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Re: [school-discuss] Which is the fastest Desktop distro forschools?



On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 06:07, Arjun Asthana wrote:
> We are trying to promote Linux in schools. We have tied up with AMD to 
> provide PCs at low costs. 
> 
> We want to find the fastest desktop distro so that the users can feel the 
> value of Linux.

Two really important questions:
1. What kind of specs do the computers have?  CPU, memory, et al.?
2. What do students and teachers want to do on the computer?  Any
specific proprietary applications you need to replace?

I'm not sure what the fastest desktop distro would be, but a few things
to look for:
* Kernel 2.6: It runs noticeably faster than the 2.4 kernel on the same
hardware; at least it does on every machine I've used.  You might be
able to further improve performance by building a custom kernel for your
computers, but it's a major undertaking for anyone who hasn't built a
kernel before.
* For top speed, avoid GNOME and KDE.  Try a lightweight window manager
like FVWM.  You can still use GNOME and KDE applications while running a
different window manager.
* Productivity applications are tricky; OpenOffice is notoriously large
(and thus rather slow), but no other programs are as complete.  You
might be able to get away with AbiWord and Gnumeric for basic
word-processing and spreadsheets, but I'd keep OpenOffice available in
case they fall short.

Not knowing your specific needs, I'd recommend Debian/testing ("Sarge")
or a distro based on Debian/testing.  Installation is fairly simple
(although not quite as simple as Fedora Linux), and the apt-get tools
make it very easy to add the applications you need and keep your systems
up-to-date.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln@sbcglobal.net>

One can search the brain with a microscope and not find the
mind, and can search the stars with a telescope and not find God.
		-- J. Gustav White