[Coco] OT Linux question

[Marc Charbonneau]

> I would love to make the switch to linux as a desktop, especially with what
> Microsoft has done with Windows 8, which I use, but I have "forced" it to
> ackt like what I will call "normal" windows with a start menu and a real
> desktop using "classic shell".  Right now it seems the think to do in Linux
> is to create a new distribution.  I think that has fragemented the
> developement, with each of the major distributions going down different
> paths.  Initially one of my draws to Linux was that fact it was not overly
> bloated.  It has lost that now with each major needing at a minimum
> somewhere around 100mb just for the install media.  My first introduction
> to linux fit onto a hand full of floppy disks, and I used on a headless 486
> to act as a router to share my internet connection, this was before routers
> before those became cheap throw away boxes. It ran flawlessly for 5 years,
> the last 3 months the hard drive failed and I had no idea, it just kept
> running until the power failed.  That worked with noting but a CLI.  Now a
> minimal linux distribution for a CLI only interface would never fit on a
> small mound of floppies.  It seems to me somewhere the idea of tight
> efficient code got lost, but this is coming from someone who has only
> dabbled in writing software code, maybe I am wrong on that.

You have lots of options if you want a small Linux distro. You can
start with DamnSmallLinux, or you can go hard-core and got to
LinuxFromScratch.
I think I am lazy and I love stability, so I tend to start by
installing Debian-Stable base system. You can get the net-install
image which contains the base system and then fetch anything you need
from the internet : http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

Then I add whatever I need, like LXDE desktop environment because it
is lightweight.
With Debian, you can still run a headless machine without even a
videocard. You connect with SSH or you can even get a console on a
serial port.
Beside, there is a reason so many distributions are based on Debian
(Ubuntu, Mint, etc) : they have the largest repository of software !

I moved completely to Linux about 2 months ago, and my new laptop
should come in today with Ubuntu pre-installed (from system76). I use
Linux on servers since the '90, and used it on dual-boot machine for
about 10 years. I used every version of windows since Windows 1.0, and
I believe Windows 7 is the best Windows ever, but now with Windows
Hate, I just can't stand it.

What I love the most about Linux is the stability : I have an
internet-facing server that is up for more than 5.5 years, even with
the thousand of hack attempts per day.

About the bloat : Windows 3.11 was 8 floppy (if I remember right),
windows 95 was 32 floppy, and I just can't imagine the number of
floppy Windows 7 would need.