[ale] EQUIPMENT DISPOSAL - OT

[Jeff Hubbs]

> It should but the machine only has 64mb of memory.  
Recapping and expounding quickly:

    * Swap on a separate IDE controller and drive
    * Use icewm, one of the 'boxes, etc. in lieu of Gnome or KDE

> There is a lot of
> cruft in later distributions.  Running a disiti with software desgined
> to play nicely with a machine with low memory will be a nice machine. 
>
> My point being that the machine is slow and has little memory.  Why not
> run a disti that was created when those machines were in full force?
>   
Because those distributions are ancient, apps like OpenOffice weren't
available, and it's unnecessary?
> Why run a disit that was created when everyone has 3.0Ghz machines with
> 1GB or RAM?  On an older disiti everything is smaller.  Glib, X,
> mozilla, gcc, etc.  You just probably can't compile the latest software.
>   
Not if you use a distribution that arrives with a fully working build
and packaging system.  Gentoo does not suffer from this cruft, aside
from the need to have a working build system, package system tree, and
kernel tree (the last two of which can be worked around through nfs
mounts, additional drives, or off-box building).  You also have the
option of recompiling everything with -Os.  You would certainly want to
compile a minimal kernel.

The way that RHEL, Fedora, Suse, Centos, etc. do things is not "The Way."

I've gotten boxes like these running current versions of kernel, X, and
apps to the best of their ability using Gentoo, and the software can be
kept current.