Floppy

[Dan Jenkins]

bscott at ntisys.com wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Mar 2004, at 1:37pm, ps121 at usaexpress.net wrote:
> 
>> Got a friend who is interested in trying out Linux.  Has an old 386
>> to play with which doesn't have a CD drive.  Was wondering if 
>> anyone has an old version out there on floppies?
> 
> Eeesh.  I don't know if that's really a good way to try out Linux.
> 
> Any old distribution is going to be seriously different from "modern"
> Linux.  A lot of the older software had some serious deficiencies 
> and outright bugs.  Bug fixes, security updates, and peer support 
> will be non-existent.  And your friend will miss out on all the 
> legitimately new and interesting features in more recent software.

> Something else to consider:
> 
> An i386 is just plain *slow*.  Sure, it will run, but anything in the
> X Window System will likely be unusable.  The character-cell 
> terminal CLI stuff will do well for day-to-day stuff, but even 
> compiling new software will take ages.  If your friend is comfortable
> with the concept of traditional command-line Unix, it will do okay, 
> but if your friend is thinking about how Windows 98 on his 500 MHz 
> Pentium III runs, this isn't a good idea.
> 

I agree completely with Ben.

If all your friend wants to learn is Linux command line stuff, then it
may be acceptable. BTW, some of the distributions (Mandrake) compile for
i586 (Pentium or higher) CPUs, so they won't run on a 386. I would say
that any graphical desktop environment would be unusable.

As it is an old 386, it likely doesn't have much RAM nor a large hard
drive. I would doubt it has much more than 16 MB or 32 MB. That would
prohibit anything
graphical too.

(I know you can run X on a 386 with 16 MB of memory. I just don't think
you'd want to. I'm probably spoiled there. Having said that I use CLI 
almost exclusively. I rarely even start X on a system.)

Ben's second point is also very good. This is not the way to encourage
someone to embrace Linux. As a first introduction, this is the painful
route. Not conducive to return visits unless his friend is an avowed
hobbyist or fanatic.

-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-624-7272
*** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century