Hi John,

Not to start an incredible long linux thread here, but I have linux
installed on a 486-33 with a 100 meg hard disk(40 meg free), and it's
running a web server and mail server.

Perhaps you checked "everything" when you did your install :-)

Also, any vga card will work in 16 color mode. It may take some fussing
around to get some cards to work in native mode, but you can run X in vga
just fine. Searching with altavista for "xfree86" and the name of your
video card will usually turn up a helpful web page with hints for your card.

Installing linux with "everything" is a lot like installing win98 - it
takes the same hardware. If you are using a 386 with a 100 meg drive you
need to be experienced with linux in order to know what you do and do not
need.

Linux is a pain in the butt to install sometimes, but Windows can be too.

If you buy the boxed version of RedHat you get support. Same with SuSe.

Just my .02

Cheers,
Bob

At 03:45 PM 8/16/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I saw a lot of referrals to for sale sites so here is my
>personal learning experience aimed at those on the list
>who want to install
>
>Linux on leftover hardware from their attics.
>
>Red hat needs a 1.5 gig HDD and Linux in general needs a video card
>that is mainstream and not upgraded it seems, since a Matrox
>expression 3D PCI card is not on their list, but the Millennium is.
>
>Linux Central sells the Redhat Linux for the cost of the discs plus $5
>shipping
>about $9 to your door.  No printed manual, no phone call.  But the phone
>call
>is not so valuable anyway...hanging out on a newsgroup asking questions
>about compatibility and things like the 1.5 gig HDD required is valuable
>to spend time on.  I found someone who volunteered to field questions
>as I installed Linux the first time.
>
>How to partition your HDD is not covered very well in the how to's...
>I'm still confused about that, but since I am going to be just
>using a station as an X terminal, I don't care enough to go beyond
>a vanilla installation yet.   No matter what "packaged" version of Linux,
>the docs are self conflicting often...as you read you can get different
>directions
>from different sections of the help files..Expect little info on trade offs
>of disk partitioning or how to create a raid array right from the start.
>
>Anyone?
>