TB>> Say, what do you think of Linux? I have been thinking of running it
 TB>> on and 486dx100 with 16 megs of ram, any experience with it or any
 TB>> hints about installing it on a system such as this?
>     I dabbled with Unix a couple of years ago and an into a problem that 
>     you might encounter as well.  But some backgroumd is in order first.  
>     Unix and its many flavors, including Linux, don't require lots of 
>     resources to operate.  Fer instance, a 386DX/33 machine with 4-Mb of 
>     RAM can run Linux just fine.  I ran real Unix on an old IBM RT (kind 
>     of like an XT) with 1-Mb.  Your machine is probably just fine.
>     You have to have some disk space. though.....and I don't know how much 
>     right off.  Most specs will tell you, though.
Jumping out of lurk mode...
I use the Red Hat verion of Linux.  The language is developing very 
rapidly so it makes a lot of sense to get a recent version - don't buy 
some old CD-ROM at a flea market...  Especially since the most recent 
Red Hat box is available for about $40 for three CD-ROM disks and a
book...  Older verions will have problems with some hard disks, CD-ROM 
drives, etc...
That said, the current verions needs 386 or better, 8 Meg RAM, 40 Meg 
HD for the text mode OS and 100 Meg to install the full XWindows 
system. A CD-ROM player is manditory.  It also supports most sound 
cards, network cards ( connects just fine to Win95, DOS and NT ), 
Postscript and other printers, etc...
It comes with not only the OS but the full source code, C, C++, 
Pascal, Asm, FORTRAN and BASIC development system, code libraries, 
browsers, web servers, e-mail clients and servers, terminal programs, 
image viewers for JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, etc...  paint and draw 
programs, TeX, Games, Screensavers...
Good stuff!
I have to run Sun Solaris at work for some applications and I really 
wish I could sneak Linux in there...  Much nicer!
>     That's when I really couldn't spare another machine and precious disk 
>     and RAM resources just to mess with Unix/Linux.....so I gave it up for 
>     the time.  I would like to get into Linux still.....but I can't afford 
>     either the time or the hardware allocations that it requires.  For me, 
>     it's a back-burner thing. 
New versions will support multiple boot and can coexist with Windows 
just fine.  The partition utility comes with Linux so you don't have 
to dink with FDisk and restore.
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