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Linux with a good GUI

Started by The_ME, 2005-02-10T12:27:52-06:00 (Thursday)

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The_ME

Hey,

     I am trying to get an old pentium to run a gui linux. System specs:
Pentium
64 MB ram
3Com ethernet card: EtherLink III
Generic ethernet card pci (I think)
2.1 gig master hard drive
1.5? gig slave hard drive

I have tried debian, but that install is ridiculous. No I mean fucking insane. I did get NetBSD up and running, but I don't really have a clue how to use BSD. I did manage to change directories and mount a cdrom.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

The ME

William Grim

NetBSD's install is worse than Debian... so whatever.

Anyway, just use whatever you need.  You can tell already you need a light-weight window manager... probably the easiest of the light managers is either fluxbox or xfce.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

Tyler

It's funny you mention this.  Just last night, Bill, Bryan, and I were talking about the usability of Linux.  I said that to the person who has never seen a Windows computer, it would be just as easy to learn, say, Fedora, as it would be to learn Windows.  There's no command line involved in the installing or operation of Fedora (as far as I know and I'm sure someone will tell if I'm wrong), and the organization (windows, buttons, etc) is fairly similar to that of Windows and Mac eve.

This all started when Bryan said it was his lofty goal in life was to create an interface that made Linux as easy-to-use as Windows.  It was a short lived conversation, but I thought it was cool that this is brought up the day after ours.
Retired CAOS Officer/Overachiever
SIUE Alumni Class of 2005

William Grim

I suppose ease-of-use boils down to the person, then, because bloat does not make it easier for me.  I like light-weight systems where I can write my own scripts to work with whatever I'm doing/using, such as fvwm.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

Chris Swingler

Quotegrimw wrote:
I suppose ease-of-use boils down to the person, then, because bloat does not make it easier for me.
Also, said bloat won't fly well on a P1 with 64MB of RAM.

Personally, I'd go with Slackware or FreeBSD.  Neither are all that easy to set up, but if you want to learn unix, it's a sink-or-swim way of doing it.

Also, The FreeBSD Handbook is required reading.

As far as a GUI that will run well on that system, well, you've got xfce and fluxbox, pretty much.  I like WindowMaker, but it takes some getting used to, and it's not for everybody.

Fedora would be slow as hell on that box.
Christopher Swingler
CAOS Web Administrator

Bryan

I guess what I meant by my loft goal was to bring ease of use to the open source world. I look around and see so many open source programs that just make me want to scream.  Linux itself is headed in the right direction, now if we can just get the majority of the opensource community off their high and mighty kick and remind them that they are mere mortals (no offense Mike) we may get somewhere!
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

The_ME

For some one who has never used any Unicies before, the FreeBSD Handbok is a piece of junk. That is the Unix I have installed. And that is the book that stinks. I will kick myself in the teeth and try FreeBSD again.

How would I get said xfce or fluxbox running? I am doing a net install. The cdrom will not read burned CDs. Yes, I burned the ISO image correctly.

Has anyone tried this Yoper linux yet?

The_ME

Chris Swingler

QuoteThe_ME wrote:
For some one who has never used any Unicies before, the FreeBSD Handbok is a piece of junk. That is the Unix I have installed. And that is the book that stinks. I will kick myself in the teeth and try FreeBSD again.
BLASPHEMY!  It's a great peice of documentation, I learned Unix with it, like I mentioned earlier.

QuoteHow would I get said xfce or fluxbox running?
:roll:Hey, look at that, it's documented in the FreeBSD Handbook.  Scroll down to section 5.7.4.

QuoteI am doing a net install. The cdrom will not read burned CDs. Yes, I burned the ISO image correctly.
Your CDROM drive is probably ancient or on the blink.

QuoteHas anyone tried this Yoper linux yet?
QuoteYoper is a high performance operating system which has been carefully optimized for PC's with either i686 or higher processor types.
You're not going to get it running on a Pentium.
Christopher Swingler
CAOS Web Administrator

William Grim

The FreeBSD handbook is an excellent book; like Chris, it is how I also learned the majority of my early Unix skills.

For someone that is lazy or doesn't have the time, use Fedora or something.  As far as software development goes, most of us aren't on a high and mighty trip about it... we just don't care what others think of our work; we do what works for us.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

Bryan

I'm gonna disagree Mike,  I've met one too many unix users that were so full of themselves they should have had trouble walking through doors.  I'm not nessecarily saying that about you, bill, beanie, etc.  Just the general mindset of unix users on the great big 3W is "I'm special."  This could have something to do however with the anomonymity of the internet breeding stupidity. Unfortunately as most people that have that kind of attitude they forget their modesty and do stupid things.  Your statement kind of said it best, "we don't care what others think of our work, we do what works for us"


shouldn't you be caring what others think of your work?
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

The_ME

Forgive me for I am new here.

     I have never sucessfully gottten FreeBSD loaded on to a machine. I have gotten NetBSD loaded on to a machine. The NetBSD Guide is the one that sucks. This FreeBSD guide looks very helpful.

     I keep getting a kernel panic when I try to install FreeBSD. I guess that really isn't a good descriptioin of what is happening. Something about a counter being lost. I will do a better description later. The CDrom is an old mother.
     Should I only have one ethernet card in when I am installing the system just to ease complexity? Should I use the 3com etherlink III or the generic ethernet card?

     I am aware that Yoper is only for i686. I think I should have started a new topic for that one.

Oh, there will be more later,

The_ME

William Grim

No, not necessarily.  We aren't getting paid to post the software.  We just design something that works for us and figure it may (or may not) work for someone else.  Now, if you'd like to pay for the software development process, we have more incenetive to do what you like.

Some people do care about all sorts of different aspects of their software's quality, me included.  When I said that we don't care, it was something I don't really follow, but it was to get the point across that we are offering free software, so don't bitch about it unless you have some way to contribute to it in a way better than being pissed off about it.

My main argument comes around that people cuss and whine about software that doesn't work for them.  Software developers want to hear how their software can be better in a constructive way.  Cussing has never been a constructive way to get things done.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

Bryan

I can agree with you on all fronts.  But as a big supporter (both financially and morally) of open source software, my wallet gets pryed open easier for stuff that is already good but can be made better...than for stuff I wanted to uninstall as fast as humanly possible.
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

Jon

QuoteModernDayDarwin wrote:
Just the general mindset of unix users on the great big 3W is "I'm special."

This could have something to do with the fact that those people have taken the time to actually learn how to use an OS that is viewed by the majority of the public (and, judging by the complaints from people in CS 414, what seems to be a majority of the CS majors here at SIUE) as being not very user-friendly.  I agree though, there are a lot of UNIX/Linux users who just reply to any and all questions with RTFM, which is fairly detrimental to others' (especially beginners) view of the UNIX/Linux community.  But for every one of them, there are just as many of us who will reply and offer as much help as possible, all the while doing our best to stay away from that "I'm special" attitude.  Even helping others can give some a high-and-mighty feeling, for the sole reason that you take on a kind of master-apprentice relationship.

Also, on the subject of a user-friendly interface for *nix, we once had a professor here at SIUE who stated "UNIX is very user-friendly.  It's just picky about who it makes friends with."
.........

Bryan

we also had a professor that stated "GUI's are like diapers, you grow out of them"  I always couldn't help but feel even though he had a PhD, how ignorant that statement was.  As for operating sytems I honestly feel the only reason one OS is more difficult to use is that it wasn't mainstream when computers became a way of life.  

As for CS414 being troublesome, it's a Unix PROGRAMMING course.  It's not like you are learning how to use the linux operating system.  
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.