[plug] bare bones linux for Pentium 100 with 32mb ram

[Greg Mildenhall]

On Thu, 1 Nov 2001, Daniel wrote:
> Hi Plug, I have installed Mandrake and Redhat a number of times (but I'm 
> not very familiar with Debian)
> Is the Debian solution practical and lean? How does it compare?
> I want to start with those necessary to make a single user bootable command 
> prompt system, with a package update tool
>   X11 and a light weight window manager
> add a wordprocessor, and later if it is not way too slow, a modem 
> connection and a browser.
> I have 2 x 400mb hdd, 1 x 200mb hdd

My system has very similar specs (more HDD space, but Debian itself takes
up far less than a G of it) and I've been running all of this except the
word-processor* for years without complaint. Apt makes it fairly easy to
install only what you need, but you'd probably be advised to have an
experienced linuxer looking (presuming you aren't one yourself) over your
shoulder at install time to tell you what is and isn't necessary.

-Greg

*but I have used LaTeX very happily, so who needs a WP?