what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?

If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do essentially what
I did under windows. That is, office apps, typing programs, surfing for
research, etc, and basic programming. I need to know the minimum system
requirements to do this.

My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
ram. Most other machines are far faster but I still have 6 of these acers
left that we won't upgrade for a while, except maybe memory

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 03:23:18 -0500, Liam Marshall wrote:
> what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?
>
> If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do essentially what
> I did under windows. That is, office apps, typing programs, surfing for
> [snip]
> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB

If you want to run KDE I think a 450 is enough CPU, but you'll want
more RAM. You could set up a non-"desktop environment" window manager
and live happily on such a machine as it is, but that would require
some configuration and user adaptation.

My kids are running KDE 3.1 on a 400 with 284MB. It's adequate.

If you have one really good machine on the network, and a good Fast
Ethernet (100Mbit) LAN, you could have users run their X apps on the
good machine and paint the pictures on the low-powered box. This should
work quite well, except that it goes against the popular concept of a
"personal computer".
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Liam Marshall <lsrpm@mts.net> wrote:
> what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?

> If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do
> essentially what I did under windows. That is, office apps,
> typing programs, surfing for research, etc, and basic
> programming. I need to know the minimum system requirements to
> do this.

> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz
> and 64 MB ram. Most other machines are far faster but I still
> have 6 of these acers left that we won't upgrade for a while,
> except maybe memory

I run slack 9.0 on a 200mmx with 128 megs and a 2 meg video card.
I run X with fvwm/xfce/icewm/windowmaker and firefox or opera. For
a wordprocessor I use abiword although openoffice is doable (I no
longer write academic papers). I work mostly from the CLI.

cordially, as always,

rm

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 03:46:06 +0000, Realto Margarino wrote:
> I run slack 9.0 on a 200mmx with 128 megs and a 2 meg video card.
> I run X with fvwm/xfce/icewm/windowmaker and firefox or opera. For

Do you find that browsing is annoyingly slow? That's how I felt toward
the end of my days on a P166 workstation. Back then (about 1.5 years
ago) it seemed that none of the browsers were very friendly to weak old
CPU's. I used Opera mostly. "links -g" was the best for system
resources, but a bit odd to work with in numerous ways.

> a wordprocessor I use abiword although openoffice is doable (I no
> longer write academic papers). I work mostly from the CLI.

Just curious, ignore if you wish (of course ... what was/is your
field?
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On 2004-04-13, Liam Marshall <lsrpm@mts.net> wrote:
> what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?
>
> If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do essentially what
> I did under windows. That is, office apps, typing programs, surfing for
> research, etc, and basic programming. I need to know the minimum system
> requirements to do this.
>
> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
> ram. Most other machines are far faster but I still have 6 of these acers
> left that we won't upgrade for a while, except maybe memory

My primary desktop is an old, 6 year old, Dell P2 256 something or other
with 64 megs of ram...it runs slack 9.1 without a hitch. That said, I also
avoid KDE and Gnome (don't like them anyway) and use fluxbox. Prior to
installing slack, I used Mandrake 9.x and used Star Office. Took a while to
load the office app, but once it was loaded...no real problems with speed.

It's how you install and what you have running ...

ken

Liam Marshall wrote:

> what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?
>
> If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do essentially what
> I did under windows. That is, office apps, typing programs, surfing for
> research, etc, and basic programming. I need to know the minimum system
> requirements to do this.
>
> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
> ram. Most other machines are far faster but I still have 6 of these acers
> left that we won't upgrade for a while, except maybe memory

I am building a wireless access point on a k6 333 mhz machine. I had a 30
gig drive and a bunch of memory so I put it in and installed everything in
9.1. I'm running KDE as my window manager and it all works fine. I'm sure
if I used a window manager like blackbox it would be even faster.

I think if you upgraded the memory you would be fine for just about
anything you wanted to do. Try to get as much as you can to reduce
swapping to disk. On the K6 I am using I put 512meg into it only because I
had it. After I am done with the setup and compiling I think I will pull
256meg out of it for another machine.

Joseph

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, Liam Marshall dared to utter,
> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB

Damn I wish that was the slowest machine I've loaded slackware on!
Everything you have will run slackware fine to one degree or another.
You may want a little more RAM though.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Liam Marshall <lsrpm@mts.net> says...

>My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
>ram. Most other machines are far faster but I still have 6 of these acers
>left that we won't upgrade for a while, except maybe memory

Here is an interesting idea for you to think about; combine two of your
older machines to make a faster machine that shares the work. Look here:
http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/oldpc/
http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/oldpc/x-on2.html


--
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire.
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you
have an "impossible" engineering project that only someone like
Doc Brown can solve? My resume is at http://www.guymacon.com/

On 2004-04-13, Liam Marshall <lsrpm@mts.net> wrote:
>
> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
> ram.

I'm running a 433 celery. Plug in .5G ram and you be fine.

nb

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 03:23:18 -0500, Liam Marshall wrote:

> what are the realistic system requirements for slackware?
>
> If I do replace the workstations I need to be able to do essentially what
> I did under windows. That is, office apps, typing programs, surfing for
> research, etc, and basic programming. I need to know the minimum system
> requirements to do this.

I'd say a Pentium-II with *lost* of RAM will do, even for KDE cq GNOME.

> My slowest machine in the lab now does these thing with 450 MHz and 64 MB
> ram.

That shouldn't be much of a problem. Two machines i helped out with their
lately: one has AMD k6-2, 96meg - other i586 233mmx 192meg. Now the latter
is noticeablely more "snappy" then the former, it just boots slower...

(Both run Slackware 9.1 with some tweaks and KDE desktop (no KDM though.))

> Most other machines are far faster but I still have 6 of these acers
> left that we won't upgrade for a while, except maybe memory

I'd recomement the memory upgrade. If their supposed to stay in service
for some jears to come (and why not?). The SDRAM DIMM modules you can
probably still get at the local hardware shop today!

HTH.

--
-Menno.