Foo - Linux advice

I've got an old computer (Pentium Pro 200MHz, 64Mb RAM) that I'd like to install Linux on. Is that sufficient horsepower to make it worth the trouble? Which Linux should I get? What's the best book? Any general suggestions for a Linux newbie?

I'm just looking for something to tinker with, I doubt it will become my primary platform (but ya never know). Any advice greatly appreciated!

Yes.
Redhat is probably the easiest and most compatible. My personal fav is slackware as I am a BSD fan and slackware is based on bsd unix instead of system V...
Google everything. And make sure to rtfm ;)...most *nix users are super snobby that won't help you until you

a) search the net thrououghly
b) check the manual (most *nix has exceptional online manuals are exceptional in detail)
c) learn the love the MAN command (since you probably don't know what that is, it is essentially a help command in dos)
d) As for books. Depends on which you decide on. As I am a fan of SAMS I like the unleashed or even the 21 days series (the 21days series are really good)

Are you setting up a network or just playing with the OS...the real power and fun in linux comes when you setup a small network.

Enjoy and be prepared to drink lots of caffeine. *nix isn't nearly as friendly as windows ;)

my best Linux advice is "don't bother".

Thanks, Maelstrom!

Well, I have some familiarity with unix, mostly on Sun and HP workstations. But mostly with the command line interface. (Does Linux do a GUI?) Definitely prefer variations of bsd over system V. Mostly, this will just be playing with the OS.

Caffeine is good, and hey! I like challenges!

I have used both. In my network I use and maintain sco and aix as specific application servers as well as newly installed network monitoring devices running Redhat. At home I have installed Freebsd, however don't have time to really play with unix anymore. I want to make money now...so windows certs and with my current experience is where it is at for me.

Linux is built for a gui. Redhat in particular is (or was) billed as the desktop killer. There are, I think, 4 gui's to choose from. Roll threw them all and pick one you like the most. Personally, as my boxes and network machines I drop the gui to save buffer size and run my scripts to capture network information (tcpdump), sift through it looking for small patterns and dump it into a sql database for me to analyze in case of emergency. So no guis for me ;)

Enjoy the *nix. Definately worth knowing if you are really interested in computers. Gives you a real sense of power and control over your pc that windows hides from you.

200mhz and 64 megs awith a linux gui will run slower than ****

you can try booting Knoppix from the CD-Rom. That's what I run to use Air Snort

RAM (especially used ram) is dirt cheap. Any place that has used computer stuff will have boxes and boxes of RAM, usually for about $5/32 meg card.

Installing all the bells and whistles (gui, office suite, media players, whathaveyou) will require some disk space. Exactly how much will depend on your distribution and which gui and whistles you choose to install. In addition to Redhat I would suggest you take a look at SuSe. I am their happy client for a year now. Of course there is a whole bunch of other good distributions.

--J

200mhz and 64 megs awith a linux gui will run slower than ****

Agreed. Buy lots of RAM. The size and speed advantages of Linux go away when you run a GUI. No widget set standard and window manager inefficiency require mucho RAM and processor speed.

Agreed. Buy lots of RAM. The size and speed advantages of Linux go away when you run a GUI. No widget set standard and window manager inefficiency require mucho RAM and processor speed.

bah, use wm2, or if you must, wmx.

http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/
http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/

your computer has not enough horsepower.

actualy it has NONE!!

Linux is FUN. hope you can get it up and running!