[sealfood]

I hope this note will help newbies with older systems , say P1s Or P11s and who only have small hard drives on which to install Linux. Being newbies they will probably prefer a Linux distro that is easy to install.

I am writing this using, as a clean install, Conectiva Linux 10 (a Brazilian distro) on a 233 mhz P11 system with a I.6 GB hard drive but with over 500 mb to spare.

Easy to install distros that don't take up much space and that offer a good desktop experience include Xandros OCE (version 3 is the current one) and Conectiva which although distributed on three CDs can be installed on a 1GB hard drive if 'custom install' is chosen. Conectiva is more expensive than Xandros 3 OCE's one disc but it has more packages and is very good value.

I use Xandros 2 OCE as a full install on a 2Gb hard drive as one of my four current Linux distros. Installing Xandros is so easy that a dead rabbit could do it and it is an excellent Windows alternative. Xandros 3 OCE can be downloaded for nothing or bought for about the price of a cup of coffee. I recommend it without hesitation to newbies who want a very quick installation of a modern Linux distro that in its OCE version is certainly not' bloatware' and which is also suitable for much larger modern systems.

My experience of Conectiva is very recent but so far it appears to be a good distro. To install Conectiva on a small hard drive certainly below 1.6 GB is not completely straight forward, since the only way if a graphical display is required is to choose the custom install option. When doing a custom install and choosing their required packages from the list that Synaptic will offer, newbies should remember to select XFree86 etc. and a desktop environment, for example, KDE

To install Conectiva Linux in such a small space I had to be a little choosy. For example, I did the obvious things like not installing languages that I don't need, such as Portuguese, but also not selecting any games; choosing to install only one desktop environment (in my case KDE); not installing Open Office (called 'Conectiva Office' in Conectiva) but choosing the Abiword word processor (which is very good: I also use it on my Windows PC) and the KDE Office suite. These programs are smaller than Open Office and open much quicker than it. Though generally not as good as the current version of Open Office's 'Writer' both KWord and Abiword have some advantages, for example, they have better word count options. I also chose, amongst other things, not to install programming applications.

To date my experience of package management with Conectiva is limited to using Synaptic while performing the custom install of Conectiva. I thought Synaptic worked very well.

Because of the custom install, Conectiva is the fastest booting of my Linux distros.

In conclusion, I think Conectiva and Xandros OCE are excellent choices for anyone using Linux but Linux newcomers with older PCs whose computer experience is limited to Windows will also find them very attractive.

[dylunio]

Nice little review sealfood, I might put Conectiva Linux on my dad's old PC (when I get it) along with gentoo;

dylunio

[sealfood]

Thanks dylunio. I'm very disappointed that my cheque from Brazil hasn't arrived yet.

Seriousely, I should have mentioned that on a smalhard drive Conectiva probably won't autopartition. It didn't for me and that was ok but a newbie might worry about that. A newbie might not realise that it can be done very easily.

Good luck in getting your Dad's PC.

[carlosponti]

Originally Posted by dylunio

Nice little review sealfood, I might put Conectiva Linux on my dad's old PC (when I get it) along with gentoo;

dylunio

how did that turn out i am going to put linux on a laptop for my dad who is not computer savvy at all but wants a pc for word processing internet and printing. i am tinkering with the idea of using slackware and getting everything installed the way he would want it and let him have at it.

[sealfood]

hope I'm not pre-empting dylunio by writing that I don't think he has his Dad's machine yet.

carlosponti: I honestly think your father would be very happy with Xandros 3 OCE, by all accounts it has very good hardware recognition, but having written that I realise that installing Xandros (remember what I wrote about how easy it is to install) I now realise that would deprive you of the fun in installing slackware.