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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] interesting info for those with trident cards (possibly applies to others)
  • Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 02:05:48 +0000 (UTC)

On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

Samual Acorn wrote:

I run Firebird on BL2. And Gnumeric.
Anything else I'm missing?

standard set of gnu tools (rather than busybox)

I've already installed those from Slackware 7.1.

xmms

mplayer works fine for me.

--gimp--

I'm not into graphics, but I could install that from
Slackware if I wanted it.

I did once and deleted it. Big and not needed.


xchat

Opera (which I run on BL2) has chat.

fvwm2

I installed that from Slackware once, didn't like it.
icewm is *much* better IMHO.

perl

Available from Slackware.
I installed it to compile something, works fine with BL2.


cdparanoia

I don't have a CD writer, but other users have been
able to burn CDs from BasicLinux.
cdrtools to write, cdda2wav to rip music from CD. Use the SW81 version of the latter on copy-protected CDs.


lame

I've got name.

licq,

Is that some sort of messaging (see above).

firefox (firebird is... old...),

And I've got old hardware. Firebird/phoenix has less bloat.
But I'm pretty sure I could install the latest-and-greatest
Firefox on BL2 if I wanted to. Probably BL3 as well.

shockwave flash

I've already added that to my Firebird and Opera.

What version and where did you find it? Version 7 precompiled claims to need Redhat 9.



java

Yes, that too is running on BL2 (both as a Firebird plugin
and standalone).

nmap

I ran that on BL1. Don't remember if I bothered upgrading
it to BL2.


telnet that works properly (for using BL as an X terminal),

Why bother with telnet? Use ssh (which runs on BL1, BL2, BL3).
But if you insist on telnet, what's wrong with the Slackware
version? Anyway, you don't need telnet to use BL as an X
terminal -- simply export DISPLAY from the main computer or
run xdm (or similar).

--minicom--

Get it from Slackware. That's what the BL pkg command is for.

microcom is way too finiky...

And it's only a tiny fraction the size of minicom. If it were
bigger (i.e. more features, more user-friendly) I wouldn't have
put it in BL3 at all.

never used gnumeric.... then again.. ive never understood the
need for spreadsheets....

You will when your boss gives you an xls file to work on.
That's why I installed gnumeric. Until then I always used
my old Lotus123 (running on DOS).

Is there an xltohtml for Linux? I have one for DOS.


and yes... i know all of that wont fit on floppy...

The 2-floppy BasicLinux is just the starting point. It gives
you the foundation for lots of other stuff.

but if someone is going to do a full install

What's a full install these days? 2 gigabytes? 3 gigabytes?

on somewhat new hardware

New hardware??? BasicLinux is not designed for new hardware.
It's not even designed for good secondhand hardware. BL3 is
designed for junk, for throw-away hardware.

Curbside finds. Friends' discards. Yardsale leftovers. Free.


IMO they should use a full distro....

Yeah, newbies with new hardware should use a full distro:
user-friendly, point-and-click, kitchen-sink, no worries.
"Hey Mom, I'm a Linux user. Watch me click on the eye-candy."

Someone gave us a Redhat 6 installation once and it turned me off linux for several years, looked too much like Windows and ran slow. Five minutes to load, five more for X, with 12MB RAM.

as far as old comps go tho basiclinux does get the job done
quicker... perfect for ancient laptops...

That's all I've got here: ancient hardware. BasicLinux is
designed for my hardware. By using a BasicLinux foundation
and appropriate add-ons, my browser/mail/etc performs
significantly faster than my inlaws Windows computer (with
4 times the RAM and 8 times the CPU).

And saves a few minutes booting time.


The fact is your user-friendly, point-and-click distribution
(whether it comes from Bill Gates or Red Hat) eats resources.
I'm now seeing reports on a Linux discussion group that a
certain 2.6 kernel requires 32mb to boot. That's just the
Ubuntu live CD requires 128MB to boot. One of the other live CDs (SW91 or DSL?) required 32MB to boot.

kernel (not the filesystem). I have five laptops -- none of
them would be able to boot that kernel. Nevertheless I used
the slowest of those laptaps (when it was my only laptop)
to give a very successful MagicPoint presentation to my local
council. That's why MagicPoint is in BL3. It turns a junk
laptop into an extremely valuable tool.

A note for those of you making submissions to council hearings:
a submission presented via MagicPoint usually trumps a submission
made via charts/chalk/whatever. Your well-funded opponents will
always have a fancy PowerPoint presentation. You don't have a
chance unless you have something similar.

but too small for desktops...

Too small? I run BasicLinux on my desktops, and it works fine.
I simply add the packages I want from Slackware (and elsewhere)
or compile my own (using the compiler package from Slackware).

Sometimes the busybox programs don't work properly with the compiler.


even a 486DX2-66 with 32mb of ram can handle more...

OK, tell me what current distribution works well on that hardware?
Don't forget X.

A friend whose cpu fan died has just switched his Gentoo (current) from one with 128MB and 233Mhz to the other computer we made him, 120MHz with 32MB RAM. He has tried to keep things pared down. He says it boots a little slower, especially X, but works. He does not do much with X, just needs it to read his school webmail. He also insists on using OpenOffice because it will import Wordperfect files.

and to get that 'more' when starting from BL

"starting" is the key word. BasicLinux is a starting point,
a lean foundation upon which to add just the packages you need.

most of BL would have to be replaced...

Most? I don't think so. Sure, some of the included binaries
have limited functionality and you might want to install the
full versions from Slackware. However, BasicLinux is not
defined by its binaries. The most important thing (to me) is
that BasicLinux provides a simple skeleton, stripped of bloat.
Yes, I have stuck some binaries on that skeleton but you are
free to add or subtract them as you wish.

I upgraded libc6 to 2.2.25 (to support precompiled xpdf, and Opera) and replaced a small number of the busybox programs. Had to upgrade ncurses to use precompiled 'screen'.

including the broken telnet client....

Broken how? I tested it on a few things (eg matanza) and
it worked OK. Anyway, most people needing that kind of
functionality will install the ssh package.

Telnet worked for me.

Cheers,
Steven

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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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