From: jac11@po.CWRU.Edu (James A. Clark) Subject: Advise me! Date: 7 May 1993 05:57:31 GMT
Ok, I'm in an operating system dilemma -- I'm not sure which one I
should be using! I've been looking into several multitasking OS's
because that's what I NEED! ...but I need to know which is the best
for me. Now I just recently have been hearing a lot of things about
Linux and am wondering about that also. I've gotten the earliest
FAQs on this group and have read through them but I have a few
questions that I'm guessing you Linux veterans can answer for me.
Now I'll just describe my current system is because the first thing
I want to know is whether it's even possible to run Linux on my
machine. Ok, here goes: I have a mail-ordered 386-16SX (I know...
I know...) Anyway, it has 2M ram, a 42M harddrive (I know... I know...),
both standard HD drives, 4 8-bit slots, 4 16-bit slots, SVGA card and
monitor (Trident chipset). First things first. I read in the FAQ that
Linux will only run on an ISA machine. I'll be frankly honest. I have
NO CLUE what ISA and EISA stand for (something about IRQs???). Is my
machine ISA? If so, can I install Linux? Before you answer that
second one please realize that I am close (maybe a month or two) away
from buying a approx. 215M harddrive and some more memory (mother-
board will follow later...). ???
Also, here's something else also. Assuming that I can even install
the system, will it be able to do the following for me:
- run my old DOS software
if not, or partially, then can I have both systems on
my machine and just boot under the one I want to use like
OS/2's boot manager setup?
- be able to use TCP/IP and FTP with the (Cabletron?) Ethernet
card that I have? (LAN network support???)
As if I haven't thrown enough questions at you here's some more:
Given my current processor at its turtle-like speed, would it even
run Linux "well"? And how well? One more question before you get
sick of me: if Linux isn't right for me given my current setup/config
then what multitasking environment would be? I prefer command-line over
GUI but would easily bypass this preference to use X-Windows just because
I've seen it in action and it looks really good.
Ok, I'm outta here. I hope that you can answer some/all of my questions.
Type at you later...
-AndyC