[lug] Installation Guidance Needed

[Ed Hill]

On Mon, 2003-03-31 at 19:59, Charlie Rose wrote:
> Gentlefolk!
> 
> I'm brand new to Linux, and need some hand holding. I want to install 
> Mandrake Linux 9.0 on an old 50 MHz 486 machine I have (I'll move it up to 
> a better machine when I'm able). The hard-drive on this computer is kaput, 
> so I'm going to replace it with an unformatted, unpartitioned disk I picked 
> up on the cheap.


Hi Charlie,

As others have mentioned, its likely that the 486 will be a waste of
time due to lack of memory, processor power, etc.

> I figure I'll install the hard drive, configure the BIOS for it, run FDISK 
> (from a bootable Windows 98 floppy I have), and then format it. But the Big 
> Question is: What do I do then? How can I get the computer to look at the 

Actually, the larger question is:  what are you going to do *AFTER* you
get Linux installed?  What are your goals?  *THAT* is the question that
you need to investigate.  If you're doing this as a learning experience,
perhaps the 486 will be OK.  If you intend to do some actual scientific
computing (as your company name implies) then you really ought to find a
better machine since the 486 is mighty slow.

If you're interested in scientific computing application on Linux then
I'd be happy to demo some things (MatLAB, various C/C++ packages, etc.)
at an upcoming Hacking Society meeting either here in Golden or in
Boulder:

  http://www.hackingsociety.org

good luck!
Ed 

-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD 
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Division of ESE, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401
Email: ed at eh3.com  ehill at mines.edu
Phone: 303-273-3483
URLs:  http://cesep.mines.edu/people/hill.htm  http://eh3.com
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