SuSe Linux 8.1 Question

[denbigh97]

I'm thinking about switching from Windows 98 to Linux on one of my machines. It's a rather old computer (Pentium 166Mhz MMX, 64MB RAM, 2 physical HDs[3.1GB and 1.2GB], 16x CD-ROM). My question is, is this computer good enough to run Suse 8.1? I'd really want to be able to run KDE, but I'm not sure if the CPU's fast enough. Any advice on what I should do? I'm picking Suse because I've read that it has better installation than Redhat 8.0, and cheaper too! Any response is much appreciated.

 

[flugh]

I have a 166MMX w/56M RAM laptop running Debian right now. I occasionally fire up an GUI app, but 99.9% of the time it's strictly console because it's just a bit too slow for me (I have 550MHz and 1.3GHz boxen sitting next to it). I ran RedHat and Debian on it for a couple/three years or so, using about every window manager available at the time. Painfully slow by current standards, but doable in my experience.

If it's just an experiment in Linux, sure, give it a try. But I think you will get tired of waiting pretty quickly and want something a bit faster --
JR

 

[maximilln]

KDE might be a little too resource hungry for a 166. That doesn't prevent you from using Xfree86. Xfree86 by itself isn't much to look at. You will need a window manager. A small (~180k) and friendly window manager is 'blackbox'. An even smaller (~90k) window manager is 'ude' (udeproject.sourceforge.net). Both can be configured to look nearly as nice as KDE or gnome but don't have the design built in out of the box. I use ude and have full functionality with gnome apps, backdrops, handles, buttons, icons, etc. I have not tried adapting my ude for kde.

Detailed documentation at

http://www.tldp.org.

 

[denbigh97]

Thanks guys for your helpful responses!

 

[garethmitchell]

Hi there,

The CPU speed has less to do with the speed of loading programs than does RAM. I have run SUSE 7.1 and Mandrake 8.x on Fujitsu Lifebook Laptop with a 266MMX chip. When I moved from 32MB RAM to 96MB the improvement in speed was dramatic. I believe that as long as you have a Pentium Class processor (including Duron/Athlon equivallents) that SUSE 8.x should work fine. If you are worried and don't want to commit cash until you are sure, try a different version of Linux as many are available in download iso formats that can be burned onto CD using most Windows CD burner programs (Nero, Easy CD etc). Mandrake and Red Hat are now very easy to instal and even allow you to resize partitions (with all the usual disclaimers about backing up your data beforehand) to make space to instal.

I have heard that the latest version of SUSE has stalled with a kernel panic on some non-Pentium Class processors so should you get a Kernel Panic warning very early in the process, you need an older version (7.1 is fine and has USB support). If you are at the point where you are chosing packages you should be OK.

Hope this helps.
Gareth

 

[flugh]

Along the line of a danger-free way to try out Linux on the box, try downloading and burning a Knoppix CD. It's a bootable CD with a working Linux-based OS all ready to go. It's based on Debian, employs the KDE dekstop as it's default (others are available though), does a nifty job of detecting your hardware. The beauty is, if you don't like it, you haven't blown up your existing OS installation, and can just reboot back to whatever you had before. It's a win-win deal

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

--
JR