Re: [9fans] Laptop advice

[Digby Tarvin <digbyt@acm.org>]

Actually, since you mention it, a Toshiba Libretto is one of the
'modest' machines I have Linux running on:
   Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux/xaccel ro root=306
  	  BOOT_FILE=/boot/vmlinuz monitor=xaccel
   Initializing CPU#0
   Detected 166.637 MHz processor.
   Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
   Calibrating delay loop... 332.59 BogoMIPS
   Memory: 62132k/65664k available (1263k kernel code, 3144k reserved,
      370k data, 120k init, 0k highmem)

I'm still running netscape on it because I fear Firefox may have
bloated beyond its reasonable capabilities...

It is a 100CT, not a 70, but maybe I should give it a try a try
with plan9 too.

And yes, the floppy is often problematic as it is an external PCMCIA
device. The BIOS knows how to boot from it, but most installers fail
when they try to access the floppy themselves (such as to load the
driver for a PCMCIA CDROM drive or network card). There is a patch to get
it working under Linux, but you need a non-standard install to
get up to the point of being able to use it. Once you get over the
install hurdle, however, it works just fine with most OSs.

It might be a compact little Plan9 machine - if the 800x480 display
isn't too limiting..

Regards,
DigbyT

On Mon, Jun 09, 2008 at 11:12:45AM -0500, Lorenzo Fernando Bivens de la Fuente wrote:
> Who needs firefox having abaco ;)
>
> In fact I think linux has become more and more bloa... I mean resource
> demanding lately.
> Some years ago I had a 100MHz IBM (Cyrix?) 8MiB ram machine that made
> marvels for me...
> It is impressive what we did with so "little"... 3d modelling, raytracing...
> What did get so wrong that now people are willing to pay for a 1GiB
> ram minimum resource predator?
>
> Anyway... Someone told me that Toshiba Libretto C70 works good with
> plan 9... plus it is "VHS" sized.
> (I think that floppy is a little tricky... I'll have to ask)
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 10:49 AM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@coraid.com> wrote:
> > On Mon Jun  9 11:33:19 EDT 2008, digbyt@acm.org wrote:
> >> I could well believe that Vista would struggle on anything less
> >> than a Cray, but Linux isn't *that* demanding is it?
> >>
> >> I had a look at the T22 specs and they seem pretty respectable to
> >> me, at least compared to some of the systems I have Linux running
> >> on (eg 64MB, 266MHz Pentium MMX).
> >>
> >> And BSD is still running fine on my 48MB, 66MHz 486dx (although admitedly
> >> its not so good for running netscape or heavy crypto).
> >>
> >> Of course it might be different if I were trying to run full blown
> >> KDE or GNOME, but you can't really blame the operating system for that.
> >> (though a T22 looks like it would be able to handle it if necessary)
> >
> > well the first thing most people run on linux is firefox, flash and
> > acrobat.  those three horsemen of the apocalypse bring my pIII/256mb
> > machine to its knees.
> >
> > while your point is valid, the only reason i run linux at all is for the
> > three horsemen.  so maybe "linux" is not short for gnu/linux in most
> > people's mind, it's short for firefox/linux. :-)
> >
> > - erik
> >
> >

--
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                          digbyt(at)digbyt.com
http://www.digbyt.com