[PLUG] Specifying a minimalist/instuctional/??? Linux install

Nat Taylor bioborg at gmail.com
Mon Dec 8 20:57:22 UTC 2014


Might as well chime in.  Arch https://www.archlinux.org/ is a good option
for learning about linux internals, and not installing anything you don't
want, it is a minimalist install, similar to slackware described above.  It
also has excellent documentation.  The first issue of Linux Voice had a
nice article on getting it installed.  Manjaro is a preconfigured Arch
distribution, recently updated, although it's website loads kinda slow for
me http://manjaro.org/

Lubuntu is a nice alternative if you just want something like ubuntu that
runs on older hardware.  LXLE looks good too, although the 32 bit version
is stuck on ubuntu 12.04 as a base.  Haven't tried Zorin, but it looks
shiny...  Bodhi is also nice looking, with minimal software installed and
its own software center.  Trisquel is nice if you want 100% open source

Then there's the pre-configured debian distros, like antix -
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
or crunchbang or sparkylinux

Gentoo is like taking arch or slackware to the next level, compiling
everyting to optimize to your hardware, again only installing what you
want.  You'll probably need some time to figure that one out though...

You should probably read up on distrowatch.com to see what seems like it
might be the best fit for you...

On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 12:05 PM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, 8 Dec 2014, Richard Owlett wrote:
>
> > My original goal was simply purge Windows and run Linux.
>
> Richard,
>
>    That's certainly a laudible goal.
>
> > Things influencing my outlook
> >   I predate CPM-80
>
>    I started with with either Honeywell or Burroughs main frames in 1962.
>
> >   Reading about "Linux from Scratch" and Slackware
>
>    Slackware might be just what you want, but see below.
>
>    You've been wrestling with this for a while and I think you're in a rut;
> perhaps because you're still thinking of a PC-1 with 64K RAM and a 5-1/4"
> floppy drive.
>
> > 1. bring back *PERSONAL* to personal computing.
> >       Primary implication   - shall not be capable of being a
> > network server.
> >       Secondary implication - only one person will ever be the
> > operator.
>
>    Linux (and all unices) is inherently multi-user and multi-tasking. You
> cannot get rid of that, but you don't need to have other users or run
> client-server applications (other than your Web browser, of course), or
> even
> to multitask. If you had a car capable of a top speed of 150 mph, you could
> still drive through a school zone at 15-20 mph, or on a county highway at
> 55
> mph, even without passengers in the vehicle. Just because the OS is network
> and multi-user capable does not mean you _must_ run a network or ask all
> your neighbors over to use your system. Install whatever distribution you
> want and use it all by yourself as a stand-alone system.
>
> >    3. minimal number of modules, secondarily minimize size of footprint
>
>    I've not run debian or any of its offspring and don't recall Red Hat
> since
> I left that in 1993. But, I do know that with Slackware -- and I assume all
> other distributions -- you install only what you want. Yes, you can do a
> complete installation (disk space is cheap nowadays) but you can select
> just
> which applications you want and not install the others. Given this, the GNU
> utility/base packages are required. But, you can select to not install
> end-user applications such as games, database systems, sound generating
> apps, programming languages, etc. You'll have lots of fun going through the
> choices and installing only those you want. And, even if you do a complete
> installation, no one will force you to use every application you installed.
>
> >    2. understand Linux internals
>
>    Perhaps you'll be better served by understanding the linux overview and
> explore the tools available, rather than how the kernel or the utilities
> are
> written. Maybe this is what you mean. When I was learning linux a friend
> explained that linux is quite easy: each tool does only one thing, and does
> it well. The catch, he told me, is that there are thousands of such tools.
> :-), When you have a task you wish to accomplish, learn how to do that
> task,
> then move on to the next one.
>
> HTH,
>
> Rich
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