[sclug] RUG 6 May 03 notes

[Mike Mallett]

"Linux in a day"

Just a few notes for those that were there or missed it

- take one PC bought at auction 
---------------------------------------------

Bid ?55 which cost ?71 out of the door at Rivermead which got me

IBM PL300
model 6862 N10
Pentium III 450mhz
128mb RAM
8.4gb HDD
CD 40x
Onboard S3 graphics
Onboard sound
Onboard 10/100 LAN

This was just the base unit so a keyboard, mouse and mains lead were
salvaged off an old PC.

The case needed a good clean on the inside and outside but everything worked
apart from the floppy drive which had a damaged mechanism. As the computer
can boot from a CD this wasn't essential (but if anyone has a floppy going
spare drop me a line). I just remember paying ?70 for my first 1.44mb floppy
!

A quick search on the IBM website found all the manuals although these are
really just background reading.

All the machines at the auction are stripped of software except for enough
of DOS to boot up and run CD drivers so you will need to lay your hands on
an OS.

We hope to have more about auctions on and offline soon....



- add SuSe 8.0*
---------------------

I used 8.0 though 8.2 is the latest release; the personal version is around
?45 and the professional version around ?60. The box comes with 6 CDs and
one DVD (with the same contents as the DVD), three manuals and 90 days
support which accounts for the cost as most of the software is free. But
remember this isn't just the operating system but just about every program
you need or don?t need. See www.suse.co.uk
Is it of course possible to download various distributions of Linux for free
or purchase CDs only for a modest sum (see www.linuxemporium.co.uk) or you
can quite legitimately borrow the CDs from someone.

Despite all I had heard about Linux the installation was painless - I just
booted from one of the CDs, all the hardware was recognised automatically,
then I was asked to choose from a list of programs to install which then
prompted me to install a few more of the CDs.  After about half an hour I
had a fully functioning system including a complete  Office clone and
various media players. A quick delve into the configuration and clicking on
a couple of boxes had the browser working on the Net All this was already
prepared before I came to the meeting though !

Fortunately a small band of enthusiasts from the local Linux group had
turned out
and helped me to get the onboard speaker working as well as getting showing
me how to set up Samba which allows Linux to be networked up to Windows.

We plan to see how this project progresses but next time I'll try to bring a
larger screen !

- don't read the manual
-------------------------------

I didn't - it was all in the set up software ...


Mike