problems and would welcome any 
> tips anyone might have. I am attracted to Linux following the 
> successes that many of you are enjoying. I have worked through 
> tutorials and demonstrations of Gnome and am aware of OpenOffice, Gimp 
> and goodness knows what else.
>
> So, in the end I’m left with a 2003 version of Mandrake Linux to dump 
> onto CD from ISO images but is it worth? Can I ever get Linux 
> installed anywhere?
>
> My real ambition is to get Linux working on the P2 since the other two 
> computers are too important to experiment on until I am happy with 
> what I am doing.
>
> TIA if you can.
>
> Duncan Williamson

Duncan,

I am running FC2 on an AMD Duron 1000GHz (256Mb RAM) without any 
problems. The install went smoothly and has been running for about 3 
months now. As for the P2 - I couldn't get FC2 to run on my aging P2Pro 
(96Mb RAM), so installed RH9 instead. A smooth (albeit slow) install has 
resulted in a very reliable server that has been running for about 6 
months without any problems.

If you are keen on running FC2, you could try dual booting (probably 
easiest with the AMD). Otherwise, you might look out for a cheap RAM 
upgrade for your P2MMX and attempt an FC2 install, or go with RH9 to try 
Linux out.

I'm sure that once you try Linux, you will stick with it and look to 
find ways of giving ms-win-blows the flick.

Good luck...

Paul Bryce

[Tom Mitchell]

On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 08:11:50AM -0000, Duncan Williamson wrote:
> Over  the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD
>    in my attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:

....
> SUSE  and  SUSE Live DVD have failed

If you take the first Fedora CDROM and place it in
a working machine what does a directory listing 
of the CDROM look like?

[HaJo Schatz]

Duncan,
> Over the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD in
> my
> attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:

Try not to jump around too much, you're just getting more confused than
anything else. Try to be consequent, stick to a chosen path. That way
you'll learn a lot along the way.
> P2 MMX 200Mhz 82 Mb memory

It might be on the lower end to give you a decent experience, especially
if you want (and you will want I guess) a GUI environment.
> AMD Duron 1000Mhz 256 Mb memory

This will be perfectly fine to fiddle around with.
> No success at all worth noting.

Decide if you want Fedora Core. If yes, start installing it and tell us
exactly where your problems are, where do you get stuck?

If you decide for another distro, ask the right guys through the right
channel instead.

HaJo

[Mike Noble]

HaJo Schatz wrote:
> Duncan,
> > Over the last three days I have created around 10 CD ROMS and one DVD in
> > my
> > attempt to try Linux on one or all of my three computers:
>
> Try not to jump around too much, you're just getting more confused than
> anything else. Try to be consequent, stick to a chosen path. That way
> you'll learn a lot along the way.
> > P2 MMX 200Mhz 82 Mb memory
>
> It might be on the lower end to give you a decent experience, especially
> if you want (and you will want I guess) a GUI environment.
> > AMD Duron 1000Mhz 256 Mb memory
>
> This will be perfectly fine to fiddle around with.
> > No success at all worth noting.
>
> Decide if you want Fedora Core. If yes, start installing it and tell us
> exactly where your problems are, where do you get stuck?
>
> If you decide for another distro, ask the right guys through the right
> channel instead.
>
> HaJo

Duncan,

HaJo has some good advice, stay with on distro to get used to it.  Two find 
distro's are Fedora Core 2 and Mandrake 10.0.  Since you are already on this 
list (Fedora) I would suggest that you stay with it.  The best thing to do 
is to take notes as you install Fedora Core 2.  This way when you run into
problems you can let people on the list know what you did.  It may take several
attempts at installing before you get it the way you like, you may get it the 
first time, either way thats part of the fun.  When you do have problems, you
need to give as much info as possible to the list so that others know what is
going on and have a better chance of helping you solve the problem.
Linux is a great OS but if you have never used it before it can seem overwhelming,
do not get discouraged in no time you will never think about using Windows again.

Mike