[linux-help] Re: Kool download complete linux off of CD Works

[Thomas Wallis <wallis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, James Lancaster wrote:

>
>
> > On Friday 20 December 2002 12:02 am, you wrote:
> > > That's baloney!  I've run X in 8mb before, and I'm sure it
> > > could be configured to run in less.
> > >
> > > -- Jonathan
> > >
> Offtopic-
> I have gotten it (X) (AND KDE) running in 6 2/3 MB on a 486 (ran slower than
> emacs even) and clicking took about 10 seconds, then I decided that wasn't
> the way to go, and got a better machine. (caldera 1.3 was the version)
> Running twm with a decent video card (trident @ 1024x768) and sane resolution
> it probably would have been fine. (Note, this was one of my first experences,
> and makes a nice story)

        Just a few thoughts on the Xwindow System ("X"):

        X *can* be run on machines with low memory.  An important factor
for Xwindows is a decent video card.  It must be well supported under
LINUX.  The old 256K/512K video cards, or junk 1M cards with unsupported
chipsets will not do what you want.  I agree that running KDE on a 32M
machine without using some tricks would be slow as dirt.  However, there
are alternatives.

        X is client-server based.  Part of a functioning X system is the
display part (the keyboard, mouse, video plus some network support)
(called the "X server").  The other part is the collection of applications
that the user may want to run (the "X clients").  The beauty of this
system (which predates LINUX by a long shot) is that the applications need
not run on the same system as the display machine.  This has been used for
years to provide access to expensive applications and compute server power
to lower powered desktop machines.  For example, if your company had a
large UltraSparc system with some custom software on it (like a CAD-CAM
program) and you used X-based desktops, each user could log into the big
machine and bring up these power apps (the "X clients") remotely.  The
graphics goes over the Ethernet to the smaller machine (the "X server"),
where the small machine decides how to display it.  See slashdot for
several articles about the city of Largo, Florida, which I think uses
something like this.

        There is free software available to turn lower-powered PCs with
decent video cards into (essentially) dumb terminals connected to more
powerful compute servers.  See www.ltsp.org for more details
(www.k12ltsp.org also has info about this).  We use this LTSP (Linux
Terminal Server Project) software in a couple of labs.  Our small machines
are P133 , 32M memory, no hard drive, no floppy drive, 1 network card with
a boot ROM and an 8M PCI Video card.  They boot off of a powerful Athlon
system and the KDE performance is quite good.  Many network cards can be
used without the boot ROM, assuming you have a floppy drive you would like
to use to begin the boot process.

        One possible home use of this idea would be to make your work
environment more quiet.  You could locate your big Athlon or P4 system in
a room where you don't care about noise, and then use LTSP diskless
machines to boot off of this bigger machine (assuming you had a network
between these machines).  Your desktop machine would be silent, except for
CPU/PS fans (and some machines come with no CPU fan (just big heatsinks)).

        Hope this helps!

                                Happy Holidays!

                                T W



 > > James L
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Disclaimer: All opinions expressed here are my own and not those of WSU.

EMAIL address:  wallis@xxxxxxxxxxx




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