[NCLUG] Lite distros/programs for old pcs? \\ "no software to run" ???

[Michael Riversong]

Good questions.  Part of the problem for me has been that we don't get 
working modems with many of the donated computers.  I've put one in our 
best Linux machine, and couldn't get RH to recognize it.  But the Corel 
machine did recognize it.  Then i had other problems dialing up with 
Corel, which would take too long to explain now.  And then, it turns out 
that Corel's way of managing packages is non-standard, which means that 
only packages made by Corel are likely to work.  Then, in what seems to 
be a shady deal, Corel pulled their support and shut down all the 
software downloads.  It was definitely unfortunate that i got started 
with that particular distro, instead of something more standard and 
mainstream.  Now, i'm trying all sorts of things (within time 
constraints) to get something else installed on that machine, and so far 
everything has failed.  I'm still stuck with this loser distribution for 
now.

You have to realize, we are a very small school with essentially no 
budget for computer equipment & software most of the time.  So even 
getting one Linux computer to run on the Internet has been a huge 
challenge.  The machines we get are often way behind the times.  I've 
gotten a few that were still running Windows 3.1!  One machine that i 
had to throw out recently had only a 128 MB hard drive!

I know it is possible, with detailed programming, to make Linux do just 
about anything, even with an old version.  Unfortunately, i don't have 
the time to learn & do that kind of detail.  Besides, my heart is always 
with the kids, and i allocate a lot of time to teaching and making sure 
the classroom environment is as transparent as possible to them.

Please don't take this as a gripe session.  I really love what we're 
doing here.  Like anything worth doing, it has difficulties, and these 
are some of the raw technical details i run into.  Still, overall, i 
will pick Linux over anything else any time, and i'm also very thankful 
to be working with these kids!

And howdy Bill -- it's always great to hear from you!

On Friday, October 24, 2003, at 12:08 AM, bill ehlert wrote:

>
>
>
>
> **  holy kow!  i thought the whole point
>     of linux (or one of the points) is
>     that you can run a whole lot of software
>     that you get off the web!
>
>     have i misunderstood everything???
>
>     what is going on here ???
>
>
> p.s.  hello michael!
>
>
Michael Riversong
http://home.earthlink.net/~mriversong
The Pure River Project: featuring free Celtic harp and other gentle MP3s 
and radical ideas about music and culture