Baslinux mailing list

[ruohtula AT netscape.net (Erkki Ruohtula)]

> I would like to try openoffice because I need a program that is able to
> make a powerpoint-compatible presentation. Openoffice Impress is supposed
> to be able to do that job (according to openoffice website).

Yes, it really can do that. OpenOffice's PowerPoint compatibility
is impressively good. But.

> I've an old pentium with 1 G harddisk. 400 MB for DOS and 100 MB for
> Linux Swap leaves 500 MB for Linux itself. Presumably 500 MB is
> insufficient space for SuSE/RedHat? Moreover, I like the basiclinux
> concept: start small end big.

You did not mention your RAM size. It is critical.
The problem is that OpenOffice is a memory hog. If you have less
than 128Mb of RAM memory, I do not recommend trying it, because it
would be very, very slow (keeps swapping). I have tried the Linux
version of OpenOffice with a 166Mhz Pentium MMX and 128Mb RAM,
and also with a 233Mhz Pentium II and 64 of RAM, and the second configuration 
was basically unusable. The first one also required
patience, but it was not impossible.

The program also requires abour 200Mb of disk space (and temporarily
more during the installation). So I'm afraid you need a bit larger
computer for OpenOffice. I think a 233Mhz Pentium II processor
with 128Mb of RAM and about 500 Mb free disk left after Linux
installation would be about the minimum configuration for a
productive OpenOffice system.

Erkki


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