[plug] Use for low end machines, light GUI browser [was Newby with SUSE 6.2 on a P100/16Meg]

[Michael Hunt]

> Beau,
>
> May I ask, is there a compact/lite GUI browser [no, not lynx :) ]
> that will
> run
> on lean pcs ?
>
> James

Ok to all here are some of my own personal findings on what to use low end
machines for old machines) for:

1. As a hardware router using something like the linux router project
(www.lrp.org) or the much better freesco (as in free cisco not the SCO unix
OS - www.freesco.org).

2. As a workstation (either X or command line) using a system like the linux
terminal server project (www.ltsp.org) or a small distro such as zipslack
(www.slackware.com) or Peanut Linux. (can't remember the url for peanut).

3. As a group of a similar speced machines in a cluster.

Since most of these machines come singularly (i.e. you don't usually get 8
or so machines of the same spec together, at least not in a home
environment), the 3rd option is really only for those that are inundated
with old machines.

Of the other two options I would classify the machine performances and then
use it as follows:

386 and low end 486 with 8+meg of RAM (anything less is only good enough for
spare parts)

	Freesco router or lrp box

high end 486 and Pentiums with 16+meg of RAM

	ltsp workstation or zipslack, peanut box.

The ltsp workstation does require a server to boot of so may not be
appropriate in this case. The other two distros have a smaller footprint but
can hog up memory very quickly if incorrectly configured.

One other thing to note is that any low end machine is absolutely useless
without a NIC so either stock up or invest in decent ones (ISA cards are
becoming harder to come by these days).

Now for Beau's question lite GUI browser for linux .... sorry until mozilla
is complete there isn't really one I could recommend. Galleon (I think)
looks promising but as it is using the mozilla core it is not really an
option at this very point in time. (Wait until mozilla, nautilus, Gnome 2
and evolution are out and then we wont need to say anything to people
running windows. We will just show them our machines !!!!)

What I would really like to see is the Linux community come up with
something like QNX who have fit a microGUI, browser an relevant OS stuff
onto a single floppy disk !!!! You cant really do that with Linux at the
moment because X is so big but if something else can put together open
source wise then I think that this would be the greatest achievement for the
open source movement up until now.

All I can say is embedded OS's are very very very interesting at this point
in time !!!!

Michael Hunt
One week left in the UK
One year in West Africa !!!!