Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 12:07:07 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: Frits Westra <fwestra@hetnet.nl> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD on an IBM P75? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10111211157500.94852-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <200111202255.XAA29212@smtp.pcmnet.nl>
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On Tue, 20 Nov 2001, Frits Westra wrote: > Hello all, > > The last couple of weeks I've been browsing through many FreeBSD > websites but I still can't make up my mind whether switching to > FreeBSD is a good idea or not. > > This is the vintage pc that's available for FreeBSD: > > IBM PC330 (Pentium 75) > 16 MB RAM > 540 MB IDE HDD This is enough for installing the ports collection and kernel source, but not enough for using full source to upgrade the system. However, you can do binary upgrades; just don't waste 350 MB installing full source. For everything else (including X) this is enough space. > 33k6 Modem > There is no CD player (yet) > Currently it has Win95, which I want to remove. > > This is what I'd like to have (in order of importance): > > 1. Excellent email handling capabilities with a good searchable > email archiving system. Several text-based programs (pine, elm, mutt) handle email and there are various searching capabilities--and there's glimpse, a third-party program for searching text files. > 2. A swift wordprocessor with multiple language spell check that > can import Word docs, but doesn't need to generate them. The antiword program imports Word docs, converting them to text. So does StarOffice, but that requires a GUI. > > 3. Internet browser (Opera?) There are several text-based browsers; for graphical ones, you need to be running X. > > 4. Maybe some simple astronomy software. > > That't all I want to use. > > I'm used to DOS command line operations and don't need a > graphical interface. A few simple menus here and there would be > nice though. > > My question: Is FreeBSD the way to go? I think what's available to you for what you want to do is quite similar in FreeBSD and (for example) Linux. FreeBSD installs less by default than many versions of Linux, giving you more control over a small hard drive to make it suit your purposes. > > Thank you very much for your advice. > You'd get a wider range of advice on freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, but the above is one view. Annelise -- Annelise Anderson Author of: FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your PC Available from: mall.daemonnews.org and amazon.com Book Website: http://www.bittreepress.com/FreeBSD/introbook/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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