Re: [school-discuss] Smallest Linux Footprint

["j. Tim Denny" <johndenny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You guys are fast...

Lee Rogers gave  a similar response to the one I would give with a caveat.

Check the website of the product:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01296246&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3638802&prodTypeId=12454

It seems this is a Neoware thin Client...   Maybe HOP bought them out as I thought Neoware was an independent company not long ago..  Anyhow, it is important to know the chipsets...

This one uses the Via eden CPU and I will assume a via north/south as the Eden is not an SoC. I once read that VIA opened up all its chips to the open source community, thus there could/should be drivers for their chips in Linux distros.

By the online specs  the cpu is1ghz or  800mhz  I have a bit of experience using these chips and just as an estimate I would say they are equivalent to around 20% less user felt speed over an Intel Celeron. Someone else may have some benchmarks to give a more accurate answer there...  This means figure a user speed of something like a 600 - 700 mhz celeron...  

The resident Linux distro on this computer is Neolinux
see: 
http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/PD4856462870.html
http://www.thincomputing.net/blog/neoware-launches-new-linux-version-neolinux-4.0-for-thin-cl.html

So the question is.. where do you load the OS...  these uits come with 128 to 1gb flash memory..  I am assuming that is bootable... is it bootable via USB or other method...  

And earlier suggestion for Knoppix on Cd will not work.. there is no CD drive on a thin client

Lee suggest trying various distros...  just give them a go and see what seems a nice fit...  Puppy is one of my favorites for older and slower equipment ... on fast modern CPU's it really moves fast...  Ubuntu is full featured and has an amazing user community... anyhow it is up to the user... give them a shot... see what seems nice...

cheers
tim


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On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 2:02 AM, lee rodgers <sregdoreel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That might be too thin ... I'd suggest Puppy Linux, lots of nice choices there. The HP E140's have a 1 gHz processor.

Actually I'd try a number of distros to see which one suits them best, works best with their machines ... other popular & reasonably light distros are Slax, Vector Linux (Slackware -- very fast) & others like PCLinuxOS (used in Karoshi server suite), older Mandrake/Mandriva & even a stripped-down media versions of Ubuntu if memory serves....

---

From: cdmiller <cdmiller@xxxxxxxxx>
To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:40:28 PM
Subject: Re: [school-discuss] Smallest Linux Footprint

Stewart Ives wrote:
> Hello world,
>
> I've been working with someone who is currently using HP's E140 thin/thick
> desktops to provide a "Windows" desktop to users.  They want to switch over to
> Linux and are looking for the smallest linux desktop they can configure on the
> E-140's.
>
> I suggested they look at the Knoppix CD load as that is around 650MB in size
> and they would be able to burn it into the 1GB ROM without any problem.
>
> Does anyone else have any suggestions I might pass along.

Damn small linux:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

- cameron