[seul-edu] Update on Lean and Clean

[Robert Maynord <maynord@terracom.net>]

Dear SEUL Friends:

Thanks for your great suggestions regarding the "Lean and Clean" machines I
am working on.  I am working on implementing your suggestions, while
learning as I go.

Jeff -  The Slack ware idea turns out to be a good one.  I tried Slackware
7.0, and it detected my network cards with no problem.  Last night I
downloaded Slackware 7.1, and hope to use it.  The 7.1 version of Samba is
newer, and supposedly corrects some bugs.

Ray - Setting up the Pentium 90s as Xterminals is a great idea.  I am still
trying to figure out Samba, and then perhaps I can move on to this idea...

Harry - Thanks for the init.d tip.  I also have read that modules can be
unloaded in re.modules.  I will take you up on the memory offer - will
contact you...

Michael - I plan to look in to your suggestions regarding NFS and NIS, as
soon as I get over this first hump.


In general, I have found that the Red Hat kernal is rather fat.  The Debian
one is much thinner, and the Slackware is thinner still. This may be
because the Slackware installation actually has various individual kernals
to select from, specific to the hardware. Also, I have found that neither
Helix-Gnome nor the current (1.91) KDE will run on my P90s.  However, the
older KDE seems to work with enough speed. I have not yet tried it with
Star Office or Netscape?!?!?!?  I am trying a browser called Opera -- so
far it seems small and fast.

If I do not run Netscape, does anyone know of a good Linux WYSIWYG HTML
editor/authoring program?

Thanks!

Robert Maynord

p.s. Re: the IBM 9577s, I have struggled long hours on these machines.  I
finally detected the network cards using Slackware.  However, I have had
zero luck with the video/Xwindows.  It seems that many of my machines have
an S3 chip, but are set up to run 16 colors max at 320x200 (W95 works with
this).  A few of the machines have MCGA video chip sets (should run 256
colors at 320x200).  I have tried to figure out how to get Xwindows to run
either VGA-16 at 320x200 or use the frame buffer to get 16 colors and
320-200.  So far, no luck....