| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Guest
|
 Posted: Sat May 18, 2002 10:35 pm Post subject: System Requirements |
 |
|
| Hi there im new here. I dont have linux installed just Windows 98 SE. Ive installed Mandrake before and as ive looked around here people say its pretty easy to do so im going to go for it. I was just wondering twhat the system requirements were for gentoo. because when i installed mandrake 8.1 it went so slow it wasnt funny. I have a P300 32mb of ram and a 3 gig hdd. I was just wondering if that would run really slow on my computer because i dont want to end up formatting again because it was going to slow with mandrake. thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
klieber
Bodhisattva
Joined: 17 Apr 2002
Posts: 3657
Location: San Francisco, CA
|
| Posted: Sun May 19, 2002 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: System Requirements |
|
|
| Anonymous wrote: | | I was just wondering twhat the system requirements were for gentoo. |
Ya know, it's a safe bet that this question is probably answered somewhere on the Gentoo web site, no?
Regarding Mandrake being "slow", do you mean it took a long time to install or, once you had it installed, things ran very slowly?
Gentoo will take much longer to install than either Win98 or Mandrake. On a PII300 with enough RAM (which you may not have, BTW) my guess is it will take around 20 - 24 hours to get a working desktop system. Less if you don't want a GUI.
However, once it is up and running, it should definitely be snappier than Mandrake was.
BTW, any OS you install will be snappier if you toss in some more RAM -- 32MB just doesn't cut it these days for a desktop OS -- 64MB is the minimum, but you really want 128MB or even 256MB. (and yes, you can get it to run on less RAM, but it takes more tweaking, utilizes swap more and is, in general, slower.)
--kurt
_________________
The problem with political jokes is that they get elected |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
peac
n00b
Joined: 28 May 2003
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2003 5:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
For what it's worth I had (and have) exactly the same question and I've seen the doc you linked to, klieber. It doesn't really answer the question that's being asked. The problem is that installation requirements don't equal runtime requirements in my experience. I've installed Linux, SuSe, and FreeBSD on my old P1 90MHz 128 RAM box and they all installed just fine. But I could run "ls" and go have a cup of coffee and a bagel while it ran.
What happened to lightweight?! Linux is just as fat as Windows these days.
I'm getting ready to build my own install from the ground up, but I'd much rather not go through the hassle, so I'll probably give Gentoo a try first. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
klieber
Bodhisattva
Joined: 17 Apr 2002
Posts: 3657
Location: San Francisco, CA
|
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2003 5:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| peac wrote: | | It doesn't really answer the question that's being asked. The problem is that installation requirements don't equal runtime requirements in my experience. |
Define "runtime requirements". Are you running a server? A desktop OS? Are you going to be running XFree86? KDE? A database of some sort?
It's impossible to define "runtime requirements" since everyone has a different setup and different requirements.
I've run Gentoo + XFree86 + fluxbox quite happily on a P200/64MB RAM. Not only did it install just fine, but it ran acceptably smooth and was very responsive.
YMMV.
--kurt
_________________
The problem with political jokes is that they get elected |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mpsii
l33t
Joined: 11 Mar 2003
Posts: 658
Location: Jackson, TN
|
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2003 7:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| peac wrote: | | What happened to lightweight?! Linux is just as fat as Windows these days. |
Not to harp on this, but remember that it is not Linux that is "just as fat," but different distributions of Linux that can be "just as fat" as the Windows world. The difficulty is that while a default install of Mandrake, Suse, RedHat, Debian, etc. may include up to and exceeding 1.7-2.5GB of stuff, that is what a "default" install is. The defaults are there for someone who wants a system up and running in no time with no fuss, no muss and only 3 clicks. While this is all well and good, it is not intended to eliminate "bloat," rather it is intended to get the most popularly requested apps installed for a server, or desktop, or workstation, without having to manually get and install all of the software. I have gotten Debian with X and fluxbox, abiword, and phoenix installed in under 800MB of space. It ran well and was not bloated. You can eliminate bloat on any distribution of Linux by not selecting the defaults or preconfigured selections.
While Gentoo takes up about the same space after going through all 3 stage of install, the rest of the space is the portage tree, source code, and temp files. The HUGE difference is that a Gentoo "default" install is just a base system from which you can build a system for you. There you go... _choices_ from the beginning. There are no check boxes that select/deselect groups of apps for you so that you do not know what is going on. You control what is installed on the system, not a check box.
Also, its gonna be SNAPPY as heck since you have set the system up for the box it was installed on, not utilizing packages optimized for the most people at the i386 or i686 level.
Checkout http://mpsii.blogspot.com for a journey of mine through low-end hardware on Gentoo.
Good luck in your adventure with Gentoo; it will be worth it!
_________________
-----------------------------------------
Michael |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
peac
n00b
Joined: 28 May 2003
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Wed May 28, 2003 7:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Excellent! Thanks for the reassurance. I agree that most of the bloat is from things that I don't intend to use, but can't seem to decouple from the rest of the installation. I'm glad to hear that I can install a base OS with Gentoo and add on as I want to, or until my system starts to crumple. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
Installing Gentoo
