Linux distro. P1 166MHz for home web server + perl

[gecko101]

Hi,
All I need is a good, easy to setup linux distrobution that will be used as a home based webserver with some perl on it for playing around and testing.

Whats your suggestions?

Todd

 

[BobMCT]

Certainly there are many options available. However, if you are looking for simple installation with good tools then seriously look at Xandros Desktop OC 3 (

http://www.xandros.com).

This is a pretty good distro that I currently use on some older equipment that performs well. If the GUI desktop is too slow then you can always modify the startup so use a text console only.

Give it a try and good luck.

Bob

 

[ericbrunson]

I'd grab fedora core 3, do a minimal install and then use yum to add perl and httpd. I think running *any* GUI is going to kill that box.

The advantage of this setup is leveraging the network repositories that yum will use to pull down any additional software that you need without having to swap disks or having to make sure you choose everything you need during the install. If you tell it you want apache, it will grab the latest version and all its dependencies, pull them down and install them.

Xandros may have a similar fuctionality to yum, but I don't know anything about Xandros.

 

[gecko101]

Thanks,
I will give them ago, have been trying to get somthing working and I belive that I can not boot off CD-R discs, The discs that come with a magazine work but if I burn an iso from the Internet it wont read the disk on boot.

I will see how I go.


Todd

 

[BIS]

You can install Debian with a floppy disk and an internet connection.

 

[xmb]

Maybe using another burning tool may help.

My suggestion would be to go with a Debian netinstall ISO, or just a floppy.
Optionally add sid/unstable sources (i do)
And install all needed packages by hand (or at install time)
Optionally you could run my nonamed deb_install_stuff script, containing package lists, containing all hand-checked packages. The 'base' default list contains 176 ones.
Hm, quite overkill for a P1. Another good thing about debian is you can install any hudreds of packages without system performance loss (besides dpkg, the package manager) nor any unwanted conflicts.

. Mac for productivity
.. Linux for developement
... Windows for solitaire

 

[xmb]

Perl might take over two seconds to compile'nrun simple scripts on such a slow machine btw.

 

[RoryJMcKenna]

BIS has it right.. Install Debian from floppy! and do an http install

 

[marsd]

This is all wrong.
Perl does no compilation.
A P1 166 mhz machine is very usable
with X utilizing fvwm or wm, or similar.
And really...are you going to be using this
machine as a desktop or simply using apps
via X?

The advice here gets worse and worse, and this symptom
of telling people to go with super distro 'X' is really irritating.

 

[plamb]

I agree with marsd. I have ran linux on a 166 for several years with X. Itwas very usabale for what I doing at the time for testing apps.

 

[ericbrunson]

I think if you go with something lightweight, like twm, you'd be okay. Gnome is a pig, and I've heard KDE isn't a lot better.

 

[xmb]

A P1 is sure somewhat usable, perl will just take a few seconds to start up from time to time.