The newbie Distro - what is yours?
Okay, not for me. I'm well versed in *nix.
But, I have a friend. He used to be into computers, back in the DOS days. Then he didn't touch them until recently. So he's totally missed the Windows "fun", and really doesn't care what he runs. Just needs a web browser, and some Excel-like app.
So, I thought, Linux would be perfect. Since he is poor, I offered to give him one of my spare boxes. The only stuff I have spare is a couple SGI's, a couple old PowerMacs, and a P200 MMX with a decent amount of RAM (256MB) and a Adaptec SCSI-2 card. I thought the P200 MMX would be allright.
But I'm kind of wondering what distro to go with. I thought about RH 7.3, and patching it up, and setting it to boot to GUI. Or even to console, since the last thing he used extensively was DOS, it wouldn't be a terribly new concept (unlike these spoiled GUI kids nowadays ;). And I had great luck with RH 7.3 and stability, I just recently moved to 9 on my work desktop. I beat the tar out of 7.3 forever.
Or.. Gentoo? The only reason I thought that was because I know Gentoo absolutely flies. But it would probably take all week to compile :).
I had thought OBSD, which I love dearly, but I know it can be difficult at times. Probably not the best for a beginner, either.
I'm at a loss. What's the best newbie distro, that will run great on sparse hardware? Remember, he doesn't have any money (literally), and I don't exactly have much spare after just getting back from Europe, and that little holiday just around the corner.
But, I have a friend. He used to be into computers, back in the DOS days. Then he didn't touch them until recently. So he's totally missed the Windows "fun", and really doesn't care what he runs. Just needs a web browser, and some Excel-like app.
So, I thought, Linux would be perfect. Since he is poor, I offered to give him one of my spare boxes. The only stuff I have spare is a couple SGI's, a couple old PowerMacs, and a P200 MMX with a decent amount of RAM (256MB) and a Adaptec SCSI-2 card. I thought the P200 MMX would be allright.
But I'm kind of wondering what distro to go with. I thought about RH 7.3, and patching it up, and setting it to boot to GUI. Or even to console, since the last thing he used extensively was DOS, it wouldn't be a terribly new concept (unlike these spoiled GUI kids nowadays ;). And I had great luck with RH 7.3 and stability, I just recently moved to 9 on my work desktop. I beat the tar out of 7.3 forever.
Or.. Gentoo? The only reason I thought that was because I know Gentoo absolutely flies. But it would probably take all week to compile :).
I had thought OBSD, which I love dearly, but I know it can be difficult at times. Probably not the best for a beginner, either.
I'm at a loss. What's the best newbie distro, that will run great on sparse hardware? Remember, he doesn't have any money (literally), and I don't exactly have much spare after just getting back from Europe, and that little holiday just around the corner.
