I'm a Linux pre-newbie, as I'm sure you'll notice. Someone gave me a TI TravelMate 5000 laptop computer (for parts for a different model, but this one works better). It has no CD drive. A friend spent about 4 hours installing Debian, (w/o GUI, which I avoid) using a network connection. It still has major problems, which I may have made worse by trying to use DOS in it's partition.
I'm wondering about the possibilities of starting over, preferably preserving the partitions and LILO. How many floppies and files it would take to get a Linux system (kernal, shell, more?) that could then tranfer other files from floppies? Then what's the MINIMUM it would it take to get a reasonably functioning system for editing, email and the web? Until a few months ago I was on the net in DOS on a 386, using software that would have worked on a 286. I only "upgraded" because the software was falling behind, not staying compatible with other systems. At times I wonder how much I've really gained since CPM when I ran my own BBS, at first without a hard drive. I noticed recently that my DOS system disk has about 198K in six files. Then there are many utilities, few of which I've ever used, or even know what they're for (and I don't care for Ws, now in two contexts). In Linux circles I hear mainly about needing gigabytes. I'm wondering if there's a basic Linux system, or other open source systems, within a couple orders of magnitude to DOS in size. Otherwise, can someone tell me how Linux is that much better, or are programmers getting sloppier in writing code? Dan Robinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Eugene OR 97401 http://www.efn.org/~danrob/ Capitalism is the ultimate pyramid scheme, dependent on ever-growing economy, therefore on ever-growing population, therefore on ever-growing resources. Oops!
