[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Installing SuSe 6.4

[Kevin Brannen]

Michael Hart wrote:
> 
> (a.k.a. mandrake for 486 pc's)
> 
...

> SuSE is britannica of distro's and I highly recommend it to anyone
> with an extra 1.0g + partition, Mandrake is more like the hitchikers
> guide and fits comfortably into 300-800meg, and with the right kernal,
> runs noticably faster on 486 systems.
...

When I first started using Linux (kernel 1.1 days), I can remember having a
stack of 20 or so floppies I'd downloaded off the Net, which made up the
Slackware distro.  It was very easy to leave things off.  Of course, there's
so much more software now than there was then. :-)  I haven't used Slackware
since v3.4, but I still hear good things about it; you might consider it.

I like SuSE because I think they have a nice balance with OSS and commercial
software (yes there is a place for this, IMO).  If you want to stay with SuSE,
try a "minimal" install.  Using YAST (not YAST2), all you *have* to have is
the "A series".  Of course, many of the AP series programs help; then you may
need to compile some programs so you need at least part of D, and if you have
a network there's at least part of N, and then ...  Suddenly it all adds up
doesn't it. :-)  But you should be able to get a minimal system with gcc and X
in the 500-800M range (or at least I used to could when I had my small
laptop).

HTH,
Kevin