anarkissed wrote:
> 
> The things people have said about linux being fast 
> on survPCs seem to apply only to the CLI version, 
> the gui seems far harsher. 

There's a big range of survPCs.  Linux won't run at
all on a 286 (or older).  With a 386, you can run
Linux with a CLI, but you should forget about a GUI.
With a good 486 and at least 16meg RAM, you can run
a Linux GUI, but you need to keep the bloat to a 
minimum (no fancy window manager, no fancy desktop).

> The systems I've had that ran the GUIs at all were 
> so slow I couldn't wait. 

486 systems?  How much RAM?

> I tried all the GUIs that I could at that time.

Did you try icewm?

> I've never gotten modem to work. 

Does the modem work with Arachne?  If so, it will
work with Linux.  I've just posted a message showing
how to transfer values from arachne.cfg to Linux.
If you are still confused, post your [dialer] and
[tcp/ip] sections and I will show you the Linux
equivalents.

> I got a NIC to work 

Are you able to ping between machines?

> but couldn't access file systems between machines.

Step 1  Make a server available one machine. 
^^^^^^  (ftp, telnet, http, nfs, whatever)  

Step 2  Make sure client has permission to use server.
^^^^^^

Step 3  Run appropriate software on client.
^^^^^^  (ftp, telnet, lynx, mount, whatever)

> 15mins a day teaches me how to scream my throat raw at 
> a screen that just keeps blinking at me.  it teaches me 
> how to get up from the keyboard and go stomp around the 
> yard till the urge to destroy has evaporated.

We've all been there.  That's exactly how I felt when I
started learning DOS.  Ditto Linux.  

Don't dispair.  There are plenty of people here who are
happy to help.  Give us some specifics and we will try
to sort them.

> I just got lots more paths and commands to puzzle over.  
> I finally figured it out by doing a lot of moving around 
> on the tree, getting the idea. 

The advantage of starting with BasicLinux (or some other mini-
distribution) is that the tree is much smaller and easier to
digest.  A beginner can become familiar with the essentials
of Linux without having to plow through hundreds of megabytes
of inessentials.

Cheers,
Steven
 
_______________________________________________
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html

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