[Rule-list] Red Hat No Longer Supports 486

[Liam Proven]

> I'd thought that I would just chime in here. I believe that it would be 
> wise to create two seperate projects. One will focus on creating an 
> installer with an already established distribution, and another will 
> focus on creating a whole new distribution from scratch.

It seems a significant duplication of effort to me.

> I believe that it is important to have an installer compatible with an 
> already established distribution, because it helps us to have access to 
> new software an drivers, etc. Another suggestion for a distribution 
> would be Gentoo. 

If I understand Gentoo correctly, I think it would be seriously 
inappropriate. AIUI Gentoo installs from source code, compiling the 
system as it installs. This is only viable on modern high-performance 
hardware: it would take forever on old low-end machines.

This is something far from what RULE originally envisioned... but for the 
hell of it:

I'm not sure the dual-project idea is necessary.

What RULE aims to do, essentially, is create a new mini-installation of an 
existing distro.

That does not seem, to me, to require a whole new distro.

Depending on the source distro chosen, it requires either [a] a new 
installer or [b] a new installation class for the existing installer.

Case B makes things relatively simple: the original installer has to run 
on suitably low-end kit, such as a 486 with 32MB RAM.

This rules out current versions of RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Caldera &c. All 
of them, basically. (Desktop distros such as Lindows, Xandros and Lycoris 
don't really count: they're trying to do something similar to RULE anyway, 
but on more modern hardware.)

So, what's left?

Slackware
Debian
... and that's about it.

Slackware is simple and pleasantly modular and has a fairly simple, 
friendly installer. However, its package-management system is poor.

Debian will install on anything, but the existing installer is a dreadful, 
almost-unusable piece of rubbish. We'd need to start from scratch. Its 
package management system is the best there is.

Both are relatively user-unfriendly compared to SuSE with its YAST tool or 
Caldera with LISA.

Either way, though, we can run against standard install media & packages 
etc. without rebuilding it all. No need for a new distro.

Slackware is an easier starting point, I think. The package management is 
a weakness, though.

What to aim for?

Well, Smoothwall is a model. No installation options, no disk 
partitioning, no questions, it just does it. *Then* it asks you to tell it 
what hardware it will be using.

That's the way to go. Maybe, at a maximum, two or three options:

[1] Basic system. OS, GUI, Internet tools, productivity apps.
[2] Basic system plus development tools - enough to recompile the kernel 
and do the basic configure/make/make install.
[3] Minimal system. OS plus GUI and nothing else.

Which just leaves us with the question of what are the basic tools? What 
are we trying to achieve here?

I'd propose:
- XFree86 3
- a friendly XFree setup utility (SuSE's SAX?)
- a lightweight window manager (such as FLWM)
- a lightweight desktop/file manager (such as ROX)
- a lightweight web browser (Opera?)
- a lightweight email client (Sylpheed?)
- a lightweight WP app (WordPerfect 8?)
- a couple of basic games
- a DOS or Windows-like text editor (NOT vi and definitely NOT emacs)
- some kind of PIM (diary/addressbook &c.) would be good
- a lightweight spreadsheet is also desirable
- a friendly tool for configuring pppd (I've heard of wvDial but never 
seen it - any good?)
- some simple hardware setup tools (such as LinuxConf & SndConfig)

I reckon that's enough. Should fit in a few hundred MB and be enough to 
get online and get useful work out of the PC. No command-line apps, no 
console-mode programs like /links/ and /mutt;/ just a basic set of tools 
to get online and write.

Thoughts?

-- 
Liam Proven • http://welcome.to/liamsweb

 


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