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Point of Linux? - Page 2

post #21 of 37
8/16/06 at 5:20pm
Heh look into LFS, but even that isnt straight linux technically.

Technically what most people refer to as "Linux"(Even me) is actually GNU/Linux. The difference is that the GNU/Linux is the Linux Kernel what a set of GNU programs that run on it. This includes many basic commands we use daily on Linux so for many people, there isnt a seperation, but in reality there technically is one.

LFS installs the linux kernel and the GNU programs along with a few other things I believe, but yes you can run linux on embedded systems, so really you are talking 64K storage and 64K Ram I believe are the minimum I have seen for it. That is pretty dang lightweight for soemthing that scales up to the desktop(And cluster) level.

However for desktop purposes it is not uncommon for sub 50 MB distros to exist, see Damn Small Linux for examples, which has a graphical desktop environment, Firefox, and assorted other desktop programs.

Seablade

Going into more detail than is really needed.
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post #22 of 37
8/16/06 at 5:21pm
30 MB for bare minimum running system is probably on the high side ABF

Seablade
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post #23 of 37
8/16/06 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by seablade
30 MB for bare minimum running system is probably on the high side ABF

It's about right for a system that's half useful, though

The devices we make at work have a control & management sub-system (actually an entirely seperate mini PPC based PC) that boots and runs from a 64Mb flash that's only half full..

And that's managing up to 10Gb/s of traffic and punting it all across to a much more powerful (Intel based) host subsystem to do high level processing on said traffic.


So - anyway - yes.. 30Mb would get you a useful install with syslog-ng, cron, custom drivers and daemons, full lights-out management software including netboot & http-based software installation, an LCD management daemon and more.

(Technically, I love our boxes. I hate supporting them, but that's another story )
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post #24 of 37
8/16/06 at 6:07pm
lets just say at one point i ran a fully bloaded KDE setup of Mandrake 10 on a pentium mmx with 64mb ram.
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post #25 of 37
8/16/06 at 6:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
lets just say at one point i ran a fully bloaded KDE setup of Mandrake 10 on a pentium mmx with 64mb ram.

Pah, I did a Stage1 install of Gentoo on a Penty with 64Mb.. Ha!

I mean.. uh.. erm.. what was the subject again
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post #26 of 37
8/16/06 at 6:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronjb
Pah, I did a Stage1 install of Gentoo on a Penty with 64Mb.. Ha!

I mean.. uh.. erm.. what was the subject again

kernel compile in a week?
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post #27 of 37
8/16/06 at 6:16pm
It took a loooooooong time.. actually so long that I gave up on it once it was installed (I needed to turn the thing into a mail relay) and switched to Slackware instead.. A much better idea all round, really.

But hey, I had to try..
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post #28 of 37
8/16/06 at 6:48pm
Hehheh, I am looking at those OQO devices mentioned in one of these threads and thinking that would be GREAT to run a slimmed down version of Linux with E17 on for a PDA....

Course I got to many other things I gotta do first.

Seablade
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post #29 of 37
8/16/06 at 7:38pm
You know, now that were talking about small os's, check out http://www.menuetos.net/index.htm

The basic os fits on a floppy and its written in assembly.

PDR60
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post #30 of 37
8/16/06 at 8:16pm
Yep there are linux distros that fit on a floppy as well. and of course a LOT of embedded OSes that do so

Seablade
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post #31 of 37
8/16/06 at 10:49pm

LOLZ! ARE-OH-EFF-ELL!!! (Roffel.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by pho3nix
From the perspective of a home user, what is the point of using Linux? Does it offer any real benefits over xp? Or is it just some cool, stick it to the man, operating system?

Lollerskates. Imagine everthing you hate about windows, and throwing it into a fire and never seeing those problems ever again. Thats what linux is like. Plus. Its Free (Good for the jewish community!)
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post #32 of 37
8/16/06 at 10:52pm
as shown in the "vagina chronicles" thread linux got its fair share of issues as well.
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post #33 of 37
8/17/06 at 10:21am
True, But Linux has never had broblems where you could bossibly have your identity stolen...
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post #34 of 37
8/17/06 at 2:19pm
Eh Identity theft has more to do with things outside the OS than anything, phishing etc. Has very little to do with the OS there. Now if you are talking about keylogging viruses etc, that is another topic

Seablade
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post #35 of 37
8/25/06 at 2:27pm
For customization, you really couldn't do more than you can with windows. With reshacker, you can change virtually any part of the windows GUI.
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post #36 of 37
8/25/06 at 2:46pm
Wanna bet on that?

(Ill give you a hint, youll lose

It may not seem intuitive or sometihng most people do, but I can customize the look and feel of my desktop completely different than anything on windows could do if I chose to. Yes I understand that you can change the look of windows a LOT(In fact I have often suggested it to friends of mine that still use it) however changing the interaction with it, heck I can make the title bar vanish alltogether if I dont like it, not just change how it looks.

I should transfer Blender's UI design thought process to my WM, that is a good point. Whereever I have the mouse is where the menu is, I can use one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse, never touch a mouse button, just use it for pointing, and use the keyboard to pull up functions... THAT would be fun, not to mention fast.

Seablade
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post #37 of 37
8/25/06 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Echilon
For customization, you really couldn't do more than you can with windows. With reshacker, you can change virtually any part of the windows GUI.
The fact that the desktop manager is separate from the X window system makes linux infinately more customizable than windows ever could achieve.
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