I wasn't going to do this, but you struck a nerve.
I call BS. Over and over again, I have pointed you to DamnSmall Linux (DSL). http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ At the risk of sounding like a broken record, they have "50MB of Penguin Power." There should be no barrier to entry for a user getting DSL. It is so small that anyone can download it. Hell, Microsoft distributes OS patches that are four times larger! One guy even got DSL running on a 486 with >32MB of RAM. The only barrier you might bring up is that if you still don't have a CD burner, even though they are now mainstream. You could always get someone to burn one for you or order a CD. Or you can run embedded from within Windows, using Qemu or VMWare. They even have a method (called poorman's install) that uses a Tom's Rootboot floppy to boot the PC, download and install the DSL image to PC. So please stop telling people that some old piece of crap PC or laptop won't work with Linux. You can get even the most basic system up and usable. If that doesn't work, try Debian and for pete's sake ask for help and come to a meeting with your old crappy hardware. It can be made to work. Kepht still uses a 386 with Debian!!
And to Luke: So what if your little blinky lights on your shiny new laptop don't work. Same goes for the 3d hardware acceleration. http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html Keep writing letters to the hardware manufacturer to get Linux support, whether it is GPL drivers or scanner software that works with *nix. Tell em you are using their hardware in the hopes that they will see a Linux market growing and give it more support or tell em you are not buying their piece of crap and you are telling 15 friends not to buy it either since they don't fully support Linux. But for gosh sakes do something besides bitch about it and spread inaccurate information. Same goes for the rest of you. Think for more than five minutes before spewing on the intricacies of Linux and its Libertarian/Commun/Social/Agrarian/Anarch/Darwin/Optim-ism.
And if you didn't laugh at that last line, then you don't know me well enough. Come up and introduce yourself at the next LUG meeting. Jhutchins, read some manual pages before trying stuff. I know you immediately throw away stereo instructions, but try reading to find the answer for once. Luke and Chuck need to take a few college courses on government and history as they are a bit mixed up. Take Jared with you, he'll entertain the prof. Monty, you are awesome. Oren, put the tin-foil hat back on. Rich, how's it going dude? Dave Nichol, you are one crazy dude. Did I miss anyone? Peace out.
-----Original Message----- From: Oren Beck Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 11:28 PM
Where does it stop? I submit that there are quite functional software tools for daily needs that will run on cheap hardware. Many of which sadly are legacy DOS or win95/98 yet, I challenge the FOSS world to get any OS and Applications package that equals win95 for raw usability on old gear. My example is a Pentium 75 thru 233 laptop with under 50 mb ram and under 1gig hd. The concept of a GUI distro that will have an acceptable user response time and run on laptops such as described has not yet been demonstrated to me. But win98 despite all it's flaws works well enough for most net interactions at a simple text and browse level. Much as I do use LiveCDs from laptops there is still a lower footprint for win98 than any user comparable Linux shown to me so far.. So show me better on such hardware! I want to be able to displace ms from many more laptops!