Linux on old laptop - still trying...

[Jon maddog Hall]

Peggy,

I have not seen anyone mention this, so here goes:

Some of the large memory requirements of a system are to allow installation
using the X Window system, a RAM disk, plus the kernel and the installation
programs.  After the system is installed, the requirements of a lot of this
go away.

A lot of distributions have a "text" install, which basically draws ASCII-ART
windows up on your console to let you install the system over a serial line
or other text-based systems.  You can even install the X window system this
way, and after the system is completely installed, re-boot into "graphical
mode".  You can try this, but quite frankly, I would stay away from X11 with
only 40 Megs.

Bill Ricker's suggestion of "Damn Small Linux" (DSL as others know it) is a
good one, and you might want to try that.

maddog


-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
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