Interesting conversation. For DosMan I would add a couple of thoughts based on my experience.
1. small distros: I've used Vector Linux to get up the xcfe window mgr. I like it since it worked for me, both now and when I first tried it a couple of years ago. It also tries to stay small. Their latest installer is super, but the old one worked too. 2. Your hardware - I highly recommend sticking with hardware troubleshooting standards for your first install. I.e. take out everything non-essential. The one exception is your networking. Linux is a champ for recognizing network devices, whereas the old windows were not. You could keep the vid card, should work, but find a monitor, and get the S-vid working later. I've been installing linux for years, and having it not work due to hardware issues. Until this year. The hardware issues are much better handled then even two years ago. 3. I'm a linux newb - but an expert in several end-user programs, and I've delved into SQL and VB. To let you know that most folks consider me a computer geek. But I have been a babe in the woods with Linux. It's been a hard haul, and I wouldn't be surprised if you found the same thing. 4. The ANSI/unicode issue that got this thread started -- I tend to agree with the other responders, and I think you're feeling like you've got your answer on this one, but jic. Linux offers a lot of ways to trim the bloat - or to indulge in bloat. I would recommend you focus on things that will give you the biggest return for the effort involved. Using the lighter windows managers and command line are well- documented techniques to lighten-up, and are likely to already involve considerable learning (see #3 above). Obviously, using ANSI only is not as well documented, meaning it would involve a lot of effort. Eventually, tho, after you get your box running and working for you, you could explore that option further. Best of luck -- On Jul 25, 10:52 pm, Jason Montoya <[email protected]> wrote: > Ubuntu is a good choice for those who don't want to have to deal with > re-partitioning the old way; it can actually shrink your Windows partition > like PartitionMagic, create its own partition, install itself and add Windows > to the bootloader it uses, GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader). Repartitioning > isn't really the hassle it once was, at least under Linux. However if you > need to reinstall Windows for some reason, it's not so nice and > unceremoniously overwrites GRUB with its own bootloader, forcing a boot from > the Linux LiveCD and re-installing GRUB manually which is a bit more of a > hassle but well documented on numerous Web sites. > > Gentoo is available as a LiveCD, as most major Linux distributions are now. > The Linux "PartitionMagic", GParted, is available as a LiveCD itself. > > Since CD-Rs are so cheap these days, I recommend trying out several different > LiveCD distributions and just see what suits you best. The ones you don't > care for can be made into a nice mobile. :-) If you have older hardware, > check out ones that use the Enlightenment window manager (if you want a GUI > at all) as it's very lightweight and efficient. GNOME is probably more > heavy-duty and KDE more so still. > > ________________________________ > From: Dos-Man 64 <[email protected]> > To: Linux Users Group <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 2:44:51 PM > Subject: [lug:14836] Re: Is there a non-unicode Linux version? > > On Jul 25, 2:02 pm, Jason Montoya <[email protected]> wrote: > > > It is, though it looks like the last updates are from last August. It's up > > to 4.4.10 and the "classic" version 3 was also updated to 3.4.12. Whether > > it's "practical" all depends on what your needs are - personally I've found > > DSL good as a diagnostic Linux. For daily use I use a full-size distro > > (Fedora 11) to which I just switched from Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. Both > > Ubuntu and Fedora have the option to create a Live Flash version of > > themselves as well. I've also used Gentoo, which is truly a > > do-it-yourselfer's dream and installing it is a project in itself, but > > certainly a great way to learn Linux by jumping in with both feet first and > > you end up with a system absolutely customized to what your system has and > > what you want and nothing else. The basic installation leaves you pretty > > much with a kernel, a shell, a few basic system utilities, a network, and > > the Portage system which is similar to yum or apt-get except instead of > > downloading binaries, it > > downloads and compiles source, according to options you set in advance. > > And everything is configured through editing text files. > > I'm pretty sure I want to stick with a LIVE CD distribution. I don't > need or want the hassle of creating partitions. Also don't need the > hassle of the OS getting corrupted at some point and needing to be > restored. Booting from a CD-ROM seems to me to be about the best > feature that linux provides (although it isn't particularly fast.) I > may even remove both of my hard drives. The live CDs also present a > great way to preserve a sense of anonynimity. I fail to see why my OS > needs to know who I am or keep track of any information about me (as > windows is so fond of doing.) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
