On 5/13/05, JM Ibanez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hardware: > > Pentium II 233 MHz > > 2 GB > > RAM 64 Mb > > on board sound and video > > external modem softk > > Hmm... this sounds suspiciously close to my hardware specs[1]. > It does? I never really got the specs until today =) > FWIW, I'm on Ubuntu at the moment, but am using really really > lightweight apps[2], and for a newbie to Linux I don't think I'd > suggest it. However, in my experience, the GNOME 2 desktop is pretty > usable on my box, but it isn't comparable to a Win9x installation on > the same hardware. > Must look at GNOME 2 then. The lightweight apps - well, I guess I will have to check them out. > However, the following is comparatively the same stuff I do on Ubuntu... > > > What they want to do: > > to record tapes to mp3 > > Very much doable on the hardware specs; I do rip my CDs to FLAC (not MP3). > What do you use? > > web browsing > > Again, very much doable. If the modem's external, all the better-- > with the caveat that it isn't a USB modem[3]. > > > games > > I've run Tux Racer acceptably on my hardware, but that's because I > switched the onboard video off and bought a PCI-based video card[4]; > thankfully, it has DRI/GL support[5] > ZSNES emulator? > > office suite > > As long as you aren't running OpenOffice.Org, sadly. OO.org is > incredibly intensive on resources-- your friend is better off running > AbiWord, et. al. instead of the OO.org suite. > Hmmm. Looks like it's Abiword + Gnumeric indeed. More of you say this.
> > video and music playing capabilities > > I play music using MPD[6] and play videos via MPlayer[7]. When playing > videos using MPlayer, be sure to run with the '-framedrop' switch, and > '-vo xv'. Also, highly encoded/compressed DivX videos and similar play > poorly on the hardware, but for most cases (playing VCDs etc.), > MPlayer with '-framedrop' is acceptable. > > In all of the above, YMMV. > YMMV? Ergh, I don't know what YMMV stands for. > [1] http://www.mycgiserver.com/~butiki/linux/boxen.html > [2] I use ratpoison as my WM and start an Emacs session for editing > etc. For mail, I run either Mutt or Sylpheed-GTK2, and use fetchmail > and fetchyahoo to grab my pop3 mail from pop.hotpop.com. I use Mutt to > check incoming mail when I'm too lazy to start Sylpheed-GTK2. > [3] IIRC, some USB modems are in fact WinModems, but YMMV and you're > better off googling for info on your particular USB modem. If it's a > serial-port-based modem, then it should work out-of-the-box. > [4] S3 Savage4, kindly donated by my cousin > [5] The X11 DRI and GL driver is pretty much in development, but works > for me. If your friend's on-board card has a DRI/GL driver, then good. > If not, expect poor gaming performance. > [6] http://www.musicpd.org/ > [7] http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ > Doumo arigatou! ^_^ -- Clair Ching librarian, bookworm, information gatherer, anime fan, linux newbie http://clair.free.net.ph - blog about linux, emacs planner, tech and culture http://clair.pinoyweb.net - daily journal, stories, miscellany _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
