Baslinux mailing list

[keesan AT SDF.ORG]

>
>> The Cyrillic you used in this email is readable until I do a reply and
>> then
>> it turns into asterisks - please go back to UTF-8.
> YA izvinyayus' , Sendi , za problemy s kodirovkoj, delo v tom chto ya
posylal
> ne cherez pochtovuyu programmu , a cherez veb-interfejs
> pochty Gmail , zabyl izmenit' nastrojki .  Sendi , vy ne znaete mozhno li
> kak-to otredaktirovat' dva moih soobschenie v vetke moej temy ? A to
> kak-to ne krasivo poluchilos' .

Translation summary:  Andrey used Gmail and forgot to change a setting.
(This time his Cyrillic does not turn into asterisks when I reply with
elinks).

"Sindi, do you know if there is some way to edit two of my posts to this
topic?  They came out not sounding so good".

My reply:  I don't know of any way, but since nobody else here can even
read Russian, I would not worry about it.


>> My response:  Most people want to use computers online with graphical
>> browsers and watch Youtube, which requires a minimum of 600MHz (still
>> jerky).  I have been setting up and giving away 1GHz computers recently,
>> about ten years old, which do all of what most people want, with a newer
>> version of linux (Puppy Linux) and at least 256MB memory,

> Nu naverno ne tol'ko prosmotr onlajn-video , no prostoe , prosmotr
> veb-stranic ili pochtu.
"Of course not only watching online video, but simply viewing web pages or
mail".

My reply:  I have used a 486 computer with a graphical browser.  Some
webmail sites are very slow to load and display.  I recommend not gmail
but fastmail.fm, which works with almost every browser, even plain text.

Basiclinux 2, upgraded to the Slackware 11 glibc, can be used with
Opera 9.64, Firefox 2 (from DSL linux) and Seamonkey 1.1.19 downloaded
directly from the seamonkeyproject site.  I posted at
http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl/ various required libraries.  Please read
blfiles.htm at my site for details.  I have used Opera 8.54 (which does
notwork at a lot of sites now) in 24MB memory with a swap file, but it was
really slow at large sites.  64MB should work fine with Opera 9.64 if you
only keep one site open at a time.  Don't display images.  You can use
Opera 9.64 even with BL3 and the Slackware 8.1 libraries.

Links2 downloaded from the BL site can be used under X but does not
support much javascript.

> Kstati , a chto za Puppy Linux , kakovy plyusy i minusy dannogo
> distributiva ?

"By the way, what about Puppy Linux, what are its pluses and minuses"

My reply:  The standard version requires at least 128MB memory to work at
all.  If you have 256MB, it loads itself into memory if you don't tell it
not to.  It will not work in 64MB.  A smaller variant called pulp linux
works for me in 96MB with a graphical browser and X, but the newer
browsers use 80MB or more so this.  Pulp boots into 10MB memory, with X,
by leaving out a lot of things such as cupsd, screen icons, etc.

Tinycore linux boots into about 10MB and you need to add programs to do
just about anything. Slitaz is also small.

>> but personally I
>> still use Basiclinux unless I need flash video, since recent versions of
>> flash require GTK2 which BL does not support.  Opera 9.64 and Seamonkey
>> 1.1.19 do work in BL, but not at all sites.

> A mozhno polyubopytstvovat' a chto za komp'yuter u vas imeetsya ?

"May I be so bold as to ask what kind of computer you have?"

My reply:  People keep giving us broken or obsolete computers.  My partner
knows how to resolder power jacks and LCD lamps, and replace LCD screens. 
 I am still using some very old laptops with basiclinux - 120MHz (as an
internet radio), 133, 166, 200 (with enough RAM for Pulp Linux and a
recent browser), 233 (boots from floppy not hard drive), 266 (boots from
CD not hard drive or floppy drive), and a few faster ones with interesting
problems.  Sometimes sound works in BL (OSS) but not in Puppy Linux (ALSA)
and vice versa.  900MHz is adequate for Youtube.  400MHz plays video more
like a slide show than a movie.  They all work as radios unless the sound
is broken (chip went bad on a few).  The newest computer I am using is
from 2003, a desktop that I use for compiling.  I compiled kernels on a
200Mhz but it took 20 min.

500MHz PCs play DVDs with 'hardframedrop' and command line mplayer (BL or
pulp linux).  1GHz computers may be too slow to play DVDs with Puppy Linux
and gxine (graphical interface).


I do email at sdf.lonestar.org using a BSD shell account and pine.  You
can do that even in DOS if you telnet, on a computer with 1MB or less
memory
and no hard drive.